Dr. Isabel M.D. Rosa has been a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow since May 2016 at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv). Born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1986 she holds a BSc in forestry engineering (2007), an MSc in natural resources management (2009) from the University of Lisbon, and a PhD in computational ecology (2013) from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. She is the PI of the research project Using Land Cover Change Models to Address Important Conservation Issues funded by H2020-MSCA-IF-2015. She also has contributed to two international projects as a team member since 2013, including one European-funded project supported with 1.5 M € budget (Terragenesis, ERC-2011-StG_20101109). She is the author of 15 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals such as Nature Ecology and Evolution, Current Biology and Global Change Biology, accumulating 252 citations (Google citations, October 2017), H index = 8. During her academic career, she has acquired several skills, such as statistical analysis, programming (R, C++, and Python), working with geographic information systems (ArcGIS and QGIS), and creating databases (PostgreSQL/PostGIS and SQLServer). She also reviewed the book Learning PostgreSQL, also by Packt.

Sheldon Strauch is a 23-year veteran of software consulting at companies such as IBM, Sears, Ernst & Young, and Kraft Foods. He has a bachelor's degree in business administration and leverages his technical skills to improve business' self-awareness. His interests include data gathering, management, and mining; maps and mapping; business intelligence; and application of data analysis for continuous improvement. He is currently focused on development of end-to-end data management and mining at Enova International, a financial services company located in Chicago. In his spare time, he enjoys the performing arts, particularly music, and traveling with his wife, Marilyn.