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25-465: In 2001, GBIF created the Ebbe Nielsen Prize to honour the recently deceased Danish-Australian entomologist Ebbe Nielsen , who was a keen proponent of both GBIF and the biodiversity informatics discipline. That prize recognized a global researcher or research team for their retrospective contribution(s) to the field of biodiversity informatics , according to criteria set out by GBIF in the terms of

50-652: A Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences , and a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters . Nielsen was the author or co-author of eight books and monographs, and was editor or co-editor of many more. He also wrote over eighty other published pieces, mostly research and academic papers. The majority of his publications were on the topics of systematics, Lepidoptera, biological inventories, biodiversity, and informatics. Nielsen died in his sleep of

75-500: A comprehensive repository of data on species and their characteristics, recognising informatics as a key to understanding and managing biodiversity. During the 1990s, he and other scientists pushed for an extensive global biodiversity resource, designed to utilise up-to-date informatics software and capable of collating data held on various separate databases. In 1999, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development endorsed

100-488: A guest lecture to address the annual meeting of the governing body of GBIF in whichever country the meeting was being held for that year. In its 2003 call for submissions, the prize was stated as being "[awarded] annually, to a promising researcher, normally within ten years of their entering the research field of biodiversity informatics. Candidates should be combining biodiversity informatics and biosystematic research in novel and exciting ways ... The primary selection criterion

125-556: A heart attack on 7 March 2001. He was in California for a conference while on his way to Montreal from Australia to attend the inaugural session of the governing board for the newly established GBIF, a project with which he had been significantly involved. A few days after his death, during the meeting Nielsen had been due to participate in, the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Prize was created to honour his memory. The annual prize recognized

150-539: A proposal for the establishment of 'a global biodiversity information facility', and on 1 March 2001, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility was officially launched. As Australia's Head of Delegation for the GBIF and a founding member, Nielsen was en route to Montreal to attend the first meeting of the governing board when he died of a heart attack. The Karl Jordan Medal for lepidopterology

175-476: A researcher who had made substantial contributions to biodiversity informatics. In 2015, GBIF revamped the award as an incentive competition, now known as the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge . A special issue of Invertebrate Systematics was published in 2003 as a tribute to Nielsen, and contained articles written by his friends and colleagues about him and his work. In 1995, a new species of moth

200-531: A volume on the moth family Elachistidae and working on the checklist of Danish Lepidoptera , Nielsen was invited through the University of Copenhagen to participate in a six-month expedition to South America. The trip commenced in 1978 and focused on extensive biodiversity surveys of the Patagonia region. Nielsen managed much of the expedition and was involved with it for the whole of the period, one of only two of

225-409: Is expected that successful entries provide practical, pragmatic solutions for the GBIF network while advancing biodiversity informatics and biodiversity data management in relation to the GBIF mission and strategic plan." First Prize winner: Joint Second Prize winners: Joint Third Prize winners: Details are available via the GBIF website here. Ebbe Nielsen Prize The Ebbe Nielsen Prize

250-441: Is scientific excellence as evidenced by the nominee’s research and publication record, and in particular, the innovation shown in combining biosystematics and biodiversity informatics research in their field of activity." Over the life of the prize, it was won by researchers from Japan, Germany, Sweden, Argentina, United States (twice), Australia (twice), United Kingdom, Colombia, Canada, Denmark and Portugal. In 2015, GBIF revamped

275-432: The 2001 GBIF Governing Board meeting. The award was created in 2001 to honour the recently deceased Danish-Australian entomologist Ebbe Nielsen , who was a keen proponent of both GBIF and the biodiversity informatics discipline. At the time of its creation, the prize was the only global award for work in biodiversity. Initially set at US$ 35,000 and later €30,000, the award comprised a cash prize plus an invitation to give

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300-629: The 2015 Challenge is available here. First Prize winner: Second Prize winner: Details are available via the GBIF website here. Challenge: "In 2016, the Challenge will focus on the question of data gaps and completeness, seeking tools, methods and mechanisms to help analyse the fitness-for-use of GBIF-mediated data and/or guide priority setting for biodiversity data mobilization. We expect both data users and data holders to benefit from this year’s emphasis on gaps and completeness." First Prize winner: Joint Second Prize winners: Details are available via

325-615: The GBIF website here. Challenge: "The 2017 GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge seeks submissions that repurpose these datasets [in public open-access repositories] and adapting them into the Darwin Core Archive format (DwC-A), the interoperable and reusable standard that powers the publication of almost 800 million species occurrence records from the nearly 1,000 worldwide institutions now active in the GBIF network. The 2017 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge will task developers and data scientists to create web applications, scripts or other tools that automate

350-409: The GBIF website here. Challenge: "The 2019 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge is deliberately open-ended, so entrants have a broad remit for creating tools and techniques that advance in open science and improve the access, utility or quality of GBIF-mediated data. Challenge submissions may be new applications, visualization methods, workflows or analyses, or they build on and extend existing tools and features. It

375-514: The age of fourteen and later joined an entomology club based in Århus . Nielsen attended Aarhus University while working part-time for a local museum. Following graduation, he was solicited to join a project on the ecosystem of Danish beech forests, which the museum had been involved in. With this appointment, Nielsen began his masters research, collecting numerous specimens as part of the project and studying their phenology and distribution, gaining his MSc in zoology in 1976. Following writing

400-469: The award as an incentive competition, now known as the Ebbe Nielsen Challenge . The following list of recipients is given on the GBIF web site: Ebbe Nielsen Ebbe Schmidt Nielsen (7 June 1950 – 7 March 2001) was a Danish entomologist influential in systematics and Lepidoptera research, and an early proponent of biodiversity informatics . The journal Invertebrate Systematics

425-459: The award. From 2015 onwards, GBIF re-launched the award process as a competition between global individuals or teams of researchers to create new software or approaches to using biodiversity data according to a theme announced annually for each round of the competition, and also to split the prize money among multiple groups instead of a single winner as in the initial era of the Prize. Calls for entries to

450-669: The competition, now called the "Ebbe Nielsen Challenge", have been issued annually from 2015 to the present, with winners announced through a competitive process in all years except for 2017, when an insufficient number of entries was received. Challenge: "Make significant use of GBIF-mediated data in a way that provides new representations or insights. Your submission could involve a range of results—websites, stand-alone or mobile applications, or outputs of analyses—or could seek to improve any number of issues or processes, including (but not limited to) data analysis or visualization, data workflows, uploading, or annotations." A list of finalists for

475-656: The discovery and extraction of relevant biodiversity data from open data repositories." No winners were announced, indicating that the 2017 prize money was not awarded to any entry. Challenge: "The 2018 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge is deliberately open-ended, so entrants have a broad remit for creating tools and techniques that advance in open science and improve the access, utility or quality of GBIF-mediated data. Challenge submissions may be new applications, visualization methods, workflows or analyses, or they build on and extend existing tools and features." Joint First Prize winners: Joint Second Prize winners: Details are available via

500-486: The field of biodiversity informatics. The moth Pollanisus nielseni is named after Nielsen. Nielsen was born on 7 June 1950 in Ry , Denmark. His parents were farmers, and he and his brother frequently explored the surrounding Jutland countryside, playing in forests and by the shores of Mossø , a lake near their home. Inspired by reading about collecting and identifying moths and butterflies, Nielsen began gathering specimens at

525-748: The original fifteen scientists to see the project through to completion. The experience provided him with considerable material for his PhD and he developed an appreciation for the fauna of the southern hemisphere, where he would live for the next two decades. Nielsen acquired his PhD from the University of Copenhagen in 1980. A year later, he was engaged by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to work in Australia on primitive Lepidoptera and other Lepidoptera inventories. He focused less on pure research after 1990, when he

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550-489: Was an international science award made annually between 2002 and 2014 by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), to recognize a researcher who had made substantial contributions to the field of biodiversity informatics . The prize was established in memory of prominent entomologist and biodiversity informatics proponent Ebbe Nielsen , who died of a heart attack in the U.S.A. en route to

575-533: Was appointed director of the Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra . He was instrumental in the establishment of CSIRO Publishing in 1996, and in particular the journal Invertebrate Taxonomy (known as Invertebrate Systematics since the beginning of 2002). He chaired the editorial committee for the journal and was a frequent contributor. Nielsen enthusiastically advocated for

600-710: Was awarded to Nielsen by the Lepidopterist' Society in 1990, and he was later a member of the award committee. That same year he was the recipient of the David Rivett Medal from the Australian Academy of Science , and in 1992 of the Ian Mackerras Medal, awarded to him by the Australian Entomological Society . Nielsen was a member of several committees, societies, and advisory boards, was

625-404: Was established with significant contributions from Nielsen, and he assisted in the founding of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Nielsen wrote several books, published over eighty scientific papers, and was highly regarded within the scientific community. Following his death, the GBIF organised the Ebbe Nielsen Prize in his memory, awarded annually to promising researchers in

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