Kerstin Lehnert

Columbia University

Kerstin Lehnert is Doherty Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and Director of the NSF-funded data facility IEDA (Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance). Kerstin’s work centers around the development of community-driven data infrastructures for the solid Earth sciences and, in particular, on using cyberinfrastructure to improve access and reusability of Earth and space science data and samples and advance a culture of open data sharing in ‘small data’ communities. Among Kerstin’s achievements is the development of EarthChem, a data infrastructure that now provides access to >20 million analytical values measured on rocks, minerals, and other solid earth materials, the founding of the Coalition for Publishing Data in the Earth & Space Sciences (COPDESS), and the creation of the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) as a globally unique and persistent identifier for physical specimens. Kerstin is currently member of the Board of Directors of the American Geophysical Union, Chair of the EarthCube Leadership Council, and President of the IGSN e.V. She is past President of the Earth and Space Science Informatics Focus Group of the American Geophysical Union, past chair of the Geoinformatics division of the Geological Society of America, and past member of the NSF Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure.