TIMOTHY BROWN
1116 3 r d Avenue
tim@time-science.com
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
801.554.9296
Education
Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary biology. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Fall, 2006.
Bachelor of Science in Biology. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 1994.
Research & coursework in Marine Ecology. Boston U. Marine Program, Woods Hole, MA. Fall, 1992.
Coursework in Marine Biology. University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI. Summer, 1992.
Current Work
TimeScience LLC. – Software developer and lead systems engineer
Founder, co-owner, chief hardware engineer, Salt Lake City, Utah
Fall 2006 - present
TimeScience develops innovative recording and visualization tools for science research and education.
Primary responsibilities at TimeScience
• Project management, grant writing, budgeting and public outreach.
• Design/install custom imaging systems for phenology research and museum applications.
• Develop research and sampling protocols; analyze data; publish reports and papers.
Current projects
Spring, 2009 – present
• Gigavision – a gigapixel resolution camera for tracking every plant in a landscape.
o Project lead; lead hardware/software developer and installer; data collection and analysis.
o The Gigavision camera is a multi-billion-pixel resolution timelapse camera system for
documenting ecosystem-wide environmental change and tracking organismal life-cycles.
o Camera system is solar-powered, wireless and weatherproof, for installation in remote areas.
o The resolution of Gigavision camera system enables researchers to record phenostage data from
hundreds of plants of multiple species across an entire landscape.
2007 – present
• Phenology of tamarisk-beetle interactions in the Colorado Plateau.
o Lead hardware designer; system installer; image analysis coding; data analysis.
o Designed/deployed visible and infrared, solar powered, wireless camera systems for this project.
o Wrote custom Matlab code to analyze infrared image data to track beetle impacts on tamarisk.
o Data is used to ground truth land-based infrared measurements of plant growth (NDVI, etc)
with matching remote sensing products from MODIS and ASTER satellites.
Recent projects
• TimeGraph – an innovative online tool for visualizing time-series datasets with timelapse images.
o TimeGraph provides researchers and educators with interactive access to long timescale image,
weather, and sensor data streams.
• TimeCam – A web-based timelapse and archive browsing tool for online cameras.
o Enables easy archiving and playback of multi-year timelapse from any online camera
o Allows researchers to record and track environmental change from hundreds of cameras over
extended periods of time.
• TimeSystem – The TimeSystem software suite provides researchers with a low cost, easy to use
tool for recording and analyzing image data.
o Enables recording and visualization of long-term change in wild and urban landscapes.
• Virtual Great Salt Lake Exhibit, Living Planet Aquarium, SLC, UT – Edited new and existing
content into a 20-minute video for an interactive educational exhibit about the Great Sale Lake.
Created month-long video timelapse of Great Salt Lake and provided technology consultation.
Project Websites
• Gigavision: http://gigavision.org
• TimeCam: http://www.timecam.tv
• TimeScience: http://www.time-science.com
• TimeGraph: http://entrada-data.biology.utah.edu/
CV for Tim Brown
Page 2
Past Research and Employment
Doctoral research – Self-organization and emergent behaviors in the army ant E. burchellii
Graduate Advisor: Dr. Fred Adler. U. of Utah, Dept. of biology, Salt Lake City, UT Sept. 1999 – Fall 2006
Thesis research combined field work and numerical modeling to examine the behavioral rules that
organize army ant swarms.
• Developed & implemented research program to study army ant behavior in Costa Rican rainforest.
• Designed and coded software to track ants from digital video of army ant swarms.
• Created Matlab code to analyze behavior of 30,000 ants tracked on video.
• Developed a computer model of army ant swarm which reproduced typical swarm behaviors.
Image Library developer – Database design and implementation
Supervisor: Les Welsh, Executive Director. LightHawk, Seattle, WA.
Nov. 1998 - Aug. 1999
• Designed and built image management, tracking and ordering system in FileMaker to facilitate
distribution of an 8,000 image slide library for the environmental organization LightHawk.
• Responsible for website design and updates.
Lab manager – Biology & conservation of the Common Murre; field research, lab manager
Supervisor: Dr. Julia Parrish. Dept. of Zoology. U. of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Jan. 1998 - Nov. 1998
• Collected and analyzed field data on Murre behavior, predator-prey interactions and life-history.
• Lab management work included computer support, training, publishing and conference planning.
Database developer and researcher – Effects of gillnet & longline fisheries on seabirds
Supervisor: Ed Melvin. Washington Sea Grant Program, U. of WA, Seattle, WA.
June 1996 - Sept. 1997
• Designed, implemented and populated FileMaker database to organize and summarize all known
reports of incidental catch of seabirds in the world's inshore gillnet and longline fisheries.
• Developed largest existing database on seabird-gillnet interactions.
Researcher – Deseret Tortoise Survey Project
Supervisor: Jerry Freilich. Joshua Tree National Park, 29 Palms, CA.
• Walked survey transects to map desert tortoise abundance and mark tortoises.
• Trained and managed groups of up to 15 citizen volunteers.
Spring, 1995
Teaching Experience
Fall/Spring, 2006-7
Fall, 2005
Fall, 2001, 2004
Spring, 2003, 2004
Fall, 2002
July, 2001
Spring, 2001
Spring, 2000
Science tutor and course instructor
Lab instructor, Biology and the Diversity of Life
Teaching assistant, Intro. to Environmental Science
Teaching assistant, Biology and the Diversity of Life
Teaching assistant, Introduction to Biology
Course instructor, Tropical Field Biology
Teaching assistant, Intro. to ecology and evolution.
Teaching assistant, Cellular and molecular biology.
Higher Ground learning, Utah
University of Utah.
University of Utah.
University of Utah.
University of Utah.
Org. for Tropical Studies (OTS)
University of Utah.
University of Utah.
Additional relevant skills
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Excellent research, science writing and communication skills.
Extensive formal and informal science education experience.
Good organizational and interpersonal skills.
Advanced programming skills in MATLAB and Visual Basic.NET; working knowledge of R.
Working knowledge of GIS, GPS, Google Earth, Google Maps
22 yrs experience with PCs and Macintosh; 16 yrs experience with WWW and related software.
Extensive informal user training, support and troubleshooting experience.
Extensive web design experience; fluent with HTML and Dreamweaver.
Working knowledge of WordPress software and blog development.
Extensive experience creating and editing video content for web distribution.
CV for Tim Brown
Page 3
Presentation and Publications
Brown, T., Panneton, W, Noah, N. Borevitz, J. (In press). Gigapixel imaging tools for landscape-scale
high throughput phenotyping in the field. Invited Book Chapter: Methods in Molecular Biology.
Nagler, P. L., Brown, T. et al. (2012). Regional scale impacts of Tamarix leaf beetles (Diorhabda
carinulata) on the water availability of western U.S. rivers as determined by multi-scale remote
sensing methods. Remote Sensing of Environment, 118(0), 227-240.
Brown, T, Borevitz, J, Zimmermann, C. 2010. Gigavision – A weatherproof, multibillion pixel resolution
time-lapse camera system for recording and tracking phenology in every plant in a landscape.
American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting. 2010, AGU: San Francisco.
Nagler, P.L., Brown, T. et al. 2010. Monitoring impacts of Tamarix leaf beetles (Diorhabda elongata) on
the leaf phenology and water use of Tamarix spp. using ground and remote sensing methods.
American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting. 2010, AGU: San Francisco.
Nagler, P.L., Brown, T. et al. 2009. Using webcam technology for measuring and scaling phenology of
tamarisk (tamarix ramosissima) infested with the biocontrol beetle (diorhabda carinulata) on the
Dolores river, Utah, in American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting. 2009, AGU: San Francisco.
Brown, T. B. and Adler, F. (Submitted, in revision). A quantification of swarming rules in Eciton
burchellii army ants. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Brown, T. B. and Adler, F. (In Prep). Modeling the emergence of complex behaviors from simple rules. A
self-organized model of army ant swarming.
Brown, T. B. 2003. Modeling behavioral rules and self-organization in New World army ant swarms. The
2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Atlanta, GA,
Georgia Institute of Technology.
Brown, T. B. 2002. Interaction rules, information and foraging - a two-dimensional lattice model of selforganized swarming behavior in the army ant Eciton burchelli. Self-Organization and Evolution of
Social Behaviour, Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland, Centro Stefano Franscini.
Wilkinson, E. B., R. Yukilevich, et al. 2001. Foraging behavior in the Neotropical army ant Eciton
burchelli. O.T.S. 01-3 Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach. D. McClearn, Ed., Organization For
Tropical Studies: 122-129.
Brown, T. B. 2000. Behavioral biology and observations of a statary Eciton burchelli army ant colony at
La Selva Biological Station. O.T.S. 00-3 Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach. D. McClearn, L.
Brown and D. Johnson, Eds., Organization for Tropical Studies. 128 - 137.
References
Dr Justin Borevitz
Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolution
University of Chicago, 1101 E 57th, Chicago IL 60637
borevitz@uchicago.edu
773. 702.5948
Dr Pamela Nagler
United States Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center,
Sonoran Desert Research Station, Tucson, AZ 85721,
pnagler@usgs.gov
520.626.1472
Dr Kevin Hultine
Assistant Professor, Ecology
School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability
Northern Arizona University, Physical Sciences Bldg. 19, Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Kevin.Hultine@nau.edu
801.824.7790