We designed the rOpenSci Champions Program with a mentorship aspect. Mentoring plays a significant role in the growth and development of both mentors and mentees alike. In our program, each Champion has a mentor who accompanies them during their training and development of their project.

In this series of blog posts, we introduce you to the ten teams of this first cohort and what they will be working on in the program.

First, meet Paola Corrales from Argentina and Adam Sparks from Australia!

Pao Corrales – Champion

I’m a PhD student at the University of Buenos Aires. I study Atmospheric Sciences applying data assimilation techniques to improve short-term forecasts of severe events in Argentina. I love R and teaching science and programming using evidence-based practices centered on the students and their context.

As a Champion, I would like to submit the {agromet} R package to the peer review process and gain more experience as a developer. I hope that this package, designed for agrometeorological applications and thoroughly documented in Spanish, can be improved and used by many people.

I’m also looking forward to sharing experiences between Champions and learning from everyone during this process.

Adam Sparks – Mentor

I lead a research group for the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) of Western Australia in Perth, WA, Australia that conducts research in the areas of agricultural systems modelling and climate change, maintains a weather station network and provides biometry (statistical) support for the department.

I’m a co-founder of Open Plant Pathology, and currently serve as an editor for rOpenSci. I have authored or co-authored more than seven R packages for CRAN and maintain one registered Julia package.

I was born in Indiana, USA and earned an undergraduate degree in agronomy from Purdue University, a graduate certificate in geographic information science (GIS) and my PhD in plant pathology on the epidemiology and ecology of plant pathogens from Kansas State University in the USA. Initially, when I moved to Australia I lived in Queensland for five years and more recently moved to Western Australia where I became a naturalized citizen, and I am now usually found in Perth, WA, Australia these days.

I’m excited for the Champions program because it’s a great way for me to contribute back to the broader R community and more specifically rOpenSci, which has been so supportive in my development as an R user and developer.

We’re excited to have both Pao and Adam be part of the Champions program and can’t wait to see what this partnership yields. Stay-tuned for the next series of introductions 😉 .