OLT Researchers
Barry Smith is Director of the OLT and one of the Co-directors of the Ontology Research Group (ORG).
He is also Julian Park Distinguished Professor of Philosophy in
the Department of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo,
Research Director of the Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS),
PI for Dissemination and Ontology Best Practices at
the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO),
and editor of The Monist: An International Quarterly Journal of General Philosophical Inquiry.
Smith’s current research focus is ontology and its applications in biomedicine and biomedical informatics.
Maureen Donnelly is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at
the University at Buffalo who specializes in logic
with applications to ontology-based reasoning in bioinformatics and other fields.
Her research interests include formal ontology, qualitative spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal reasoning, approximate reasoning,
representation and reasoning about vagueness and indeterminacy, medical information science, theoretical foundations of geographic information systems,
spatial information science, and formal geography.
Robert Arp works with the OLT as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow through the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO).
He specializes in philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind with concentrations in
metaphysics, logic, and bioethics. Currently, he is doing research
in foundational ontology and ontology content development related to
the biomedical domain.
External, Collaborating Researchers
David Mark is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University at Buffalo.
He has been a Research Scientist with the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA)
since its inception, and is now NCGIA Director for the University at Buffalo site.
Neil E. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at
the University at Buffalo. His primary research
interests concern causation, powers, and the laws of nature at the intersection of metaphysics and philosophy of science.
His wider metaphysical interests extend to ontological questions concerning properties, possibility, time, persistence, constitution, and composition.
Presently, he is also working on problems in the philosophy of biology concerning the ontology of disease and dysfunction.
Fabian Neuhaus is a logician and formal ontologist working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The ORG's Usage of 'Ontology'
In line with the definition put forward by Barry Smith, Waclaw Kusnierczyk, Daniel Schober, and Werner Ceusters in the article titled,"Towards a Reference Terminology for Ontology Research and Development in the Biomedical Domain",
the ORG uses the term in the following way:
An ontology is a structured representation of the types of entities and relations existing in a given domain that is designed to support exchange and reuse of data and information. Ontologies are used in biomedical informatics to support automatic retrieval and exchange of data across disciplinary boundaries.
The term 'ONTOLOGY' actually has a number of meanings.
Other Ontology Resources
