Scientific Images & Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The workshop will be held July 14-15, 2025 in Building 10 at the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD.

Instructors

• Neggin Keshavarazian (Princeton University)
• Amy Schuler (Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies)
• Mariah Kenney (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Kelly Grove (Florida State University)
• Timothy Norris (University of Miami)

Resources

Note

Participants are encouraged to review DCN’s CURATE(D) workflow before the first session.

• Pre-workshop preparation
  • GIS
    • Download and install QGIS.
      
    • Download the 1_Environment_Setup_Datasets.zip adapted from Kramer et al 2019.
      
    • Please see the 01_Environmental_Setup slide deck for more details (through slide 5).
      
    • If you feel adventerous, try to open any part of the setup dataset in QGIS.
      
  • Scientific Images
    • Download and install ImageJ to be used to manipulate scientific images. Specifically we will use Fiji which is a distribution of ImageJ that includes additional useful plugins.
      • Windows users are recommended to install in the users directory where it will have permissions to update itself.
        
      • Mac users - the software may run through Rosetta if you have a newer M-series processor, this can have some performance cost. Alternatively you can download a java version which can run natively.
        
• Shared Notes for the entire workshop
  
• Slides
  • General Workshop Information
    
  • GIS
    • 01_Environmental Setup
      
    • 02_GIS_Introduction
      
    • 03_Ethics_and_GIS_Data
      
    • 04_Transofrmations
      
    • 05_GIS_Metadata
      
  • Scientific Images
    
• GIS Cheatsheet
  
• Excercise Data Sets
  Please download and unzip in an easy to find folder on your computer
  • GIS
    • 01_Environment_Setup_Datasets.zip
      
    • 04_Bad_projection.zip
      
    • 04_GIS_Transformations_Datasets.zip
      
    • 04_study_area_cover_type.shp.xml
      
    • 05_GIS_Dataset_No_ReadMe.zip
      
  • Scientific Images
    • Dataset for ‘Multi‑Step Crystallization of Self‑Organized Spiral Eutectics’

Schedule

Warning

The workshop schedule is still being developed and may change!

Day 1: July 14th

Time	Topic
9:00 AM	Welcome and DCN background and Icebreaker
9:30 AM	Introduction to GIS and geospatial Data Types
10:30 AM	Break
10:45 PM	GIS Data Types (cont) and Ethical Considerations
12:00 PM	Lunch
1:00 PM	GIS Transformations
1:45 PM	Break
2:00 PM	GIS Metadata
2:45 PM	Break
3:00 PM	GIS Metadata (cont) and Wrap Up
4:00 PM	End of Day 1
6:00 - 7:30 PM	Dine Arounds!

Day 2: July 15th

Time	Topic
9:00 AM	Welcome Back & Icebreaker
9:15 AM	Introduction to Sci Images and Software
10:30 AM	Break
10:45 AM	Image Metadata and Transformation
12:00 PM	Lunch
1:00 PM	Introduce capstone and datasets; brainstorm with teams
2:15 PM	Break
2:30 PM	Capstone share out and Wrap Up
3:00 PM	End