Nicky Nicolson

👋 Hello - I'm Nicky, a software developer turned biodiversity informatics researcher: I try to use collaborative practices (version control, dependency management, continuous integration etc) to build tools, analyse & mobilise natural history specimen data.

I grew up on a farm, where I learned about 🌻🌳🍄🦉🦇 🕸🦔🐍🐄 ... & building/ fixing things with whatever is available 🛠 Firstgen student of botany then computer science, still learning with OpenLifeSciences

I've worked at Kew Gardens in London since 1998 - firstly in a series of software development roles, helping researchers and curators manage and mobilise scientific information (effectively a Research Software Engineer role), before switching into the research stream where I did a doctorate using our digitised specimen data to detect previously unmanaged data entities (collectors, expeditions etc). This research was applied in the data portal for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility where it helps researchers navigate between related records. I'm interested in how we use software development practices (revision control, dependency management, build automation, reuse, continuous integration) in managing the research process.

Some current projects include:

• echinopscis - an extensible notebook for open science on specimens
• Tropical Plant ID Handbook - Myrtales
• Using large language models to atomise descriptive paragraphs into traits and states - part of the identification task force for the World Flora Online
• Assessing automated transcription tools (Voucher Vision, hespi etc)