Erich has an M.S. in the geosciences from Bowling Green State University, where he studied surficial processes related to sediment yield and surface water runoff - and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for analysis and application development. Erich is certified as a project managment professional (PMP) as well as a GIS Professional (GISP). He is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of Idaho in the area of ecoinformatics applications for data-intensive research - under REACCH scientist Dr. Paul Gessler. Erich's current research interests are segregated into two areas: 1) Data integration and dissemination architectures. With data-intensive research efforts typically involving large, numerous, and/or heterogeneous datasets , data science integration and its application to ecological and agricultural disciplines is essential (Chervenak et al, 2000, Papazoglou et al, 2007, Klein, 2009,). Erich is working to develop a modular hardware and software architecture that would support integrative science/agricultural analysis. 2) Understanding variations in climatic parameters and crop yield. Erich is currently exploring how evapotranspiration varies in relationship to crop yield for the Inland Pacific Northwest - and how this approach could be integrated with advanced data dissemination techniques, as well as extension of analytics to farm management systems, related to the data integration discussion above (Montoya and Gomez et al, 2013) In addition to his efforts with REACCH - Erich provides expert witness testimony for legal cases related to GIS and data management - and publishes in the area of geospatial data analysis.