Spring 2012 Environmental Geomatics Lecture

Please join us for the
Spring 2012 Environmental Geomatics Lecture

"Esri's Emerging Natural and Ocean Science Agenda"
Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist, Esri

4pm, Cook Douglass Lecture Hall, Room 110
Wednesday February 29th

Increasingly, GIS is included as part of the growing collaboration between computer scientists, information scientists, and domain scientists to solve complex scientific questions. As we know, Earth system science is based upon the recognition that the Earth functions as a complex system of inter- related components that must be understood as a whole. Examples range from understanding the complex interactions at seafloor spreading centers systems, to exploring the structure and evolution of continental earthquakes and volcanoes, to informing regional decision- and policy-making across several themes in coastal zone management and marine spatial planning. Successfully addressing these scientific problems requires integrative and innovative approaches to analyzing, modeling, and developing extensive and diverse data sets. The current chaotic distribution of available data sets, lack of documentation about them, and lack of easy-to-use access tools and computer modeling and analysis codes are still major obstacles for scientists and educators alike. Contributing solutions to these problems is part of an emerging science agenda for oceanography and related natural sciences that will be discussed. Esri has also recently launched a major ocean GIS initiative, and the talk will highlight some recent projects in progress, including a new ocean basemap, a new ocean geodesign platform for coastal and marine spatial planning, developing contributions to the new Ocean Health Index project, and more.

About the speaker:
In October of 2011 Dawn Wright was appointed as Chief Scientist of Esri. She maintains her appointment as Professor of Geography and Oceanography and Director of the Davey Jones Locker Marine GIS/Seafloor Mapping Laboratory at Oregon State University. Her current research interests include marine data models, benthic terrain and habitat characterization, and coastal/ocean informatics and cyberinfrastructure. She serves on the US National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, the NOAA Science Advisory Board, the Science Advisory Council of Conservation International, and many editorial boards, including the AAG Annals, IJGIS, and J. of Coastal Conservation. She is a fellow of Stanford's Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and of the AAAS.

Dawn holds an Individual Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Physical Geography and Marine Geology from UCSB, an M.S. in Oceanography from Texas A&M, and a B.S. in Geology from Wheaton College (Illinois)