Tim Vink

Database & Systems Admin, IT Consultant

I run the data systems for the Population Ecology group: the camera-trap data flow from the Kalahari Research Centre to Zurich, and the group’s compute workstation at UZH, with RStudio, a GPU job queue and the user accounts, open to everyone in the group for R, Python and machine-learning work. For the Kalahari Biodiversity Project that covers the whole chain, from automating the downloading of SD cards coming from ~150 camera traps at the research centre and an indexed archive of about five million images to MegaDetector and SpeciesNet runs in Zurich.

Beyond Zurich, I run the IT of the whole Kuruman River Reserve (Van Zylsrus), home of the Kalahari Research Centre: the network, servers, project databases, and all data of the Kalahari Research Centre and its associated projects, over 120 TB and growing, with its backups. I have worked on the reserve since 2014, first as research technician and network administrator, then as reserve manager and system administrator, and since 2019 through my company, Vink Solutions.

I trained as a biologist at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, with an honours degree in zoology focused on marine biology, and have co-authored papers on estuarine copepods and fish, hornbill thermoregulation, and meerkat movement, foraging and gut microbiomes.

Project

Kalahari Biodiversity Project

CV

  • Since 2025, Population Ecology group, University of Zurich (Vink Solutions): data systems and the group’s compute workstation; data infrastructure for the Kalahari Biodiversity Project
  • Since 2019, Kalahari Research Centre and Kalahari Research Trust, South Africa (Vink Solutions): IT for the whole Kuruman River Reserve (network, servers, all data of the KRC and its associated projects, over 120 TB and growing, and its backups) and the databases of its research projects
    • Kalahari Meerkat Project, founded by Prof. Tim Clutton-Brock: MS Access databases and cleaning of its long-term databases and datasets in SQL (since 2015); the Meerkat Research Database, the web application for data entry, checking and access (since 2018)
    • Yellow Mongoose Project and Cape Ground Squirrel Project (until 2026), Prof. Marta Manser, University of Zurich
    • Damaraland Mole-rat Project, Prof. Tim Clutton-Brock, University of Cambridge (2020–2025): database redesign and migration, RFID system
  • 2016–2019, Reserve manager and system administrator, Kalahari Research Centre, South Africa
  • 2014–2016, Research technician and network administrator, Kalahari Research Trust, South Africa
  • 2011, BSc Honours Zoology, Nelson Mandela University (thesis: Ichthyo- and macrozooplankton associated with accumulations of Anaulus australis in a warm temperate South African surf zone)
  • 2010, BSc Biological Sciences (Zoology and Botany), Nelson Mandela University

Skills

  • Networks for remote field sites: MikroTik (MTCNA) and Ubiquiti, static and dynamic routing (OSPF), satellite links with failover, Wi-Fi mesh
  • Linux servers (Debian, Ubuntu), Docker and Docker Swarm, Ansible
  • Backups: BorgBackup, UrBackup, Percona XtraBackup and custom scripted solutions
  • Network services: Traefik and Caddy (reverse proxy), Technitium (DNS), Tailscale (VPN)
  • Research services: RStudio Server, Shiny Server, Slurm (GPU job queue)
  • Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, migration from MS Access
  • Programming: PHP, JavaScript, Python, R, SQL
  • Languages: Dutch (native), English (fluent), German and Afrikaans (conversational)