GIS Week: Scaling Planetary Insights with Geospatial Data

Note: Dr. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño will present and take questions virtually, and we will have an in-person watch party with refreshments in JHA 1216.

Summary: We live in incredible geospatial times with revolutionary computation and a proliferation of growing historical archives and more sensors. We never had so much data, and yet we are far from the dream we promise of leveraging geospatial data for climate change, biodiversity collapse, sustainability, food, …  What are the blockers?  What are the latest trends?  This talk will review the status, promise and challenges of scaling planetary insights using geospatial data.

About the speaker: Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, PhD, has more than 15 years of experience as a scientist working on climate change and socioeconomic issues, within the public sector (e.g. World Bank); the private sector (e.g. Microsoft Director, Mapbox Chief Scientist, Satellogic VP for Social Impact); NGOs (e.g. Director of S&T at climate change NGO “Gain”); and academia (Ph.D. in astrophysics, rocket science postdoc with NRL/JAXA/NASA).

Most recently Bruno set the strategy, built the team and led Microsoft’s “Planetary Computer”, the largest open scalable geospatial platform. Bruno previously led Big Data at the World Bank Innovation Labs, served as VP Social Impact at the satellite company Satellogic and Chief Scientist at Mapbox. Bruno also wrote the book Impact Science about the role of science for social and environmental impact, and he is founder and director of Impact Science.dev Consulting. Bruno was awarded Mirzayan Science Policy Fellow of the US National Academies of Science, and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.