Peter Mangiafico

Peter Mangiafico is a software engineer and product manager in Digital Library Systems and Services in Stanford University Libraries. Peter works on a number of projects, including the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) and RIALTO (a research intelligence system). Before Stanford, he worked on projects with Visionlearning, the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA, Harvard University, and the Advent of Complex Life NASA Astrobiology team. He worked for several years on the Encyclopedia of Life project, and has previously worked as a software engineer, project manager, high school teacher, and NASA researcher.

Peter's professional interests lie in how the science community can become better connected with the public through improved public outreach and education. Since most funding is from public sources, the science community has a large vested interest in engaging in this type of activity. And since the future of our planet depends on appropriate uses of science and technology, the public needs to be informed and become a greater part of the process. Technology such as social media provides opportunities to improve these interactions and reduce the importance of the traditional industries in the middle.