Conservation Science: Species360 Director Dalia Conde Delivers PASC21 Keynote

Dalia Conde, Director of Science for Species360 and lead for the Conservation Science Alliance, delivered a keynote address for attendees of the PASC21 Conference earlier this month. Hosted by the University of Geneva and managed by the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), the PASC Conference series is an international and interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of knowledge in scientific computing and computational science.

The design and implementation of species conservation strategies directly rely on accessing diverse sources and volumes of information on species’ genetics, habitat, threats and human use. While advances in digital infrastructure and open data have improved accessibility, conservation leaders require more advanced use of analytics to draw essential findings within that data.

Conde addressed the opportunity to use big data and exascale computing to help answer critical questions and inform strategies to protect biodiversity. She presented the global Species Knowledge Index and other initiatives aiming to map, quantify and disseminate species open information to conservation policymakers globally.

By developing partnerships to map information and generate development platforms, workflows and storage between open biodiversity repositories, Conde outlines how computational methods can be applied to novel scientific domains.

Conde is the Director of Science at Species360 and Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark. She completed a PhD in Ecology at Duke University before launching the Conservation Demography section at the world-renowned Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. Her work has been published in Science and PNAS, and Spiegel, Le Monde and National Geographic have reported on her efforts to save species from extinction. Passionate about the power of open data and high-performance computing, Conde collaborates with a broad network of scientists, zoos, aquariums, conservation organizations and policymakers to revolutionize evidence based animal welfare and conservation globally.

Thank you, Dalia, for advocating for conservation science and the protection of biodiversity with this and so many other important audiences.