Main SBML developers and maintainers

This page lists individuals and groups who have (or have had) specific roles, but this short list is not meant to diminish the contributions of the broader community of people and companies developing software systems that use SBML. People’s involvements also change over time, and we try to keep this page updated to stay current with the SBML community.

SBML Editors

The SBML Editors are devoted experts who develop specifications, correct errata, assess proposals, and manage revisions to SBML. The five Editors are elected by the SBML community and serve for three-year terms as volunteers. One of the Editors is nominated by the other Editors to be Coordinator and lead activities such as organizing and chairing Editor meetings, monitoring progress on new SBML developments, and managing community votes.

Current SBML Editors

The following are the current SBML Editors (in alphabetical order):

  • Sarah M. Keating (Ph.D. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering) is a Senior Research Software Developer at UCL. She’s the lead developer for libSBML and Deviser and is involved in developing many other tools/facilities provided by the SBML Team, including the SBML Test Suite, RELAX NG schemas for SBML, and more. (Current term as Editor: 2022–2024.)

  • Matthias König (Ph.D. in Biophysics) leads a junior research group for Systems Biology and Systems Medicine of the liver at the Humboldt University Berlin. His research areas include computational modeling, data science, development of bioinformatics methods and software. He has been actively involved in the development of SBML, SED-ML and software supporting these standards. Lead-developer of cy3sbml, sbmlutils, and sbmlsim; contributor to libroadrunner, tellurium, cobrapy and more. (Current term as Editor: 2021–2023.)

  • Marek Ostaszewski (Ph.D. in Security of Computer Networks) is a researcher in the fields of metaheuristics and network security, moved to the domain of systems biology. Explored analysis of topological properties of biological networks. Joined the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg and entered the field of project management of clinical research. He worked as a scientific project manager on a number of translational medicine projects in Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine. (Current term as Editor: 2022–2024.)

  • Rahuman Sheriff (Ph.D. in Chemical Biology) is a project leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Cambridge UK. He leads the BioModels team to curate and annotate systems models in SBML as well as develop platform to host and exchange models in standard formats. (Current term as Editor: 2022–2024.)

  • Lucian P. Smith (Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology) is a member of the Center for Reproducible Biomedical Modeling at the University of Washington, Seattle, and a member of the Roadrunner Team. He has been involved in the development of libSBML, the SBML Test Suite, Antimony, PhraSED-ML and has been a SED-ML editor. (Current term as Editor: 2022–2024.)

The SBML Editors can be reached via email at sbml-editors@googlegroups.com.

Past SBML Editors

Past SBML Editors have been (in reverse chronological order) Frank Bergmann (2009–2011, 2013–2015, 2020–2022), Brett G. Olivier (2014–2016, 2020–2022), Rahuman Sheriff (2019–2021), Matthias König (2018–2020), Claudine Chaouiya (2017–2019), Fengkai Zhang (2017–2019), Andreas Dräger (2015–2017), Dagmar Waltemath (2014–2016), Sven Sahle (2008–2010, 2013–2015), Sarah M. Keating (2007–2009, 2011–2013, 2016–2018), Chris J. Myers (2011–2013), James C.Schaff (2010–2012), Lucian Smith (2010–2012, 2019-2021), Darren Wilkinson (2008–2010), Stefan Hoops (2007–2009), Nicolas Le Novère (2006–2008, 2012–2014, 2016–2018), Michael Hucka (2000–2015), Andrew M. Finney (2000–2006), Herbert M. Sauro (2000–2006), and Hamid Bolouri (2000–2006). The SBML effort and community benefited tremendously from their involvement and hard work.

SBML COMBINE Coordinator

SBML is one of the founding standards of COMBINE the computational modeling in biology network. Each of the COMBINE standards nominates a representative to sit on the COMBINE Coordination Board.

Current COMBINE Coordinator

  • Sarah M. Keating (Ph.D. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering) is a Senior Research Software Developer at UCL. She worked as member of the SBML Team from 2002 - 2019. She maintains the role of lead developer for libSBML and Deviser and has been involved in developing many other tools/facilities for SBML, including the SBML Test Suite, RELAX NG schemas for SBML, and more.

Past COMBINE Coordinators

Michael Hucka

SBML Scientific Advisory Board

The SBML Scientific Advisory Board is composed of scientists and researchers with expertise in topics covered by SBML. The SAB provides guidance to the SBML Editors and the SBML Forum regarding the goals, features, applications, and other aspects of SBML development and use. The current members of the SAB are:

  • Prof. Gary Bader, Donnelly Centre for Cellular + Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Canada.

  • Directeur de Recherche Dirk Drasdo, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), France, and associated with Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Bioinformatik (IZBI) and Institute for Working Environment (IfADo), Germany.

  • (Chair) Dr. Michael Hucka, California Institute of Technology, USA.

  • Prof. Jonathan Karr, Institute for Multiscale Biology & Genomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.

  • Prof. Douglas Kell, Research Chair in Bioanalytical Sciences, School of Chemistry and Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, UK.

  • Prof. Dr. Dr. Edda Klipp, Full Professor for Theoretical Biophysics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HUB), Germany.

SBML Team

The SBML Team has been funded to support the SBML community and the development and maintenance of specific SBML infrastructure and facilities. In particular, the team was responsible for (1) maintaining this website, the SBML mailing lists, electronic surveys, and other resources; (2) arranging for the development and support of critical software, including libSBML, the SBML Validator, and the SBML Test Suite; and (3) organizing SBML events.

Unfortunately there is no longer any formal funding but the following people contribute their time to maintaining the infrastructure they worked so long to develop.

Email address for contacting the SBML Team: sbml-team@googlegroups.com

  • Michael Hucka works on all aspects of SBML and contributes to libSBML, the SBML Test Suite, and the Online SBML Validator. He also writes grant proposals, organizes workshops, maintains SBML.org, and does other odd jobs.

  • Frank Bergmann worked on many software systems and services, including the online SBML validator, the SBML Test Suite, the SBML Test Suite Database, libSBML, and more. He still contributes to these efforts.

  • Andreas Dräger is a junior professor at the Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI) in Tübingen, and is also a co-developer of JSBML and several upcoming software efforts by the SBML Team.

  • Sarah M. Keating is a Senior Research Software Developer at UCL. She still maintains the development for libSBML, SBMLToolbox, and DEVISER.

  • Lucian P. Smith leads the development of the SBML Level 3 hierarchical model composition package. He also works on the SBML Test Suite.

  • Nicolas Rodriguez is a scientific programmer at the Babraham Institute, where he is working in the Bioinformatics group. He is the main developer of SBMLeditor and the Biomodels DB converters. He is currently co-developing JSBML.

  • Brett G. Olivier is a Biochemist who has specialised in research data managmement, computational systems biology and open-source, research software development. Currently, he has positions at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as a Research Data Steward for the AIMMS Insitutue and Faculty of Science. He is part of of the SBML team and has previously been both an SBML and a SED-ML editor.

Many people other have been members of the SBML Team in past years. In fact, there have been so many that we have devoted a whole separate page to them!