Tech Stars - Tuesday, June 3, 2008 18:09 - 6 Comments

Meet Tech Star - Peter Mangiafico, Encyclopedia of Life (MBL)

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Peter Mangiafico and I am a Scientific Informatics Project Leader for the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) project at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole. The EOL project started last year as part of a TED Wish from famed biologist E.O. Wilson. The TED Conference brings together leaders in the diverse communities of technology, entertainment and design and awards a prize and a “wish” each year. E.O. Wilson’s wish was to create an all-encompassing online encyclopedia of biodiversity and it is now becoming a reality through funding from various agencies. I’ve been working with a talented team, both on staff at the MBL, as well as with local technology companies Genevate and Saltline Studio, on the preliminary release which occurred in late February 2008. Since the release, I’ve been focusing on research and development, continued optimization and on bringing more technology partners onboard. We are currently working with Microsoft and Adobe, and have begun discussions with Google and others.

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