CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
2017 Ph.D., Biology; Concentration in Interdisciplinary Science
Dr. Felisa Smith, University of New Mexico
2010 B.S. Evolution, Ecology, & Biodiversity; Minor Paleobiology
University of California, Davis
RESEARCH INTEREST
Paleobiology · Macroecology · Macroevolution · Biogeography · Morphology · Traits
Professional Appointments
2022-Current Postdoctoral Fellow, Naturalhistorisk Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
2021-Current Designated Campus Colleague, School of Information, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2019-Current Research Affiliate, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., USA
2021-23 Environmental Scientist I, National Ecological Observatory Network, Battelle Memorial Institute, Boulder, CO
2021 Assistant Research Scientist, BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2019-21 Postdoctoral Research Associate, BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2017-9 Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., USA
2013 Visiting Scholar, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Durham, NC, USA
2013-5 Programs in Interdisciplinary Biomedical and Biological Sciences (PIBBS) Fellow, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
2008 Friday Harbor Laboratories Research Apprenticeship, University of Washington, San Juan Islands, WA, USA
PUBLICATIONS
PEER-REVIEWED:
Balk, M.A., Bradley, J., Maruf, M., Altintas, B., Bakis, Y., Bart, H.L. Jr., Breen, D., Florian, C.R., Greenberg, J., Karpatne, A., Karnani, K., Mabee, P., Pepper, J., Jebbia, D., Tabarin, T., Wang, X., Lapp, H. 2024. A FAIR and modular image-based workflow for knowledge discovery in the emerging field of imageomics. Methods in Evolution & Ecology, 15(6): 1129–1145.
Girón Duque, J.C., Mikó, I., Balk, M.A., Dahdul, W., Lapp, W., Alhajjar, E., Wynd, B., Tarasov, S., Lawrence, C. Khakurel, B., Porto, A., Yan, L., Fluck, I.E., Porto, D.S., Keating, J.N., Borokini, I.T., Seltmann, K.C., and Montanaro, G. 2024. Meeting Report for the Phenoscape TraitFest 2023 with Comments on Organizing Interdisciplinary Meetings. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 8:e115232.
Stefancsik, R., Balhoff, J.P., Balk, M.A., Ball, R.L, Bello, S.M., Caron, A.R., Chesler, E.J., de Souza, V., Gehrke, S., Haendel, M., Harris, L.W., Harris, N.L., Ibrahim, A., Koehler, S., Matentzoglu, N., McMurry, J.A., Mungall, C.J., Munoz-Torres, M.C., Putman, T., Robinson, P., Smedley, D., Sollis, E., Thessen, A.E., Vasilevsky, N., Walton, D.O., Osumi-Sutherland, D. 2023. The Ontology of Biological Attributes (OBA) – computational traits for the Life Sciences. Mammalian Genome, 1-15.
Elhamod, M., Khurana, M., Manogaran, H.B., Uyeda, J., Balk, M.A., Dahdul, W.M., Bakis, Y., Bart, H., Mabee, P., Lapp, H., Balhoff, J., Charpentier, C.P., Carlyn, D.E., Chao, W.-L., Stewart, C., Rubenstein, D., Berger-Wolf, T., Karpatne, A. 2023. Discovering novel biological traits from images using phylogeny-guided neural networks. Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD).
Hoyt, C.T., Balk, M.A., Callahan, T.J., Domingo-Fernández, Haendel, M.A., et al. 2022. Unifying the identification of biomedical entities with the Bioregistry. Scientific Data, 9(1).
Balk, M.A., Deck, J., Emery, K.F., Walls, R.L., Reuter, D., et al. 2022. A solution to the challenges of interdisciplinary aggregation and use of specimen-level trait data. iScience, 25(10): 105101. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105101
Fraser, D., Villaseñor, A., Tóth, A., Balk, M.A., Eronen, J.T., et al. 2022. Late quaternary biotic homogenization of North American mammalian faunas. Nature Communications, 13(3940). doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31595-8
Kim, S., Yeakel, J.D., Balk, M.A., Eberle, J., Zeichner, S., et al. 2022. Decoding the dynamics of distributions: insights from shark demography and dispersal. 289(1977): 20220808. Proc. R. Soc. B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0808
Sahneh, F.†, Balk, M.A.†, Kisley, M., Chan, C.-K., Fox, M., et al. 2021. Ten simple rules to cultivate transdisciplinary collaboration in data science. PLOS Computation Biology. e1008879
Fraser, D., Soul, L.C., Tóth, A.B., Balk, M.A., Eronen, J.T., et al. 2021. Investigating biotic interactions in deep time. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 36(1): 61–75.
Pineda-Munoz, S., Jukar, A., Amatangelo, K., Balk, M.A., Barr, W.A., et al. 2020. Body mass-related changes in mammal community assembly patterns during the late Quaternary of North America. Global Ecology and Biodiversity.
Gallagher, R.V., Falster, DS., Maitner, B., Salguero-Gómez, R., Vandvik, V., et al. 2020. The Open Traits Network: using open science principles to accelerate trait-based sciences across the tree of life. Nature Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1109-6
Burger, J.R., Anderson, R.A., Balk, M.A., and Fristoe, T.S. 2019. A constraint-based model of dynamic island biogeography: environmental history and species traits predict hysteresis in populations and communities. Frontiers of Biogeography, 11(3): e44383.
Balk, M.A., Betancourt, J.L., and Smith, F.A. 2019. Investigating (a)symmetry in a small mammal's response to warming and cooling events across western North America over the late Quaternary. Quaternary Research, 1-8.
Smith, F.A., Payne, J.L, Heim, N.A., Balk, M.A., Finnegan, S., et al. 2016. Body size across the Geozoic. Annual Reviews Earth & Planetary Science, 44:523–553.
Smith, F.A., Hammond, J.I., Balk, M.A., Elliot, S.M., Lyons, S.K., et al. 2015. Exploring the influence of ancient and historic megaherbivore extirpations on the global methane budget. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(4): 874–879.
Fristoe, T.S., Burger, J.R., Balk, M.A., Khaliq, I., Hof, C., and Brown, J.H. 2015. Metabolic heat production and thermal conductance are mass-independent adaptations to thermal environment in birds and mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(52): 15934–15939.
Pimiento, C. and Balk, M.A. 2015. The extinction of Carcharocles megalodon: A model for understanding long-term microevolutionary body size trends. Paleobiology, 41(3): 479–490.
McClain, C.R., Balk, M.A., Benfield, M.C., Branch, T.A., Chen, C., et al. 2015. Sizing Ocean Giants: Patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna. Peer J: e715. *
Tomas, F., Abbott, J.M., Steinberg, C., Balk, M., Williams, S.L., and Stachowicz, J.J. 2011. Plant genotype and nitrogen loading influence seagrass productivity, biochemistry, and plant-herbivore interactions. Ecology 92 (9): 1807–1817.
MANUSCRIPTS IN REVIEW:
Tsuboi, M., Liow, L.H., De Lisle, S., Grabowski, M., Hopkins, M., Hunt, G., Porto, A., Sztepanacz, J., Voje, K.L., Balk, M.A., Hildesheim, L., Horta-Lacueva, Q., Hohmann, A.H., Lürig, M., Milocco, L., Nilen, S., Passarotto, A., Pontarp, M., Rossani, D., Svennson, E., Villegas, C., Winslott, E., Love, A., and Houle, D. The paradox of predictability and the relationship between micro- and macroevolution. Journal of Experimental Biology.
* Mentored undergraduates
† Dual first authors
DATA PRODUCTS
Balk, M., Bradley, J., Tabarin, T., and Lapp, H. hdr-bgnn/Minnow_Segmented_Traits: initial release (v1.0.0). Zenodo. https://doil.org/10.5281/zenodo.7963343
Tabarin, T., Bradley, J. Balk, M., and Lapp, H. hdr-bgnn/Morphology-analysis: Version 1.0.0 (v1.0.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7987697
Tabarin, T., Bradley, J., Balk, M., and Lapp, H. hdr-bgnn/BGNN_Core_Workflow: Version 1.0.0 (v1.0.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7987705
Guralnick, R.P., Balk, M.A., Deck, J., Emery, K., Davis, E., et al. 2022. FuTRES (Functional Trait Resource for Environmental Studies) data store archival copy – 5/21/2022 (1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6569644
Pimiento, C. and Balk, M.A. 2015. Data from: Body-size trends of the extinct giant shark Carcharocles megalodon: a deep-time perspective on marine apex predators, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6q5t4.
OTHER RESEARCH PRODUCTS
FuTRES Ontology of Vertebrate Traits (GitHub)
rfutres, R package for data extraction (GitHub)
RShinyFuTRES, R Shiny App for data standardization (GitHub)
Open Traits Network data lifecycle
MOM, Dataset of mammal body size (GitHub)
UBERON, contribute semantically-defined anatomical terms (GitHub)
Citizen Science project for identifying shark-bitten bones
FUNDING ($495, 488 total)
SELECTED RESEARCH ($486,285 total)
2022 Collaborative PI, NSF Award #2226372, Collaborative Research: Disciplinary Improvements for Past Global Change ($59,999)
2021 Collaborative PI (former postdoc), NSF Award #1759808, ABI Innovtion: FuTRES, an Ontology-Based Functional Trait Resource for Paleo- and Neo-biologists ($420,135)
2020 BIO5 Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship ($4,990)*
TRAVEL ($8,104 total)
TEACHING ($150 total)
2018 R Consortium, R Users Group Support, Vector Level ($150)
AWARDS ($1,100 total)
* Impacted by COVID-19
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
INVITED: 9 total
Balk, M.A. How do animals respond to a changing planet? Linking micro to macro processes to assess species’ ability to persist. Life on a Sustainable Planet: Exploring and Understanding Biodiversity, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA. Oral presentation and panelist.
Balk, M.A. Traits and diversity data. LTER All-Scientists Meeting in Pacific Grove, CA, USA. Oral presentation and panelist.
Balk, M.A., Tabarin, T., Maruf, M., Dahdul, W., Diamond, et al. Harnessing the Data Revolution: Biology-Guided Neural Networks. Imageomics All-Hands Meeting. Workshop. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A. and Walls, R. 2019. Measuring Life. Semantic Data Modeling in Anatomy Workshop in Bonn, Germany. Oral Presentation.
Balk, M.A., and Smith, F.A. 2013. A possible asymmetrical response of mammals to temperature. Invited symposia: “The influence of temperature on the evolution and diversification of mammals”. International Mammalogical Congress in Belfast, Ireland. Oral presentation.
CONTRIBUTED: 20 total (14 oral, 6 poster)
Balk, M.A., Voje, K.L. Clonal colonial organisms as a model system for applying evolutionary quantitative genetics to the fossil record. Geologic Society of America Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A., Voje, K.L. Assessing evolvability in a fossil lineage using a CV pipeline to produce a phenomic dataset. Computer Vision Forum in Lund, Sweden. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A. Semantic workflows for findability, ontologies for standardization and interoperability, structured knowledge for data extraction. LTER All-Scientists Meeting in Pacific Grove, CA, USA. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A., Walls, R.L., Guralnick, R.P., Davis, E.B., Deck, J., et al. 2019. FuTRES: functional trait resource for environmental studies. Biodiversity Next, Leiden, Netherlands. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A. 2019. Revealing forgotten data. Women in Data Science Blitz. Seminar. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A., Elliot-Smith, R., Smith, F.A., Grady, J.M., Harding, L., et al. 2017. Here, there, and (almost) everywhere: identifying traits of wide-ranging species. International Biogeography Society Meeting in Tucson, AZ, USA. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A., Anderson, R.P., Burger J.R., and Fristoe, T.S. 2016. Hysteresis in island biogeography: the role of the past in community assembly. American Quaternary Association 24th Biennial Meeting in Santa Fe, NM, USA. Lightning talk & poster.
Balk, M.A. and Pimiento, C. 2014. Body size change in C. megalodon through time in comparison with contemporaneous marine mega-fauna. North American Paleontological Convention in Gainesville, FL, USA. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A. and Smith, F.A. 2012. Asymmetrical response to climatic Change. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists in Reno, NV, USA. Oral presentation.
Balk, M.A., Brandenburg, M., Burger, J.R., Chang, M., Colman, D., et al. 2012. Energetic scaling of U.S. academic institutions. University of New Mexico, Department of Biology, Research Day. Albuquerque, NM, USA. Poster.
MENTORSHIP
POSTDOCTORATE
Omar Cirilli, University of Florence, Florence, Italy and Howard University, Washington, D.C., USA.
Advisor: Dr. Ray Bernor
Role: teach biodiversity informatics, ontologies
GRADUATE
Enrico Maria Perlini, Ph.D. student, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Advisor: Dr. Lutz Bachmann
Role: Co-supervisor
Irene Zanandrea, Ph.D. student, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Advisor: Dr. Kjetil Lysne Voje
Role: Co-supervisor
Helena Machado, Ph.D. student, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
Advisor: Dr. Edward B. Davis
Role: teach biodiversity informatics, ontologies
Neeka Sewnath, Ph.D. student, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Advisor: Dr. Robert L. Guralnick
Role: teach biodiversity informatics
Dana Reuter, Ph.D. student, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
Advisor: Dr. Edward B. Davis
Role: teach data science best practices
Moira Snuffer, MSc. Student, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Role: Intern supervision in museum collections, specimen digitization
UNDERGRADUATE
Lily Sandstrom, Life Science Summer Research Project, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Role: Intern supervision in machine learning, data science
Prasiddhi Gyawali, Students Taking Advantage of Research (STAR) program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Role: Intern supervision in data science, biodiversity informatics
Jazmin Jones, Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA, USA. Graduated 2020.
Role: Intern supervision in museum collections, specimen digitization
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Prasiddhi Gaywali, Keep Engaging Youth in Science (KEYS) program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Role: Intern supervision in data science, biodiversity informatics
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
INSTRUCTOR
2022 Secondary School Guest: Biology, BASIS North, Tucson, Arizona. Class lesson, Who Bit Whom. Secondary School.
2019-20 Instructor, Foundational Open Science Skills, BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona. All levels.
2019 Webinar: Git for Mere Mortals. BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona. All levels.
2018 Co-creator & co-instructor, R Basics Short Course, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. All levels.
2015 Instructor, BIO 402/502, BioBLOG, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate and graduate.
GUEST LECTURER
2021 Guest Lecturer, Gigantism, Universität Zürich. "Sizing ocean giants: examples of limits and exceptions." Undergraduate.
2020 Guest Lecturer, Digital Zooarchaeology, University of Florida. "Ontologies." Undergraduate.
2014 Guest Lecturer, Darwin Day Roadshow. “Paleoecology & Careers in Science.” Undergraduate.
2012 Guest Lecturer, Global Change Biology, University of New Mexico. “Mammal responses to climate variability: focus on paleoclimatic patterns.” Undergraduate and graduate.
TEACHING ASSISTANT
2015 Teaching assistant, BIO 112L, Biology for Non-Majors Lab, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate.
2015 Teaching assistant, BIO 419/519, Macroecology, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate and graduate.
2014 Teaching assistant, BIO 419/519, Ecology of the Past, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate and graduate.
2012 Teaching assistant, BIO 247L, Anatomy and Physiology, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate.
2012 Teaching assistant, BIO 419/519, Global Change Biology, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate and graduate.
2012 Teaching assistant, BIO 402/502, BioBLOG, University of New Mexico. Undergraduate and graduate.
2011–3 Teaching assistant, BIO 248L, Anatomy and Physiology II. Undergraduate.
2010–1 Teaching assistant, BIO 202, Genetics. Undergraduate.
WORKSHOPS & WORKING GROUPS
2021 Organized Oral Session, Ecological Society of America, Virtual*
2021 NeotomaDB Hackathon, Virtual
2021 EarthRates, Virtual
2020-21 Functional Trait Resource for Environmental Studies, Virtual*
2019 Functional Trait Resource for Environmental Studies workshop, Eugene, OR, USA*
2019 Semantic Data Modeling in Anatomy workshop, Bonn, Germany (virtual)
2018 OpenTraits workshop, New Orleans, LA, USA
2018 Data Carpentry, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
2017 Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
2014 Research Sprint, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Durham, NC, USA
2011 Analytical Paleobiology Database Short Course, Sydney, Australia
* Organized
SELECTED SERVICE AND OUTREACH
SERVICE TO PROFESSION
2022 Panel, Conservation Paleobiology Working Group
2012-22 Reviewer, Systematic Biology, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Biodiversity Data Journal, Science, Quaternary Research, Global Change Biology, Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research
SERVICE TO DEPARTMENT
2018 Co-Organizer and Data Blitz Team Lead, Women in Data Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
2018 Organizer of R user group bi-weekly meet-ups (NMNH)
2015 Founder and Co-President, Advancing Women in Science (UNM)
2013 Research Day judge, Department of Biology (UNM)
2012 Miss Representation viewing and panel organizer, Women’s Resource Center (UNM)
2011 Educator, Field Trip, Freshman Learning Community (UNM)
2011 Panel participant, Undergraduate Opportunities Program Graduate (UNM)
OUTREACH & SCIENTIFIC DISSEMINATION
2024 Interviewed, Smithsonian Magazine
Press Release, A New Era in Biology Unfolds with Imageomics Workflow Research
2023 Interviewed, Whanganui Chronicle, International scientists look for two-million-year-old fossils in Whanganui
2018 Interviewed by the Late Late Early Early Show by Paul Ross about The Meg
Interviewed by Science News about The Meg
Panelist, JAWS, Wolftrap
Interviewed by Ocean Portal about predation research
Expert, Jurassic World, The Kennedy Center
R NMNH bi-monthly meet-up organizer, NMNH
Expert, Deep Time Paleoclimate Symposium, SI NMNH
Expert, Digging Up Dessa, The Kennedy Center
2017 Scientist is In, National Museum of Natural History
2016 Volunteer and logo designer, American Quaternary Association Meeting
2015 Guest writer, The Panama Canal Project eNewsletter
2013 Guest blog, The Contemplative Mammoth
2012–6 BioBlog, University of New Mexico
2012–4 Volunteer, New Mexico Museum of Natural History