Xiaogang (Marshall) Ma is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Idaho. He received his Ph.D. degree of Earth Systems Science and GIScience from University of Twente, Netherlands in 2011, and then completed postdoctoral training of Data Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research focuses on deploying data science in the Semantic Web to support cross-disciplinary collaboration and scientific discovery, with broad interests in complex systems in Earth and environmental sciences, data interoperability and provenance, and visualized exploratory analysis of Big and Small Data. He is active in international societies of data science and geoinformatics, including ACM SIGWEB, CODATA, ESIP, RDA, GSA, AGU and IAMG. Ma received GSA's M. Lee Allison Award of Geoinformatics in 2024, the Science of Team Science (SciTS) Meritorious Contribution Award in 2018, the IAMG A.B. Vistelius Research Award in 2015, and the inaugural ICSU-WDS Data Stewardship Award in 2014.

Education

• Postdoctorate of Sloan DCO Data Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 06/2012-06/2014
• Ph.D. in Earth Systems Science and GIScience, ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands, 11/2011
• Dr.Eng. (with distinction) in Geoinformatics Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 12/2009
• B.Eng. (with distinction) in Land Resources Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 06/2002

Curriculum Vitae

• CV [updated on 01/10/2025]

Career

• Associate Professor & Dean's Distinguished Fellow, Department of Computer Science, University of Idaho, 08/2022-Present
• Affiliate Faculty, Department of Earth and Spatial Sciences, University of Idaho, 08/2018-Present
• On-site Visiting Scientist, Earth and Planets Laboraotry, Carnegie Institution for Science, 08/2022-01/2023
• Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Idaho, 08/2016-08/2022
• Associate Research Scientist, Tetherless World Constellation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 06/2014-08/2016

Recent Honors and Awards

• 2024, Annual Best Paper Award of the Geoscience Informaiton Society (GSIS)
• 2024, Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists List
• 2024, M. Lee Allison Award for Outstanding Contributions to Geoinformatics and Data Science, Geological Society of America (GSA)
• 2024, Best Guest Editors of 2023, Geoscience Frontiers, Elsevier
• 2024, Univeristy of Idaho Presidential Mid-Career Award
• 2024, Univeristy of Idaho ORED Top F&A Generator Award
• 2023, University of Idaho Excellence in Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Efforts Award
• 2023, University of Idaho Postdoctoral Mentoring Award
• 2022, University of Idaho College of Engineering Dean’s Distinguished Fellow
• 2022, Funding Friday Award (as advisor), Federation of Earth Science Information Partners
• 2021, University of Idaho College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award
• 2021, Most Cited Articles (2017-2021), Computers & Geosciences, Elsevier
• 2019, Funding Friday Award (as advisor), Federation of Earth Science Information Partners
• 2019, Best Poster Award (as advisor), 2019 University of Idaho Computer Science Industrial Advisory Board Meeting
• 2018, SciTS Meritorious Contribution Award, Science of Team Science (SciTS) 2018 Conference, Galveston, TX
• 2016, Panelist, International Data Week, Denver, CO
• 2015, NSF-EarthCube Distinguished Lecturer
• 2015, Andrei Borisovich Vistelius Research Award, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences
• 2014, Inaugural WDS Data Stewardship Award, International Council for Science-World Data System
• 2013, Funding Friday Award (as co-PI), Federation of Earth Science Information Partners
• 2012, Funding Friday Award (as PI), Federation of Earth Science Information Partners

1. 2023-2026: co-PI, Collaborative Research: CyberTraining: Implementation: Medium: CyberTraining of Construction (CyCon) Research Workforce Through an Educational and Community Engagement Platform, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
2. 2021-2024: PI, EarthCube Capabilities: OpenMindat - Open Access and Interoperable Mineralogy Data to Broaden Community Access and Advance Geoscience Research, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) Mindat Website
3. 2021-2024: PI, Supplement to NSF Award #2019609 to extend research collaboration and partnership with Minority Serving Institutions, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
4. 2021-2024: PI, Supplement to NSF Award #2019609 to extend research capacity building activities with Minority Serving Institutions, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
5. 2020-2023: Co-PI, GeoWeaver: Building an Open-Source Platform for Enabling Ad Hoc Management, Open Sharing, and Robust Reuse of NASA Earth Data-driven Hybrid AI Workflows, funded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
6. 2020-2024: Lead PI, RII Track-2 FEC: Leveraging Big Data to Improve Prediction of Tick-Borne Disease Patterns and Dynamics, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Website
7. 2020-2021: PI, REU Supplement to NSF OAC CSSI #1835717, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
8. 2019-2020: Co-PI, A paleoclimate database, funded by Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) (my postdoc is PI)
9. 2019-2019, Co-PI, FAIRTool.org toward better Earth science data stewardship, funded by Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) (my PhD student is PI)
10. 2018-2019: PI, Grant to Support Attendees of the 2019 U.S. Semantic Technologies Symposium (US2TS), funded by the Artificial Intelligence Journal, Elsevier
11. 2018-2023: PI, Elements: Software: HDR: A knowledge base of deep time to facilitate automated workflows in studying the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Website
12. 2018-2019: PI, US2TS: U.S. Semantic Technologies Symposium, funded by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
13. 2017-2018: PI, Student Support for the 2018 U.S. Semantic Technologies Symposium (US2TS), funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
14. 2017-2018: PI, Collecting data standards among scientific disciplines and building a catalogue, sub-award from Research Data Alliance (NSF ACI-1349002)
15. 2017-2018: PI, Leveraging data science to explore co-relationships between elements and minerals, funded by UI ORED Seed Grant
16. 2016-2018: Affiliated Scientist, MILES: Managing Idaho's Landscapes for Ecosystem Services, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) through Idaho EPSCoR
17. 2015-2018: Affiliated Scientist, DTDI: Deep Time Data Infrastructure, funded by W. M. Keck Foundation
18. 2015: Co-PI and Project Leader, Research Data Alliance Adoption Initiatives, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
19. 2012-2016: Sub-Project Leader, DCO-DS: Deep Carbon Observatory – Data Science, funded by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
20. 2013-2014: Sub-Project Leader, INTEROP ECO-OP: Employing Cyber Infrastructure Data Technologies to Facilitate IEA for Climate Impacts in NE & CA LME's (#3 & #7), funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
21. 2013-2014: Project Leader, GeoData II 2014: EarthCube Assessment of the 2013 State of Geoinformatics: A Community and Interagency Exploration of the Life Cycle, Citation, and Integration of Geoscience Data, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
22. 2013-2014: Co-PI, Semantic Similarity Computation and Concept Mapping in the Earth and Environmental Sciences, funded by Foundation for Earth Science
23. 2013-2016: Member, Deep Carbon Observatory Extreme Physics and Chemistry (DCO-EPC) Computer Cluster, funded by Carnegie Institution of Washington
24. 2013-2014: Consultant, RDESC: Resource Discovery for Extreme Scale Collaboration, funded by Department of Energy (DoE)
25. 2012-2014: Project Leader, GCIS-IMSAP: Global Change Information System - Information Modeling and Semantic Application Prototype, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
26. 2012-2013: PI, Exploratory Visualization of Earth Science Data in a Semantic Web Context, funded by Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)

Email

max@uidaho.edu

Office phone

+1 208-885-1547

Mailing address

Xiaogang (Marshall) Ma
Department of Computer Science
University of Idaho
875 Perimeter Drive MS 1010
Moscow, ID 83844-1010, USA

Office address

Janssen Engineering Building #230
University of Idaho

IDEA Lab

The Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Data Exploration and Analytics (IDEA Lab)