Academy Research

Human activities are changing the Earth faster than at any other time in the history of our species.  Natural history museums play a critical role in understanding these changes.  Their scientific collections serve as a record of life on Earth and provide a baseline against which we can measure change. Discovering and documenting life on Earth requires gathering and managing large amounts of information.  In the Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics (CABI) we apply information technology to the full lifecycle of biodiversity information, from gathering data in the field and laboratories, through integration, interpretation, and dissemination.  We are also conducting projects that integrate biodiversity data with spatial information about the Earth, such as climate and topography, to understand changing patterns of biodiversity. Our mapping and modeling projects contribute to some of the most exciting conservation initiatives of our time.