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About

Peter van Lunteren, Founder of Addax Data Science

How would I describe myself? I’m an optimistic, methodical, results-oriented, tech-savvy ecologist with a passion for developing data-driven solutions that improve the quality of ecological research. In addition to founding Addax, I have worked for several conservation initiatives over the past ten years and currently serve with four: Smart Parks, conserving endangered wildlife through cutting-edge technologies, Sensing Clues, providing nature conservation organisations with data-driven tools, Inclusion Foundation, supporting village communities in Uganda with a basic income, and CV4Ecology, where I teach ecologists to analyse large image, audio, or video datasets using computer vision.

I’ve also created the open-source AI platform AddaxAI, which enables annotation, training, and deployment of custom models for automated species detection. The goal is for ecologists to be able to focus more of their time on conservation efforts and less time reviewing camera trap images. I am also a reviewer for the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS), contributing to the peer review of open-source projects. My hope is that AddaxAI will make a significant contribution to open sourcing, open access, and open science.

See my LinkedIN and ResearchGate for more information about me and my GitHub for information on my software projects.

Publications

  • Brook, B. W.; Buettel, J. C.; van Lunteren, P.; Rajmohan, P. P.; Aandahl, R. Z. MEWC: A user-friendly AI workflow for customised wildlife-image classification. Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e57. [link]
  • Wenting, E., Jansen, P. A., Pattipeilohy, L., van Lunteren, P., Siepel, H., & van Langevelde, F. (2024). Influence of tree cover on carcass detection and consumption by facultative vertebrate scavengers. Ecology and Evolution, 14(4), e10935. [link]
  • van Lunteren, P. (2023). AddaxAI: A no-code platform to train and deploy custom YOLOv5 object detection models. Journal of Open Source Software, 8(88), 5581. [link]
  • van Lunteren, P., Hoefsloot, G., Brandjes, J., & Littooij, L. (2022). Vleermuisroutes onderzoeken op de automatische piloot. De Levende Natuur, 4(1), 125. [link]
  • van Lunteren, P., Groenewold, M. A., Pozsgai, G., & Sarvary, J. (2021). Does voluntary wheel running exist in Neotropical wild mammals? Acta Ethologica, 24(1), 23-30. [link]

Other

  • Jul 2025 – Podcast – Nature Ventures Adventures: Tech and Al for Nature – Peter finds animals: camera trap images, Al and open source [recording]
  • May 2025 – Presentation – WILDLABS – Sustainable financing for open source conservation tech – Open Source Solutions + Funding and Finance Community Meeting [recording] [info]
  • March 2024 – Webinar – Snow Leopard Network – Tech for wildlife webinar: The role AI and technology can play in nature conservation [recording] [info]
  • February 2023 – Tutorial – Towards Artificial Intelligence – Train and deploy custom object detection models without a single line of code [link]