Farshid Ahrestani
Post-doctoral Research Associate, NJIT and Columbia University
Contact Info
Office: 440 Colton Hall, NJIT
Office Phone: (973)
Lab: 4xx Colton Hall, NJIT
Lab Phone: (973)
E-mail: fa2260@columbia.edu
Personal/Lab Web Sites
http://web.njit.edu/~dbunker
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/traitnet
Educational Background
| Year | Degree | Institution | Field of Study |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | BE | BITS, Pilani, India | Electrical Engineering |
| 1999 | MS | Syracuse University | Computer Science |
| 1999 | MS | SUNY ESF | Ecology |
| 2009 | PhD | Wageningen University, Netherlands | Ecology |
Research Interests
The emerging field of Ecoinformatics is the science of information in ecology that focuses on improving knowledge representation, and facilitating research, in the ecological domain with help of information technology. Areas of ecoinformatics research include: ontologies that clarify ecological semantics; interfacing between ontologies and databases; standardization of data collection and sharing; workflow systems that enables analyses on open-source distributed systems; and the discovery, access, interpretation, integration, and analysis of complex ecological data from highly distributed datasets.
I am currently working with TraitNet http://www.columbia.edu/cu/traitnet/, a research coordination network that aims at improving ecological knowledge representation. A major goal of TraitNet is to develop an ecological ontology portal while focusing on a functional plant traits ontology. TraitNet is also involved in research of cross-disciplinary computational tools for merging, disseminating and sharing ecological data; coordinating the standardization of collection and sharing of trait data; and identifying trait data gaps.
My other research interests include foraging and population ecology of Asian large herbivores: how species of varying body size partition forage resources; the relative importance of dietary plant quantity and quality; the impact of the dominating spread of invasive plants on habitat suitability; determining vital life history traits; and population modeling. My scientific interests are closely aligned with my passion for nature conservation. I am also a member of IUCN's Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group.