|
Mr. Nilsson, working for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, developed “Artportalen”, or Species Gateway, an Internet portal at http://artportalen.se that allows spontaneous reporting of sightings of birds, butterflies, moths, plants and fungi by anyone who wants to contribute biodiversity data. Soon, modules for reporting amphibians, reptiles and mammals will be added.
The Nielsen Prize, which is the only award in the world for work in biodiversity informatics, is given each year by the Governing Board of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The Prize honors the memory of Ebbe Schmidt Nielsen, a Dane, who was an avid naturalist and renowned promoter of biodiversity informatics. He was a founding member of the GBIF Governing Board, on which he represented Australia.
Speaking of the award, Nilsson said, “To receive the 2004 Ebbe Nielsen Prize is a great honor for me. I’m very grateful to the GBIF Governing Board and the GBIF Science Committee for awarding me this prestigious Prize for work that I have enjoyed doing and that allows me to incorporate my computer analytical skills with my love of nature.”
The award was presented during the Science Symposium on Tuesday, 27 April 2004, by Drs. Christoph Haeuser, Jim Edwards and Wouter Los (Chair of GBIF's Governing Board, GBIF Executive Secretary, and the Chair of the GBIF Governing Board Science Committee, respectively). Following the presentation, Mr. Nilsson gave a talk about the development of Species Gateway, and demonstrated it live on the Internet. Public and press were invited to attend the Symposium and the Ebbe Nielsen Prize ceremony.
Naturally, Artportalen is providing data through the GBIF network.
A link has been established for this purpose at the
Swedish Museum of Natural History.
Currently 1.8 million bird records from Artportalen are available for searching through GBIF.
|
