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Our team

Our team of dedicated scientists, IT professionals and communicators are proud to be building a world-first collaborative commons and digital modelling platform to help solve the world’s ecological and environmental challenges.

ecocommons-team

Scientists, IT professionals and communicators

We want to give our users access to trusted, world-leading tools so they can spend more time on the science that drives meaningful impact, and less time wrangling data and configuring models. We strive to build a culture of collaboration and interconnectedness to enable our users to find solutions to real-world problems – with nature at the heart of all our endeavours. We love what we do, because what we do is supported by science.

Our strengths lie in our team’s unique skill sets and experience in conservation data science, cloud architecture, software engineering, stakeholder engagement and training. Our agile team combines software development and IT operations to continuously deliver high-quality, user-driven tools, faster, and in short software development lifecycles.

team

Our team

Meet the amazing people working to bring EcoCommons to life.

Elisa Bayraktarov

Program Manager

Seema Jadhav

Senior Development Engineer

Abhimanyu Raj Singh

Functional Analyst

Jake Yip

Technical Lead, Nectar Research Cloud, ARDC

Afnan Bashir

Tech Lead

Rob Clemens

Change and Communications Manager

Kalani Samarathunga

Development Engineer

Amanda Buyan

Data Analyst

Andrew Schwenke

Business & Scientific Analyst

Jesse Tao

Development Engineer

Osama Yahya

Senior Development Engineer

Sean Haythorne

Research Software Engineer

Rupert Marquand

Change and Communications Manager

Elisa Bayraktarov

Xena Warrior Princess (she/her)

Program Manager

Elisa is a conservation scientist and data diplomat. She did her PhD in Ecology in 2013, and led the development of Australia’s Threatened Species Index from 2016 – 2020. As a Program Manager, Elisa oversees the work of a team of agile software engineers (DevOps), scientists, science communicators, trainers and analysts to make EcoCommons the platform of choice for environmental and ecological modelling.

Afnan Bashir

Dr Strange (he/him)

Tech Lead, EcoCommons

Afnan is a multidisciplinary researcher with a background in computational physics and computer science. As the senior development engineer and technical lead at EcoCommons he looks after the development team, platform architecture, and integration. Afnan completed his PhD in computer science at UniSc with a special interest in Human Computer Interaction. He has been working in the professional IT industry for over 13 years. Afnan has worked on research project for UniSc, Moreton bay council and sunshine coast council.

Amanda Buyan

Ripley (she/her)

Data Analyst

Amanda is a Data Analyst based at the Atlas of Living Australia. She completed her PhD in Structural Biology, and uses her extensive Python skills to manage the integration of data, and works with the team on optimization of the available scientific workflows within the platform.

Osama Yahya

Duckman (he/him)

Senior Development Engineer

Osama studied Aerospace and Electronics (Avionics) Engineering at QUT, and is currently a Full-Stack Software Engineer with programming experience in the Research, Automation/Artificial Intelligence, Logistics, and FinTech industries. As a Senior Development Engineer at EcoCommons, he helps develop, and enhance the backend, frontend, and cloud functionalities, as well as collaborate with data, scientific, and functional analysts to ensure technical deliverables meet EcoCommons project requirements.

Seema Jadhav

Scarlet (she/her)

Senior Developer Engineer

Seema has worked as a Full-stack Developer over the last few years, building applications and platforms using cloud technologies like AWS and Azure. She is interested in programming and developing end to end applications. Her current role as a Senior Development Engineer for web applications applies her expertise to provide a better user experience.

Jake Yip

Vision (he/him)

Technical Lead, Nectar Research Cloud, ARDC

Jake joins EcoCommons from Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), where his team operates the Nectar Research Cloud. He brings with him a deep expertise in Nectar, OpenStack and Kubernetes, to ensure the EcoCommons’ platform is optimised and reliable. He is also a part of the Australian Research Container Orchestration Services (ARCOS), helping research users with Kubernetes and containers.

Sean Haythorne

Hong Kong Phooey (he/him)

Research Software Engineer

Sean is a multidisciplinary Researcher and Software Engineer with a Master’s degree in Computer Science and a PhD in Ecological Modelling. One of his roles at our partner organisation CEBRA at The University of Melbourne, is to work closely with EcoCommons to translate and implement biosecurity features for the platform.

Abhimanyu Raj Singh

Iron Man (he/him)

Functional Analyst

Abhimanyu is a Zoologist who metamorphosed into an Environmental Scientist focused on terrestrial ecology and species behaviour/interactions. His MS majors are in environmental protection as well as climate change adaptation. He was an Environmental Field Officer in Sydney Basin, working with local councils and national parks on threatened and invasive species management. As a Functional Analyst, he facilitates platform testing strategies, provides user support, and assists with ecological and climate change modelling-based use cases/learning material/workshops for the EcoCommons platform.

Rob Clemens

Spider-Man (he/him)

Change & Communications Manager

Rob is an ecologist with experience in ornithology and spatial modelling. He earned a PhD at UQ and has worked on shorebird, and raptor research projects. Rob is responsible for overseeing training initiatives and implementing communication and stakeholder engagement strategies for EcoCommons.

Andrew Schwenke

Groot (he/him)

Business & Scientific Analyst

Andrew is a research ecologist with a background in movement and bioacoustics in frogs, and he completed his PhD in 2022. As the Business & Scientific Analyst for EcoCommons, he reviews requirements and testing to ensure the platform is meeting planned milestones.

Jesse Tao

Goku (he/him)

Development Engineer

Jesse is an innovative front end developer who has been working across multiple web projects at Griffith University. He has a master’s degree in Software Development. He is capable of continuous learning from senior developers and is passionate about learning and development with a desire to apply skills on a large development team at Griffith University.

Rupert Marquand

Rorschach (he/him)

Change and Communications Manager

Rupert is an experienced public relations professional with a background in journalism. He has worked in university communications in London for the past seven years promoting research and corporate news. He is responsible for overseeing and implementing communications and stakeholder engagement activities for EcoCommons.

Kalani Samarathunga

Mystique (she/her)

Development Engineer

Kalani is a talented full-stack developer with a passion for technology and problem-solving. She has a B.Sc. degree in Electronics & Telecommunication and has a proven track record of delivering high-quality software on time and on budget. She is a supportive, friendly and hard-working person with a positive attitude.

Our partners

EcoCommons Australia received investment (https://doi.org/10.47486/PL108) from the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). The ARDC is funded by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).