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Sabina Leonelli
Leonelli in 2020
Scientific career
Fields	Philosophy of Science
Institutions	University of Exeter Alan Turing Institute Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research
Website	socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/staff/leonelli/

Sabina Leonelli is a philosopher of science and professor at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. She is well known for her work on scientific practices, data-centric science, and open science policies. She was awarded the 2018 Lakatos Award for her book Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study (2016).

Biography

Originally from Italy, Leonelli moved to the UK for a BSc degree in history, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science at University College London and a MSc degree in History and Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics. Her doctoral research was carried out in the Netherlands at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam with Henk W. de Regt and Hans Radder. Before joining the Exeter faculty, she was a research officer under Mary S. Morgan at the Department of Economic History of the London School of Economics.

Leonelli is the co-director of the Exeter Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences (Egenis) and a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the international journal History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences and Associate Editor for the Harvard Data Science Review. She serves as External Faculty for the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research.

Involvement in science policy

Leonelli is currently an ambassador of Plan S, an open-access science publishing initiative supported by cOAlition S. From 2015 to 2017, Leonelli led the Open Science working group of the Global Young Academy, and from 2016 to 2019 represented the GYA on the Open Science Policy Platform of the European Commission. In 2016, she co-chaired the production of the Open Data Position Statement by the GYA and European Young Academies and in 2018, co-authored the GYA Statement on Plan S.

Recognition

Leonelli was awarded with the 2018 Lakatos award for Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study (2016), a book on the use of data and databases in contemporary biological research practices.

She was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2021.

Media appearances

Podcasts

• Technoculture Podcast – Episode #9: Sabina Leonelli on the Open Science Movement
• Oxford Internet Institute Podcast on "Researching Life in the Digital Age: A Philosophical Analysis of Data-Intensive Biology"
• The Dissenter Podcast on Science in the World of Big Data
• SCI PHI Podcast

Grants and projects

• From 2019 to 2021: Turing Project "From Field Data to Global Indicators: Towards a Framework for Intelligent Plant Data Linkage"
• From 2016 to 2020: Australian Research Council Discovery Grant "Organisms and Us: How Living Things Help Us to Understand Our World," led by Rachel Ankeny
• From 2018 to 2021: Economic and Social Research Council Research Grant "Understanding the Use of Digital Forensics in Policing in England and Wales," led by Dana Wilson-Kovacs
• From 2019 to 2023: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Training Centre on Environmental Intelligence, led by Gavin Shaddik
• From 2014 to 2019: European Research Council Starting Grant on The Epistemology of Data-Intensive Science (DATA_SCIENCE).

Selected publications

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article 'Scientific Research and Big Data'
• Model Organisms (2020) with Rachel Ankeny. ISBN 978-1-108-74232-0
• Data Journeys in the Sciences (2020), Editors: Leonelli, Sabina, Tempini, Niccolò (Eds.). ISBN 978-3-030-37177-7
• Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study (2016). ISBN 978-0-226-41633-5

References

1. "Sabina Leonelli". Harvard Data Science Review. 10 April 2020.
2. "Sabina Leonelli and Craig Callender win the 2018 Lakatos Award". Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
3. "People | Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences | University of Exeter". socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk.
4. "Sabina Leonelli". The Alan Turing Institute.
5. "History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences". Springer.
6. "Associate Editors · Harvard Data Science Review". Harvard Data Science Review.
7. "People | External Faculty | Discover The KLI". www.kli.ac.at.
8. "Ambassadors | Plan S". www.coalition-s.org.
9. "Register of Commission expert groups and other similar entities". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
10. "Position Statement on Open Data by the Young Academies of Europe and the Global Young Academy". Global Young Academy. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
11. "Sabina Leonelli". Global Young Academy.
12. Book reviews:
    • Hilgartner, Stephen (2 December 2018). "Sabina Leonelli. Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study". Isis. 109 (4): 884–885. doi:10.1086/701350. S2CID 150536118 – via journals.uchicago.edu (Atypon).
    • Calvert, Jane (3 July 2018). "Data-centric biology: a philosophical study". New Genetics and Society. 37 (3): 275–277. doi:10.1080/14636778.2017.1389263. hdl:20.500.11820/e25f1c43-9b70-40d2-ae17-46ed7b0a74b6. S2CID 148793144 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
    • Shin, Youjung (1 December 2018). "Sabina Leonelli, Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2016), 288 pp., $35.00, Paperback, ISBN: 9780226416472". Journal of the History of Biology. 51 (4): 887–889. doi:10.1007/s10739-018-9544-9. S2CID 52186351 – via Springer Link.
    • "Sabina Leonelli, "Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study" (U…". New Books Network.
    • Sterner, Beckett (27 March 2018). "Review of Sabina Leonelli's Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study". Philosophy of Science. 85 (3): 540–550. doi:10.1086/697732. S2CID 90662901 – via journals.uchicago.edu (Atypon).
    • Witteveen, Joeri (24 August 2017). "Making Sense of Biology in the Data Age". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 92 (3): 292–295. doi:10.1086/693566. hdl:1874/353373. S2CID 90197858 – via journals.uchicago.edu (Atypon).
    • Mirowski, Philip (1 March 2018). "Databall". Metascience. 27 (1): 83–85. doi:10.1007/s11016-017-0246-2. S2CID 254789345 – via Springer Link.
    • "Sabina Leonelli // Data-centric Biology: A Philosophical Study". 14 February 2017.
13. "Sabina Leonelli". Members. Academia Europaea. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
14. "Technoculture Podcast – Episode #9: Sabina Leonelli – EuroScientist". EuroScientist journal. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
15. "Researching Life in the Digital Age: A Philosophical Analysis of Data-Intensive Biology | University of Oxford Podcasts – Audio and Video Lectures". podcasts.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
16. Ricardo Lopes. "#218 Sabina Leonelli: Science In The World of Big Data" (Podcast). The Dissenter. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
17. "Episode 42 – Sabina Leonelli" (Podcast).
18. "From field data to global indicators". The Alan Turing Institute. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
19. "Organisms and Us | University of Adelaide". arts.adelaide.edu.au. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
20. "project | Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology | University of Exeter". socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
21. "CORDIS | European Commission".
22. Leonelli, Sabina (2020), "Scientific Research and Big Data", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 29 November 2020
23. "Model Organisms | Philosophy of science". Cambridge University Press.
24. Leonelli, Sabina; Tempini, Niccolò, eds. (28 November 2020). Data Journeys in the Sciences. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37177-7. ISBN 978-3-030-37176-0. S2CID 226679382 – via www.springer.com.
25. Data-Centric Biology. University of Chicago Press – via press.uchicago.edu.

External links

• Sabina Leonelli publications indexed by Google Scholar
• Sabina Leonelli on Twitter

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