Welcoming our new Group Leaders 

For the next year, our three new group leaders, Bri Johns, Amanda Matthes, and Pen-Yuan Hsing will help curate a vibrant space for community and collaboration in the OSS for conservation and ecology. If you see them around WILDLABS, please give them a warm welcome and get in touch with them.

Bri Johns  

@briannajohns (“Bri”, she/they), has years of experience working in open source and community science spaces, serving as the community coordinator for the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH). In this role, Bri supported a global network of artists, researchers, activists, hackers, and hardware developers with a clear mission: to make open science hardware ubiquitous. With a background in both Zoology and International Studies, Bri is interested in examining the intersections of science, technology and society within the context of conservation. In October, 2024, Bri will begin a Fulbright research grant in Panama to conduct mixed-methods research on how scientists and local communities use an open source and low cost insect monitor, the MothBox, for biodiversity monitoring.

Amanda Matthes 

@Amanda_Matthes  is a final-year PhD student at the University of Oxford with the CDT in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems. She has an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Heidelberg, where she wrote her thesis on superscalar out-of-order processors.

She is interested in any work that could have a large positive impact on humans or other animals. Currently, she is particularly interested in developing better technologies (hardware and software) for wildlife research. She would be especially excited to support work that aims to better understand (or maybe even improve) the welfare of wild animals.

Her most recent project involved co-developing SnapperGPS, an open-source, low-cost, low-power GNSS location data logging system, specifically developed for tracking wild animals. She has organised and supported SnapperGPS deployments on seabirds and sea turtles. 

Read more about her on her website or connect with her on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Pen-Yuan Hsing

Pen-Yuan Hsing (“Pen”, he/they) has a background in ecology and conservation research, such as by joining the initial group of scientists assessing impacts from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Later, Pen co-founded MammalWeb, a citizen science project working with local communities in north-east England to monitor wildlife with motion-sensing camera traps, which grew into a network across several European countries. 

Pen is an advocate for open science and the need to adopt open source technologies. To that end, Pen has contributed to the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and the NASA TOPS mission, co-edited a Guide to Reproducible Code, co-created community governance for the Gathering for Open Science Hardware, and serves on the board of the Open Science Hardware Foundation. 

Pen is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, conducting “research on research” (aka “meta research”), tackling systemic issues in academic institutions to enable open research. Check out their WILDLABS profile here.

About the Group Leadership Programme

The WILDLABS Group Leadership Programme is a volunteer-based, year-long cohort programme that invites WILDLABS community members to curate vibrant spaces where people in conservation tech can get help, connect with peers, find support, and meaningfully engage within a niche group. This year's cohort is running from July 2024 to July 2025. To learn more about the Group Leadership Programme, review the handbook here.

We would love to hear from you

If you want to learn more about the OSS community and how you can get involved, reach out to Bri, Amanda, Pen, or Alex. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas about growing the OSS community in the discussion thread below!