about us
DataCite is a distributed organization with a central business office located at the German National Library of Science and Technology in Hannover, Germany.
Team members
Matthew Buys
(Executive Director)
@mjbuys
Matthew leads a passionate and committed team at DataCite who provide the means to create, find, cite, connect, and use research globally. Based in Amsterdam, Matthew focusses on building DataCite into a sustainable global community. Previously Matthew was the Director of Engagement at ORCID where he played an important role in growing the community into an international-scale research effort with over 1,000 member organizations and 7 million users. He completed a BA (Psychology) and Post-Graduate Diploma in Management at the University of the Witwatersrand. In addition, Matthew has also completed courses in Java, Flash, XML, html, Perl, and SQL.
Helena Cousijn
(Community Engagement Director)
@helenacousijn
Helena is responsible for all DataCite's membership and community activities. She's committed to DataCite's mission of enabling data sharing and reuse and is especially passionate about data citation. It's important to her to communicate in a way that makes DataCite's services accessible to everyone. Before joining DataCite, Helena worked as Senior Product Manager for Research Data Management Solutions at Elsevier. She holds a DPhil in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford.
Britta Dreyer
(Director of Operations & Finance)
@dreyer_britta
Britta joined DataCite in 2015. She is responsible for budget and fiscal functions, policies and procedures, while managing the day-to-day operations of the DataCite business office in Hannover. She holds a BSM from Pepperdine University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship. Before coming to DataCite, Britta managed the human resources and marketing functions of the family business. Britta is passionate about Open Science and her onboarding sessions with new DataCite Members.
Sarala Wimalaratne
(Engineering Director)
Sarala is responsible for the technical and product vision at DataCite. She leads the technical and product teams to deliver DataCite services. She collaborates with external and internal stakeholders to improve existing services and identify potential member service opportunities. She has been working with the Open Science and PID communities for many years. Before joining DataCite, Sarala spent 10 years at the EMBL-EBI leading multiple data integration projects including the Identifiers.org resource. She holds a PhD in Bioengineering and a BE in Software Engineering from the University of Auckland.
Iratxe Puebla
(Make Data Count Director)
Iratxe Puebla is Director of Make Data Count, in this role she works to develop and promote open data metrics to enable evaluation of research data reuse, and is involved in the development of the open global data citation corpus. Prior to DataCite, Iratxe worked at ASAPbio, where she drove initiatives to promote the productive use of preprints in the life sciences and greater transparency in peer review. Iratxe also held editorial roles at different open-access journals and served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief at the journal PLOS ONE, where she was actively involved in editorial policy development and open science initiatives. Iratxe also co-led the FORCE11/COPE Research Data Publishing Ethics Working Group.
Richard Hallett
(Software Engineering Manager)
Richard joined DataCite in late 2017 and contributes to the DataCite technical infrastructure. Having worked for years in software development for a variety of different organizations and industries (from large multinational companies, to small web agencies, to not for profits and then back into the commercial sector with e-commerce), Richard is pleased to be working in an open-source environment.
Mary Hirsch
(Member Support Manager)
Mary is our Member Support Manager and takes care of making sure DataCite provides exceptional support for its community. Mary worked as a technical analyst at a global information company before transitioning to work as a documentalist at a research institute in Barcelona. She is passionate about Open Science.
Liz Krznarich
(Technical Lead, ROR)
Liz leads development of software and infrustructure for the Research Organization Registry (ROR). Liz has over a decade of experience in technology and higher education. Before joining DataCite, Liz was a technical lead and software developer at ORCID. She also has an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and previously worked in various academic library and IT roles.
Paul Vierkant
(Outreach Manager, DataCite/ROR)
Paul is our outreach manager at DataCite contributing to the DFG-funded projects re3data COREF and ORCID DE. Prior to DataCite Paul worked for the Helmholtz Open Science Office and different universities where he was involved in building publication and data repositories. As a dedicated Open Science advocate Paul strives to spread the idea of openness in scholarly communication. Paul loves beautiful infographics and even more his crazy family.
Suzanne Vogt
(Application Developer)
@svogttweets
Suzanne joined DataCite in November 2020 as an application developer. She lives in the seacoast of New Hampshire with her family. Suzanne will contribute to the DataCite technical infrastructure. She has worked as a software developer for a number of companies in the U.S. with a wide range of technologies and applications, most recently in higher education at the University of New Hampshire library moving forward the modernization of their library digital repository.
Xiaoli Chen
(FAIR Workflows Project Lead)
Xiaoli is the Implementing FAIR Workflows project lead and is responsible for the outreach effort in the APAC region while co-chairing the DataCite APAC Experts Group. She holds an MLIS from Syracuse University and is working towards her Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Sheffield. Before joining DataCite Xiaoli worked at CERN in parallel with her Ph.D. research on Open Science research practices among high energy physicists, and contributed to the development of the various research data services there. Ukulele learner, bunny owner.
Joseph Rhoads
(Application Developer)
Joseph works on the development team and contributes to the technical infrastructure. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his family. Prior to joining Datacite, Joseph led the repository team for nine and a half years at the Brown University Library to develop the Brown Digital Repository. Prior to that, Joseph studied mathematics and holds degrees in Computational Mathematics, Industrial and Applied Mathematics as well as Biomedical Mathematics. When not working, Joseph spends his time running around after his energetic toddler, traveling with his partner, playing board games, and reading as much science fiction and fantasy as he can get his hands on.
Mike Bennett
(Application Developer)
Mike hails from sunny Scotland and his background is as a self taught developer with an interest in building open tools and making things accessible. Prior to joining DataCite, he was the technical lead on the Bodleian Library's Broadside Ballads Online project and a developer with the University of Edinburgh Digital Library. In his spare time he can be found bothering a variety of string instruments or trying to solve a cryptic crossword.
Kelly Stathis
(Technical Community Manager)
@kelly_stathis
Kelly leads adoption efforts and engages with the DataCite community on technical implementation. Before joining DataCite, Kelly worked at the Portage Network of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, where they contributed to national data discovery initiatives and supported the DataCite Canada Consortium. Kelly holds an MLIS from the University of British Columbia, a BS in Computer Science, and a BMus in Music Composition.
Rorie Edmunds
(Samples Community Manager)
Rorie leads the partnership between DataCite and IGSN e.V. His focus initially is to ensure existing IGSN Members and IDs smoothly transition under the DataCite framework. More generally, he is responsible for driving adoption of PIDs for physical samples, advocacy activities to scale samples community engagement, and the development of sample PID practice standards. Based in Tokyo, Rorie has 10 years’ experience of coordinating international initiatives and scaling communities globally. Before joining DataCite, he was Executive Director of ISC’s World Data System, and Head of Secretariat of CoreTrustSeal. Rorie’s research background is highly multidisciplinary. His first degree is Mathematics, and he holds a Ph.D. in Structural Geology.
Cody Ross
(Application Support Engineer)
Cody Ross joined DataCite as an Application Support Engineer in March 2022. Cody has supported discovery, access, and research services in a variety of library and archives roles over the course of his career. Before joining DataCite, Cody worked at the Brown University Library, where his primary responsibilities included supporting the University’s digital repository service and advancing the Library’s digital preservation program. He has professional experience in archives and special collections, library IT services, and library technical services. He volunteers in arts programming and administration.
Gabriela Mejias
(Community & Program Manager)
@gabioshka
Gabi is our Community Manager and leads DataCite participation in the European Commission funded project: FAIR-IMPACT. She also leads the Global Access Program. As part of our Engagement team, she contributes to our outreach efforts and collaborates with our broader community. Gabi also volunteers in many scholarly communication organizations and initiatives to promote open research. Before joining DataCite, she worked at ORCID focusing on community engagement, driving membership and adoption across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and within ORCID consortia.
Philomena Merkel
(Administrative Assistant)
Philomena supports our Business Office in Hannover. She is working on her bachelor degree in Economics at the Leibniz University. In her spare time Philomena plays the violin and participates in scouting activities.
Bryceson Laing
(Application Developer)
Bryceson joined Datacite in September 2022 and lives in Portland, Oregon. Before joining DataCite, he was a software development engineer at Cambia Health Solutions, where he worked on a large-scale care gap management engine that assists health professionals in identifying gaps in member care, allowing them to provide better coverage. Prior to that, he was also involved in research at Texas A&M University. Outside of work, he spends much of his time playing music and rock climbing.
Arturo Garduño-Magaña
(Regional Engagement Specialist, Latin America)
Arturo is a passionate advocate for open access and equitable research practices who joined the DataCite team as the Regional Engagement Specialist for Latin America. He is responsible for promoting and implementing the program in the region, with the aim of enhancing equitable access to infrastructure and fostering the adoption of persistent identifiers. Prior to joining DataCite, Arturo served as the Open Grant Reviewers Program Manager and Trainer at PREreview. Based in Mexico City, Arturo finds solace in long walks, photography, and the art of brewing coffee in his free time.
Bosun Obileye
(Regional Engagement Specialist, Africa)
Bosun spent the past 6 years before joining DataCite serving as the Institutional Data Manager for International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, having presence in more than 35 African countries. He was instrumental to the institutionalization of Open Data in the organization. Within CGIAR, he was active in various Community of Practices (CoP) and working groups like Repository Working Group, Metadata Working Group,among others. He had earlier spent his immediate years as a leader in the Information Technology industry. Bosun spends his leisure time with his family, playing the piano, reading, editing videos and walking.
Mohamad Mostafa
(Regional Engagement Specialist, Middle East and Asia)
Mohamad joined DataCite in June 2023 as a Regional Engagement Specialist for the Middle East and Asia. He works with the community to build more openness and trust in scholarly infrastructure and supports emerging communities transition towards Open Research and implementing its principles. Mohamad has participated in launching the ORCID Arabic interface to the Arab world and served as a volunteer Crossref Ambassador for the MENA region. Mohamad is based in Dubai (UAE) and he is passionate about Open Science and has been raising awareness among the research community.