Making Smart Science Easier: The CombeChem Experience – eScience from the Laboratory to the Library

“Data Data everywhere but nor anytime to think” is a possible mantra for the problems of scientific data overload. The CombeChem Project (http://www.combechem.org) takes a holistic approach to the undertaking of scientific laboratory research with a view to improve the quality, accessibility and re-use of chemical information. The project is investigating the use of e-Science technologies based on the idea of Publication @ Source. It is the researchers responsibility to collect the scientific data with the fullest possible context at the start and then ensure that none of the material is lost as the data is processed, refined, analyzed and disseminated. I will illustrate how the e-Science ideas such as the “Semantic Web and Grid, Web 2.0, can be applied to the use of tablet PCs as electronic laboratory notebooks, laboratory blogs, enhancing remote monitoring & control of smart laboratories, and repository based dissemination of chemical data. I will highlight areas where improved transport of information between commonly used software would make a huge difference to the efficiency of scientific data handling and the useful dissemination and discussion of this information.

Speaker Details

Dr. Jeremy Frey is a Reader in the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. He is committed to a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to chemical research. The interactions with Physics, The Opto-Electronics Research Centre (ORC), Electronics and Computer Science Departments have been particularly fruitful. His research is based on the use of laser spectroscopic techniques to probe molecular structure reactivity and dynamics and organization in a variety of environments from single molecules, molecular beam kinetics and photochemistry, to the study of interfaces and surfaces with interfacial non-linear spectroscopy. As part of his current research he is involved with the UK e-Science programme as PI of the CombeChem project looking at the ways in which e-Science and Grid infrastructure can be developed to provide support for and carry out chemical research, for example in Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) with the Smart Tea Project, generating and applying a “Semantic Chemical Grid” and applying Web 2.0 & Social Network ideas with Chemical Blogs and related technologies. Fundamental to the ideas of “Publication @ Source” for scientific data is his work on the interaction of e-print repositories with chemistry in the work on the e-Bank & e-Crystals projects. His most recent laser research, involving higher order non-linear effects, is as the PI of a Basic Technology project to generate a nanoscale ultra short pulse of x-ray source using ultrashort-pulsed lasers and fibre technology aimed at probing the shape of single large molecules of biological significance, such as enzymes, using x-ray scattering and x-ray spectroscopy. He is the chair of the UK e-Science User Group and in 2005/6 held a visiting Fellowship at the Centre for Mathematics and its Applications at ANU, Canberra.

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Speakers:
Jeremy Frey
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