Peter N. Schweitzer
Geologist
Eastern Region, U.S. Geological Survey
Eastern Mineral Resource Team

  Mail Stop 954, National Center
  U.S. Geological Survey
  Reston, VA 20192

  Tel: (703) 648-6533
  FAX: (703) 648-6252
  email: pschweitzer@usgs.gov
  PGP public key

Education

• B.S. Geology, 1979, University of Maryland, College Park MD
• M.S. Geology, 1986, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS
• Ph.D. Oceanography, 1989, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/ Masachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program in Oceanography, Woods Hole MA

About my job

• Current position description
• Previous position description
• Goals for data management in the Geologic Division
  • How NOT to provide data to the public
• Customer support rules worth following
• Presentations
• Web servers I administer:
  • Geo-NSDI.er.usgs.gov
  • Tin.er.usgs.gov

Professional interests

• Controlled vocabularies for indexing, browsing, and search information resources
• Formal metadata, documentation of digital geospatial data that enables people to locate and evaluate data products.
• Scientific data communication, especially dealing with several common platforms and customers with varied interests.
• Popularizing data produced by U.S. government scientists, by developing software that enables people to use the data.
• Paleobiology, specifically thinking about ontogeny and ecology when considering evolutionary and paleoenvironmental problems.

Recent products

• National Spatial Data Clearinghouse: The real story
• A cataloging system for scientific information
• Putting Metadata in Plain Language
  GIS World September 1998; volume 11, number 9, pages 56-59
• Modern Average Global Sea-Surface Temperature
  U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-10
• Monthly Average Polar Sea-Ice Concentration
  U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-27
• ANALOG: A program for estimating paleoclimate parameters using the method of modern analogs
  USGS Open-File Report 94-645
• Xed, programmer's text editor (provisional)
  Designed for use on Unix systems with X11 and now Microsoft Windows (95+).
• mp: A compiler for formal metadata (provisional)
  Parses formal metadata, checking syntax in detail, and generates text, two forms of HTML, SGML, XML, and DIF. Includes source code and executables for Unix and Microsoft Windows (95 and up).
• Xtme: An editor for formal metadata (provisional)
  For UNIX systems running the X Window System. This program creates formal metadata in the format expected by the compiler above. Includes source code for Unix, executables for Linux and Solaris.
• Tkme: Another editor for formal metadata (provisional)
  Expanding the capabilities of Xtme and using Tcl/Tk for its GUI, this metadata editor allows users to create fully general FGDC metadata on both Microsoft Windows systems (95, 98, NT, 2000) and Unix or Linux computers running the X Window System.
• mq: A Tcl interface to query formal metadata (provisional)
  The powerful Tcl scripting language can be used to automate many complex tasks in managing metadata files, parsing records and extracting and manipulating fields within the hierarchical structure of the metadata. Requires Tcl 8.0 or later.
• DBFmeta: A tool to help document DBF files (provisional)
  This is a software tool designed to facilitate the documentation of data contained in DBF files. These data files are increasingly common because they are used to store attributes of geographic features in shapefiles used and produced by ESRI products.

Older products

Life-history and the evolution of ontogeny in the ostracode genus Cyprideis

with G.P. Lohmann. Paleobiology volume 16, pp 107-125, 1990.

Ontogeny and habitat of modern menardiiform planktonic foraminifera

with G.P. Lohmann. Journal of Foraminiferal Research volume 21, pp. 332-346, 1991.

GREX: Graphics extension library for NDP-Fortran, NDP-C, and NDP-Pascal

A 32-bit graphics library for extended DOS written in C and i386 assembly language. The software and 375-page manual are part of the compiler products from Microway, Inc. of Kingston, Massachusetts.

XYP8, a bivariate statistical plotting program for MS-DOS-based PCs

with full source code in Fortran and 8086 Assembly language. A command-driven program with output to PC screens, HPGL, and PostScript files.

Some photos:

• Mudflat in Sippewissett Marsh, Massachusetts (Cape Cod): primary sampling site for my Ph.D. research.
• Two varieties of the ostracode species Cyprideis salebrosa: Females on left, males on right, Top pair from Sippewissett Marsh, Bottom pair from Scots Bay, Nova Scotia.
• Seasonal changes in abundance of four sympatric species of Cyprideis in Sippewissett Marsh, Massachusetts (PDF).
• Pond in Sippewissett Marsh showing seasonal changes in vegetation.
• Larger views of Sippewissett Marsh.

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