1 .. Generated on Thu Sep 29 13:59:01 EDT 2011
2 .. Do not edit directly
4 Quotes from NIH R01 grant proposal letters of recommendation
5 ============================================================
8 Only the quotes which were approved for redistribution by the original
14 :author: Prof. Alfonso Caramazza
15 :affiliation: Director, Center for Mind/Brain sciences -CIMEC-, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
18 :group: Research institutions
20 NeuroDebian is an effective solution to support a heterogeneous working environment. [...] NeuroDebian is useful also for education purpose.
24 :author: Prof. Thomas J. Grabowski, Jr.
25 :affiliation: Director, Integrated Brain Imaging Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
27 :tags: lofs, speed, frontier
28 :group: Research institutions
30 [...] software for neuroimage processing evolves rapidly and heterogeneously. It is a challenge for research organizations to remain current [...] In this context we have begun to use the NeuroDebian repository [...] We hope that this service will continue with an expanded scope [...]
34 :author: Prof. Daniel Y. Kimberg
35 :affiliation: Core Director, Data Processing Facility, Center for Functional Neuroimaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
37 :tags: lofs, software distribution, quality, reproducibility, practices, impact
38 :group: Research institutions
40 The approach taken with NeuroDebian is plainly the most appropriate approach to software distribution for the dominant platform in brain image analysis, and I have great confidence that this project will be a major asset to the neuroscience community in facilitating the distribution of stable software, improving the reliability and replicability of analyses, and in helping to improve software development practices.
44 :author: Prof. Bennett Landman
45 :affiliation: Director of the Center for Computational Imaging, Vanderbilt University Institute of Image Science, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
47 :tags: lofs, software distribution, quality
48 :group: Research institutions
50 NeuroDebian provides an excellent platform for software distribution [...]
54 :author: Prof. Barak A. Pearlmutter
55 :affiliation: Hamilton Institute, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
57 :tags: lofs, software distribution, sharing, money, speed
58 :group: Research institutions
60 Having common software stacks makes sharing much easier, potentially (and silently) saving enormous amounts of money and effort and dramatically increasing efficiently and productivity in not one, but many labs. NeuroDebian is of particular utility in these regards.
64 :author: Prof. Russell A. Poldrack
65 :affiliation: Director, Imaging Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA
67 :tags: lofs, breadth, impact
68 :group: Research institutions
70 I think that the idea of a common platform that supports a broad range of computational needs for neuroscientists is wonderful, and I am very impressed with the work that you have done so far in the NeuroDebian project.
74 :author: Dr. Bertrand Thirion
75 :affiliation: Head of the Parietal research group at Neurospin, Gif sur Yvette, France
78 :group: Research institutions
80 [NeuroDebian is] extremely useful in providing state of the art solutions to numerous standard problems encountered in the analysis of our complex data.
85 :affiliation: IT system administrator, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany
87 :tags: lofs, software distribution, frontier
88 :group: Research institutions
90 NeuroDebian project made our library available to an unprecedented number of users [...] as a system administrator, I rely on NeuroDebian for setting up and keeping up-to-date the software installed on the numerous clients and servers used by more than 150 scientists
94 :author: Prof. Todd F. Heatherton
95 :affiliation: Lincoln Feline Professor, Psychology and Brain Sciences Department
97 :tags: lofs, dartmouth, vm
98 :group: Participating institutions
100 We have found the NeuroDebian VM so easy to us and so simple to maintain that we're currently in the process of converting some of our workstations to full NeuroDebian installations
104 :author: Prof. Peter U. Tse
105 :affiliation: Associate Professor, Psychology and Brain Sciences Department
107 :tags: lofs, dartmouth, team
108 :group: Participating institutions
110 [...] vibrant NeuroDebian team [...] has been a great asset to the Psychology and Brain sciences department at Dartmouth. On multiple occasions they have provided support and advice beyond the scope of the NeuroDebian effort, showing their knowledge of methodological developments in the neuroscience field and making us aware of recent technological advances we could benefit from in our research.
114 :author: Prof. Stefan Pollmann
118 :group: Participating institutions
120 My lab is using NeuroDebian for almost five years now [...] The minimal maintenance cost allow us to operate our research and computing infrastructure [...] even without a dedicated system administrator. Consequently, these resources could be invested into scientific personnel instead.
124 :author: Dr. Matthew Brett
125 :affiliation: Specialist researcher, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA
127 :tags: lofs, practices, team, sharing
128 :group: Research software projects
130 [...] your team are ideally placed to make this system work. I have worked with Yaroslav Halchenko and Michael Hanke. [...] Their record on working together as a team, and individually, is easy to find, and speaks for itself. Their demonstrated combination of seemingly inexhaustible energy, openness and skill has been of enormous benefit to our own project and community.
134 :author: Prof. Gene Cooperman
135 :affiliation: College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, USA
138 :group: Research software projects
140 [...] we have benefited from the NeuroDebian team through their mentoring and direct efforts to improve the DMTCP software for wider distribution.
144 :author: Sebastian Eichelbaum
145 :affiliation: OpenWalnut project, Image and Signal Processing Group, Institute of Computer Science, University of Leipzig, Germany
147 :tags: lofs, mentoring
148 :group: Research software projects
150 We are currently preparing our first software-release in NeuroDebian and found it to be easy and straight-forward with a great support.
154 :author: Prof. Bruce Fischl
155 :affiliation: Director, Computational Core at Martinos Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
157 :tags: lofs, perspective, software distribution
158 :group: Research software projects
160 Having FreeSurfer integrated into the Debian operating system by the NeuroDebian team would have enormous benefits for us, and for the thousands of users of FreeSurfer across the world.
164 :author: Dr. Satrajit Ghosh
165 :affiliation: Research scientist, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
167 :tags: lofs, software distribution
168 :group: Research software projects
170 In creating a source repository for distribution of common neuroimaging tools, NeuroDebian has filled a gaping void. It is an incredibly useful resource that we have been relying on at MIT for installation of software.
174 :author: Valentin Haenel
175 :affiliation: Psignifit and pyoptical developer, Modellierung Kognitiver Prozesse, Technische Universität, Berlin, Germany
177 :tags: lofs, reproducibility
178 :group: Research software projects
180 [ [...] The] only way to conduct reliable and reproducible science is to use open source software [...]. NeuroDebian is by far the most advanced undertaking for such a scientific approach in the neuroscience community.
184 :author: Dr. Thies Jochimsen
185 :affiliation: Post-doctoral researcher, Medical Physics Group, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany
187 :tags: lofs, team, software distribution, mentorship
188 :group: Research software projects
190 [...] distributing the software via NeuroDebian generates valuable feedback which is indispensable for the development of free software. When working with the NeuroDebian team in the past, I have found their members to be very cooperative, target-oriented and responsive.
194 :author: Mario Kleiner
195 :affiliation: Dipl. Inf., Psychtoolbox lead developer, Department for Cognitive and Computational Psychophysics, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany
197 :tags: lofs, vm, contributions, practices
198 :group: Research software projects
200 We find the approach taken by NeuroDebian and the progress it made so far very pleasant and promising. [...] The NeuroDebian team helped us to improve the quality of our software and of some of our processes by review, constructive suggestions and even software patches. The availability of the NeuroDebian Virtual Machine was instrumental for fast porting of the Psychtoolbox to a 64 bit Linux environment.
204 :author: Dr. Gabriele Lohmann
205 :affiliation: Lipsia lead developer, Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
208 :group: Research software projects
210 It [NeuroDebian] has been and continues to be of great value in all of our projects [...]
214 :author: Valerio Lucio
215 :affiliation: Manager Information Systems, Center for Brain Imaging, New York University, New York City, USA
217 :tags: lofs, contributions, Debian
218 :group: Research software projects
220 The dinifti tool was one of the first to appear in Debian and ever since it's inclusion in the distribution, I have received invaluable feedback from the Debian community
224 :author: Sebastiaan Mathôt
225 :affiliation: OpenSesame lead developer, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
227 :tags: lofs, software distribution, mentorship, Debian
228 :group: Research software projects
230 The NeuroDebian team has helped me to make my software (OpenSesame) available to the wider public in a much more professional fashion than I would have been able to do for myself.
234 :author: Dr. Eilif Muller
235 :affiliation: Post-doctoral researcher, Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
237 :tags: lofs, reproducibility, standartization, breadth
238 :group: Research software projects
240 I am constantly aware that software packaging and supporting user needs on diverse platforms represents a severe burden for developers. The NeuroDebian software platform addresses these problems for a good fraction of production environments in the field, while contributing to research reproducibility through software standardization.
244 :author: Prof. Jonathan Peirce
245 :affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
247 :tags: lofs, money, impact
248 :group: Research software projects
250 Having such a group of experts [NeuroDebian developers] that search for open-source software solutions, refine them and then make them trivially easy for users to install and try out is of absolutely invaluable benefit to the research community and to the funding bodies that would, otherwise, be paying much larger sums in commercial software licensing fees.
254 :author: Dr. Ariel Rokem
255 :affiliation: NiTime developer, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA
257 :tags: lofs, frontier, contributions, speed, standartization, dissemination
258 :group: Research software projects
260 NeuroDebian is playing a key role in the creation of an ``eco-system'' of open-source solutions for neuroscience [...] The standards and practices disseminated by the NeuroDebian project allowed me to start using this tool [PsychoPy] efficiently and rapidly and to contribute back to the project within a few months.
264 :author: Prof. Per B. Sederberg
265 :affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
267 :tags: lofs, impact, quality
268 :group: Research software projects
270 [...] NeuroDebian will undoubtedly have a large impact on the quality of neuroscience research, both directly and indirectly, by making almost every known software package related to neuroscience work available in a stable and secure environment and broadening the standard set of techniques researchers can employ.
274 :author: Prof. Stephen M. Smith
275 :affiliation: Associate Director, Centre for Functional Magnetic, Resonance Imaging of the Brain University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
277 :tags: lofs, contributions, support, Debian
278 :group: Research software projects
280 Since 2007 we completely rely on the NeuroDebian project to provide users of the Debian/Ubuntu platform with FSL software packages and corresponding technical support. [...] we have received a continuous stream of bug fixes and improvements that have been developed by members of the Debian community. [...] we were able to benefit from work of people that would not otherwise contribute to the development of FSL – without any additional investment of my lab, but solely due to FSL’s presence in the Debian archive.
284 :author: Dr. Gaël Varoquaux
285 :affiliation: Parietal project, INRIA, Neurospin research center, Gif sur Yvette, France
287 :tags: lofs, reproducibility, dissemination
288 :group: Research software projects
290 The availability of a common platform [NeuroDebian] for many different neuroimaging software solutions makes it much easier to compare solutions and pick the tool of choice for a given research problem.
294 :author: Patrik Andersson
295 :affiliation: Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands
298 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
300 I have been using NeuroDebian for my work on multivariate classification of fMRI data [...] It is of great value, because I have access to both Windows and Debian OS on my laptop, where I do all my analysis.
304 :author: Prof. Hiroyuki Akama
305 :affiliation: Associate Professor, Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan begin{lofquote} I am a heavy user of NeuroDebian-Virtual Machine on Windows 64-bit platform. end{lofquote}
308 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
310 I am a heavy user of NeuroDebian-Virtual Machine on Windows 64-bit platform.
314 :author: Paolo Avesani
315 :affiliation: Neuroinformatics Laboratory, Center for Mind/Brain sciences -CIMEC-, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
318 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
320 It [NeuroDebian] is of great advantage for the management of the computers of the lab because NeuroDebian allows to reduce the system administration costs.
324 :author: John A. Clithero
325 :affiliation: Ph.D. student, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
328 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
330 Both the software and online support forums provided by NeuroDebian have been invaluable for my machine-learning studies of fMRI data.
334 :author: Prof. Jodene Goldenring Fine
335 :affiliation: Department of Counseling, Education Psychology, and Special Education, Michigan State University, USA
337 :tags: lofs, vm, quality, support, speed
338 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
340 [...] I couldn't believe my great luck when after just an hour or so I had a complete [NeuroDebian] system running and my research was back on track. [...] Your service and support are critical to keeping researchers effectively working on their research, rather than on maintenance issues that negatively affect our productivity. [...] I was working on versions of AFNI and FSL that were several generations behind [...] Now I will always be up-to-date. [...] Because I am now running a virtual machine, I can keep my data files [with me].
344 :author: Scott Gorlin
345 :affiliation: Ph.D. student, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
347 :tags: lofs, speed, quality
348 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
350 I am writing this letter in support of the NeuroDebian team, whose efforts at producing high-quality free, open-source software have been invaluable to my graduate research.
354 :author: Dr. Attila Krajcsi
355 :affiliation: Lecturer, Cognitive Psychology Department, Eötvös University, Hungary
358 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
360 [NeuroDebian is] an extremely time saving solution
364 :author: Jonas Kubilius
365 :affiliation: Ph.D. student, Laboratories of Biological and Experimental Psychology, K. U. Leuven, Belgium
367 :tags: lofs, reproducibility, vm, impact, sharing
368 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
370 [...] NeuroDebian allows both researchers and the public to easily replicate the entire experimental procedure, a feature rendered difficult or often impossible by proprietary software packages that most scientists rely on nowadays. I have been increasingly using NeuroDebian in a Virtual Machine because Linux operating systems are not supported by the university. [...] Moreover, powered by NeuroDebian’s openness, I see a reason to publish the full code of our experimental and analysis scripts. [NeuroDebian] makes the goal of open science finally viable.
374 :author: Kaunitz Lisandro Nicolas
375 :affiliation: Center for Mind/Brain sciences -CIMEC-, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
378 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
380 [We] find it [NeuroDebian] to be the best tool for running classifiers on our neuroimaging data (EEG and MEG).
384 :author: Dr. Emanuele Olivetti
385 :affiliation: Center for Information Technology, Bruno Kessler Foundation, Trento, Italy
388 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
390 NeuroDebian has a major impact within our laboratory as quick and rich research environment for all our projects.
394 :author: Dr. Giuseppe Pagnoni
395 :affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
398 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
400 We consider NeuroDebian to be a truly commendable effort and an invaluable asset for the neuroimaging community.
404 :author: Dr. Felipe Picon
405 :affiliation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry of Federal University of Rio Grande do Su, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
408 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
410 We have been relying on NeuroDebian [...] for our work on Adult ADHD neuroimaging and find it to be very useful.
414 :author: Dr. Bhavani Shankara Bagepally
415 :affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health And Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
418 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
420 Neuroscience software [...] easily available at a single point with hastle free installation and easy updating.
424 :author: Dr. Daqiang Sun
425 :affiliation: Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
428 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
430 It [NeuroDebian] is and will continue to be invaluable in our multiple NIH-funded research projects. NeuroDebian nicely takes care of the burden of software deployment and management on my computers and allows me to concentrate on the imaging analysis itself [...]
434 :author: Dr. Roberto Viviani
435 :affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy III, University of Ulm, Germany
437 :tags: lofs, dissemination
438 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
440 Our research would be considerably more difficult without necessary software solutions transparently provided and supported by the NeuroDebian project.
444 :author: Dr. C. J. Werner
445 :affiliation: Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany
447 :tags: lofs, vm, teaching, dissemination
448 :group: Individual laboratories and researchers
450 [NeuroDebian] makes my lectures on neuroimaging much more convenient and ``hands-on'' by deploying virtual machines on student's laptops [...] a quick, elegant and cost-free solution, enabling students to work on real fMRI data in no time.