Orrell, Thomas
Director, Integrated Taxonomic Information System; Director Encyclopedia of Life; Lead, Research Informatics
0000-0003-1038-3028
Orrell, Thomas
Director, Integrated Taxonomic Information System; Director Encyclopedia of Life; Lead, Research Informatics
Does an index of global biodiversity allow for information to be connected? Through my research and collaborative activities, I investigate making biodiversity and research information available and connected. I explore a virtual work space that networks scientists, tools, collections and research information, systems, and workflows in order to efficiently model and understand global biodiversity.
Background And Education
Education And Training
- Ph.D. in Marine Science: Systematic Ichthyology, Molecular Systematics, College of William and Mary , School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, A Molecular Phylogeny of the Sparidae (Perciformes: Percoidei) 1993 - 2000
- B.A. in Biology, University of Richmond 1983 - 1987
- NMFS Systematics Laboratory , National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate 2001 - 2003
Awards And Honors
- Chair, GBIF Science Committee, conferred by Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), 2017
- NMNH Science Achievement Award, 2015
- Elected Fellow, conferred by Linnean Society of London, 2010
Research And Grants
Co-principal Investigator On
Investigator On
- Data Development for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) 2019 awarded by U.S. Geological Survey 2019 -
- Data Development for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) - the authoritative source and Federal standard for scientific names and taxon awarded by U.S. Geological Survey
- Interagency Agreement between USGS and SI in support of the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) awarded by U.S. Geological Survey
Publications
Selected Publications
-
Article
- Wolcott, Katherine, Hammock, Jennifer, Schulz, Katja, and Orrell, Thomas M. 2026. "Manage your image database with computer vision—Lessons learned at Encyclopedia of Life." Bioscience, biag07. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biag074. 2026
- Astorga, Francisca, Groom, Quentin, Shimabukuro, Paloma Helena Fernandes, Manguin, Sylvie, Noesgaard, Daniel, Orrell, Thomas M., Sinka, Marianne, Hirsch, Tim, and Schigel, Dmitry. 2023. "Biodiversity data supports research on human infectious diseases: Global trends, challenges, and opportunities." One Health, 16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100484. 2023
- Orrell, Thomas. 2023. "Quality Control/Quality Assurance within the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)." Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 7. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.7.112043. 2023
- Bánki, Olaf, Hobern, Donald, Döring, Markus, Ower, Geoffrey, Roskov, Yuri, Hernandez-Robles, Diana, Plata, Camila, Schalk, Peter, and Orrell, Thomas M. 2023. "Towards a Quality Assurance and Quality Control Mechanism for Species List Building." Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 7. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.7.111665. 2023
- Lien, Aaron M., Banki, Olaf, Barik, Saroj K., Buckeridge, John S., Christidis, Les, Cigliano, María Marta, Conix, Stijn, Costello, Mark John, Hobern, Donald, Kirk, Paul M., Kroh, Andreas, Montgomery, Narelle, Nikolaeva, Svetlana, Orrell, Thomas M., Pyle, Richard L., Raz, Lauren, Thiele, Kevin, Thomson, Scott A., van Dijk, Peter Paul, Wambiji, Nina, Whalen, Anthony, Zachos, Frank E., Zhang, Zhi-Qiang, and Garnett, Stephen T. 2023. "Widespread support for a global species list with a formal governance system." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120, (45). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306899120. 2023
- Costello, Mark John, DeWalt, R. E., Orrell, Thomas M., and Banki, Olaf. 2022. "Two million species catalogued by 500 experts." Nature, 601, (7892) 191–191. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00010-z. 2022
- Richard, Stephen M., Vieglais, Dave, Cui, Hong, Davies, Neil, Deck, John, Gan, Quan, Kansa, Eric C., Kansa, Sarah Whitcher, Kunze, John, Mandel, Danny, Meyer, Christopher P., Orrell, Thomas M., Ramdeen, Sarah, Snyder, Rebecca A., Walls, Ramona L., Zhou, Yuxuan, and Lehnert, Kerstin. 2021. "Internet of Samples." Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 58, (1) 813–815. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.572. 2021
- Davies, Neil, Deck, John, Kansa, Eric C., Kansa, Sarah Whitcher, Kunze, John, Meyer, Christopher, Orrell, Thomas, Ramdeen, Sarah, Snyder, Rebecca A., Vieglais, Dave, Walls, Ramona L., and Lehnert, Kerstin. 2021. "Internet of Samples (iSamples): Toward an interdisciplinary cyberinfrastructure for material samples." GigaScience, 10, (5). https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab028. 2021
- Vieglais, Dave, Gan, Quan, Zhou, Yuxuan, Richard, Stephen, Cui, Hong, Davies, Neil, Deck, John, Kansa, Eric, Kansa, Sarah, Kunze, John, Mandel, Danny, Meyer, Christopher P., Orrell, Thomas M., Ramdeen, Sarah, Snyder, Rebecca A., Walls, Ramona, and Lehnert, Kerstin. 2021. "Internet of Samples: Creating and Mapping Controlled Vocabularies for Specimen Type, Material Type, and Sampled Feature." Earth and Space Science, 1. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10509093.1. 2021
- Pyle, Richard L., Barik, Saroj K., Christidis, Les, Conix, Stijn, Costello, Mark John, van Dijk, Peter Paul, Garnett, Stephen T., Hobern, Donald, Kirk, Paul M., Lien, Aaron M., Orrell, Thomas M., Remsen, David, Thomson, Scott A., Wambiji, Nina, Zachos, Frank E., Zhang, Zhi-Qiang, and Thiele, Kevin R. 2021. "Towards a global list of accepted species V. The devil is in the detail." Organisms Diversity & Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-021-00504-0. 2021
- Hobern, Donald, Barik, Saroj K., Christidis, Les, Garnett, Stephen T., Kirk, Paul, Orrell, Thomas M., Pape, Thomas, Pyle, Richard L., Thiele, Kevin R., Zachos, Frank E., and Bánki, Olaf. 2021. "Towards a global list of accepted species VI: The Catalogue of Life checklist." Organisms Diversity & Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-021-00516-w. 2021
- Thomson, Scott A., Pyle, Richard L., Ahyong, Shane T, Alonso-Zarazaga, Miguel, Ammirati, Joe, Araya, Juan Francisco, Ascher, John S., Audisio, Tracy Lynn, Azevedo-Santos, Valter, Bailly, Nicolas, Baker, William J., Balke, Michael, Barclay, Maxwell V. L., Barrett, Russell L., Benine, Ricardo C., Bickerstaff, James R. M., Bouchard, Patrice, Bour, Roger, Bourgoin, Thierry, Boyko, Christopher B., Breure, Abraham S. H., Brothers, Denis J., Byng, James W., Campbell, David, Ceríaco, Luis M. P. et al. 2018. "Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation." PLOS Biology, 16, (3) 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075. 2018
- Ruggiero, Michael A., Gordon, Dennis P., Orrell, Thomas M., Bailly, Nicolas, Bourgoin, Thierry, Brusca, Richard C., Cavalier-Smith, Thomas, Guiry, Michael D., and Kirk, Paul M. 2015. "A higher level classification of all living organisms." PloS One, 10, (4) 1–60. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119248. 2015
- Catalog of type specimens of recent fishes in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 1-38. 1996
-
Book
- Roskov, Y., Kunze, T., and Orrell, Thomas M. 2014. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2014 Annual Checklist. Leiden, the Netherlands: Naturalis Biodiversity Center. 2014
-
Chapter
- Hartel, K. E. and Orrell, Thomas M. 2016. "Alepocephalidae." In The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Carpenter, Kent E. and De Angelis, Nicoletta, editors. 1765–1770. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. 2016
- Hartel, K. E. and Orrell, Thomas M. 2016. "Argentinidae." In The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Carpenter, Kent E. and De Angelis, Nicoletta, editors. 1751–1753. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. 2016
- Orrell, Thomas M. and Hartel, K. E. 2016. "Leptochilichthyidae." In The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Carpenter, Kent E. and De Angelis, Nicoletta, editors. 1762–1764. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. 2016
- Hartel, K. E. and Orrell, Thomas M. 2016. "Microstomatidae." In The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Carpenter, Kent E. and De Angelis, Nicoletta, editors. 1754–1755. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. 2016
- Hartel, K. E. and Orrell, Thomas M. 2016. "Opisthoproctidae." In The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Carpenter, Kent E. and De Angelis, Nicoletta, editors. 1759–1761. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. 2016
- Orrell, Thomas M. and Hartel, K. E. 2016. "Platytroctidae." In The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 1 (Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes). Carpenter, Kent E. and De Angelis, Nicoletta, editors. 1771–1782. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. 2016
-
Dataset
- Orrell, Thomas M., Hollowell, Thomas H., and Little, Holly. 2018. [Dataset] NMNH Paleobiology Specimen Records. https://doi.org/10.15468/7m0fvd. 2018
- Orrell, Thomas M. and Hollowell, Thomas H. 2016. [Dataset] NMNH occurrence DwC-A. Compiled by Hollowell, Thomas H. https://doi.org/10.15468/dipjcr. 2016
-
Information Content Entity
- Orrell, Thomas M., Hollowell, Thomas H., Tuccinardi, Chris, Reed, Karen, Bird, Jessica, Williams, Jeffrey T., Tighe, Kenneth A., Schmidt, Brian K., and Ludwig, Craig. 2018. "NMNH Extant Specimen Records." https://doi.org/10.15468/hnhrg3. 2018
-
Webpage
- Roskov, Y., Abucay, L., and Orrell, Thomas M. 2017. Species 2000 & ITIS, Species 2000: Naturalis. 2017
- Rosko, Yuri, Kunze, Thomas, Paglinawan, Luvie, Orrell, Thomas, Nicolson, David, Culham, Alastair, Bailly, Nicolas, Kirk, Paul, Bourgoin, Thierry, Baillargeon, Guy, Hernandez, Francisco, and de Wever, Aaike. 2013. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2013 Annual Checklist. 2013
- Bisby, Frank, Roskov, Yuri, Culham, A., Orrell, Thomas M., Nicolson, David, Paglinawan, L., Bailly, Nicolas, Appeltans, W., Kik, P., Bourgoin, T., and Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds. 2012. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2012 Annual Checklist. 2012
- Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell, Thomas M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., and Ouvrard D. 2011. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist. 2011
Presentations
-
Presentation
- Snyder, Rebecca A. and Orrell, Thomas M. 2018. Biodiversity: Local Implementation [presentation]. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, Biodiversity: Global Outlook - Local Implementation: Joint Meeting of SPNHC/TDWG 2018: https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.2.28153.
Activities
Professional Service Activities
- GBIF Science Committee Chair 2017 - 2022
Affiliation
Head Of
- Co-Chair ITIS and Species 2000 Catalogue of Life Partnership 2007 -
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System Deputy Director 2005 -
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Chair, Science Committee 2017 - 2022
Member Of
- Catalogue of Life Member, Global Team 2005 -
- Division of Fishes
- NMNH - Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology
Contact
Location
- National Museum of Natural History Academic Department
