Our Data Stewards community

The Network Support team is located at the University Library.

Contact the team at data-stewardship-network@sheffield.ac.uk

Data Stewards Network members

Currently over 140 colleagues have signed up to be a member of the Data Stewards Network. We hope to use this space to include details of some of our members and their roles.

Would you be interested in contributing a short (1–2 paragraph) biographical note about yourself and your role? We’re featuring member profiles to highlight the people behind the work.

You can either write your own in the first person (and include a photo, if you like), or set up a quick 15-minute call and we’ll draft it for you.

Please contact data-stewardship-network@sheffield.ac.uk to get started.

DSN Members

Ric Campbell

Hello, I'm Ric and I'm a Data Scientist in Research and Innovation inside IT Services. I currently work in the Data Connect team, with a focus on the CUREd+ project. This involves a large database of health data from across the country and local ambulance data at a patient level. My role involves (alongside the Data Connect team) making sense of the data, helping researchers with their requirements, creating extracts for researchers, as well as testing and moving the extracts.

I originally became a data steward a bit by accident, but through different roles and development and encouragement from line managers/mentors, I learnt to really enjoy all aspects of this, from manipulating the data, working with researchers to best achieve a project's goals, and even the governance aspects. Also I find my natural desire to double check and dig into issues is a good attribute in such roles!

Will Furnass

I work in the IT Services' Research Platforms team at the University of Sheffield. In my team we develop and maintain various IT systems and services that support research including high-performance computing (HPC) services such as the University's Stanage HPC system and cloud-based (AWS) platforms for working with sensitive data. Previously I worked as a Research Software Engineer at the University of Sheffield, I have a PhD in water engineering and aeons ago was an IT engineer in the film industry.

Joe Heffer

I'm a software engineer at the University of Sheffield who specialises in research data solutions. I collaborate with and support researchers from all disciplines in using data technology in various ways to enable cutting-edge research projects.

I mostly use the following skills:

Software engineering and data analysis in various programming languages including Python, R, SQL;
Training, coaching, and project management;
Systems design and data engineering: big data, databases, and data pipelines.

Bryony Hooper

My name is Bryony Hooper, and I am the Digital Preservation Manager for the University of Sheffield.

For those not familiar, Digital Preservation refers to the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital material for as long as necessary. The aim is to maintain access to digital materials beyond the limits of media failure or technological and organisational change. While the preservation stage comes near the end of the lifecycle of research data management, we sometimes have to think about how we can ensure long term access to data even before researchers start creating it. I therefore have no small task on my hands! I work closely with colleagues in the Library and ITs to support good practice in data management, and manage our Digital Preservation infrastructure on behalf of the University.

Twin Karmakharm

I am a Senior Research Software Engineer who completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield. I specialise in web applications and infrastructure, machine learning, and high-performance agent-based pedestrian simulation.

Neil Lawrence

I am a paediatric registrar and NIHR doctoral research fellow with a passion for data science. I have experience in multilevel modelling, and particularly enjoy applying the SuperImposition by Translation and Rotation package within R to non-linear repeated measurement data. I am keen to utilise sophisticated machine learning techniques in an explainable way that is accessible to clinicians. I am currently the chief investigator on a Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity grant investigating the feasibility of applying phonocardiography and its interpretation using artificial intelligence to the newborn baby physical examination.

If you are working with repeated measurements data, I would happily discuss ways to best analyse such data sets to extract the most value from them whilst avoiding bias.

Giuliano Punzo

I am an academic in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield and director of the Urban Flows Observatory, where we collect data from the Sheffield area (and beyond) that inform research, innovation and policymaking in transport, air quality and planning.

My own research is in the dynamics of socio-technical systems for which I use techniques from Network science, dynamic system modelling, including dynamical games, and control. I have an interest in marrying rigorous mathematical modelling with the reality of the physical and digital world, including the social interactions that get established in these, hence my interest and stewardship of data for research and beyond.

And no, I did not graduate from Princeton. That's a rare, decent picture of myself.

Timothy Rooker

I joined the Integrated Manufacturing Group as a Data Scientist in 2021, after completing an EngD in the AMRC's Industrial Doctorate Centre for Machining Science. My thesis - Assistive data science for multi-axis machine tool inspection - explored predictive modelling and analytics for automating and improving the user experience of NC-Checker, the flagship machine tool benchmarking software from the project sponsor, Metrology Software Products Ltd.

Since joining the AMRC full-time, I have developed extensive experience in the research process for various applications involving data engineering, data science, and general software engineering. My current research interests lie mainly in the development of workflows to support data stewardship through project delivery, and the application of Lakehouse models to synergise data science and engineering processes in manufacturing applications.

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