Dr. Tom August

My work focuses on bridging the gap between research scientists and information technology experts.

Based within the Biological Records Centre (BRC) I work with statistical experts to develop methods for analysing species occurrence data and work to make these methods available to other academics and practitioners. I also work to make existing datasets more accessible by developing websites that can be used to interact with data.

2012-present: Computational Ecologist, CEH – Biological Records Centre

2012 June-August: Expedition Scientist, Honduras.

2008-2012: PhD, University of Exeter. 'The Social Structure, Ecology and Pathogens of Bats in the UK'. My thesis is available on figshare.

2004-2008: BSc Ecology, Durham University

R Code

The vast majority of my work is undertaken in the R programming language and when circumstances allow I place this code on github to share with others. Here is a selection of these code repositories and shiny apps

Packages

• rnbn - Access to data held by the National Biodiversity Network (NBN, www.nbn.org.uk). A part of the ROpenSci collection of packages.

• sparta - Methods used to analyse trends in unstructured occurrence datasets such as those collected by volunteer recording schemes.

• zoon - Reproducible and remixable species distribution modelling.

• BRCindicators - This small package contains a number of functions used to create biodiversity indicators.

Other code

• #mygbif - An entry to the GBIF innovation competitiion - Finalist

• shiny_geolocation - A demonstration of how geolocation from a smartphone or PC can be used in a shiny app 

• NatureNearMe - A proof of concept to serve wildlife data from the NBN Gateway through twitter

Shiny apps

• Nature's Postcodes - A shiny app demonstrating how data in the NBN is distributed by UK postcodes.

Technology projects

• 'Project Erebus' - This project seeks to combine remote control aircraft technology, autonomous flight control, and recent advances in ultrasound detectors to create an automated aireal bat surveying tool.

• KesCam - With colleagues at CEH we installed two web cameras on a kestrel nesting box.

Selected Presentations

The following playlist contains four presentations:

1. Persepectives on Technology for Biological Recording - Suffolk Naturalist Society
2. Bats, Bones, Phones and Drones - Nature Live, London Natural History Museum
3. How to Connect Your Smartphone to a Bat Detector - Guest video for Bat Conservation Trust
4. #myGBIF; One Hashtag, infinite possibilities - Finalist in GBIF innovation competition