OLT Researchers
Barry Smith is the Director of the OLT and one of the Co-Directors of the Ontology Research Group (ORG).
He is also the 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),
Principal Invesitgator 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 an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo. She 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.
Albert Goldfain is an Postdoctral Researcher in the Ontology Research Group.
External, Collaborating Researchers
Werner Ceusters is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University at Buffalo. He is also the
Director of the Ontology Research Group at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, and coordinator of Bioinformatics for the Health Science Faculties at UB.
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 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 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).
Robert Arp works as an adjunct professor of philosophy, as well as an ontologist and data modeler for various governement contracts, in the Washington, D.C. area. He was previously a Research Associate with the National Center for Biomedical Ontology and worked with the Ontology Research Group at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences doing research in foundational ontology and ontology development related to various biomedical domains. He has published in ontology, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mind and philosophy in general.
Kerry Trentelman works with the OLT as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow through the National Center for Biomedical Ontology.
Randall Dipert is the C.S. Peirce Professor of American Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo. He conducts research in metaphysics, ontology, logic and the philosophy of mathematics.
Shahid Manzoor
is a Senior Programmer and Analyst in the Referent Tracking Unit at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.
Ron Rudnicki
is a Senior Research Scientist at CUBRC, Inc.
Patrice Seyed
is an PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo.
Jason J. Corso
is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo.
Sandra G. Smith
is an Adminstrator of the Ontology Research Group.
Bill Mandrick is a military ontologist with subject matter expertise in conflict processes, counterinsurgency operations, and Command and Control (C2). He is also a U.S. Army officer with an infantry and special operations background.
Mitsu Okada
is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Keio University.
Lowell Vizenor is a Senior Ontologist at the Computer Task Group, Inc.
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
