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Where the Selenga River meets the Lake Baikal (Credit: Galina Shinkareva, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

ESSI Earth and Space Science Informatics Division on Earth and Space Science Informatics

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European Geosciences Union

Division on Earth and Space Science Informatics
essi.egu.eu

Division on Earth and Space Science Informatics

President: Jens Klump (essi@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Martina Stockhause (stockhause@dkrz.de)

As far as informatics and information technology are concerned, the ESSI Division deals with community-driven and multidisciplinary challenges and solutions. This include topics like: data model and metadata standardisation, spatial data infrastructure interoperability, semantics services, quality and uncertainty information encoding and propagation, geospatial data processing, environmental model accessibility, big data management, and data visualisation for scientific discovery.

News

Obituary: Dr. Peter Fox

It is with the deepest sadness that EGU reports the death on 27 March 2021 of Dr. Peter Fox, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Computer Science, and Cognitive Science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the United States.

Fox was a pillar of the global informatics community and pivotal in establishing the ESSI divisions within both EGU and AGU. In 2012, his peers recognised this contribution when they awarded him the EGU’s Ian McHarg Medal for his role in establishing informatics as a genuine discipline within the Earth Sciences.

To mark Fox’s passing, representatives from EGU, AGU, ESIP, and other organisations have collaboratively authored a remembrance that highlights the impact he had both professionally and personally as a colleague, advocate, mentor and friend.  A Kudo Board has also been created for those who wish to leave their own remembrances of Dr. Fox.

The premature passing of Fox is a huge loss for the global Earth and Space Science Informatics community, and his absence will be felt for a long time to come. But it is his family and friends who will feel his passing most keenly, so it is to them that EGU extends its deepest condolences.

Helen Glaves
EGU Vice-President

Recent awardees

François Robida

François Robida

  • 2024
  • Ian McHarg Medal

The 2024 Ian McHarg Medal is awarded to François Robida for his outstanding work in establishing internationally standardised geoinformation technologies and services, which enable global geoscience data sharing and underpin modern data-intensive research.


Anirudh Prabhu

Anirudh Prabhu

  • 2024
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2024 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Anirudh Prabhu for his outstanding contributions to the fields of Earth and planetary informatics, data science, astrobiology, and geosciences at large.


Maximilian Söchting

Maximilian Söchting

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Maximilian Söchting Lexcube: An Interactive Earth Science Data Cube Visualization

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

How do you get more people to care for the geosciences – a field that affects and influences all of life itself? Scientists across the EGU network share their stories!

Friedrich Barnikel outlines how, since 2003, EGU brings together scientists and teachers for capacity-building workshops, while Evi Nomikou takes us through EGU’s third Geoscience Day, highlighting volcanic geohazards to over 260 school students.

We also hear from Grace Skirrow who breaks down a seemingly complex subject like fluvial geomorphology and the role that it can play in policy decisions. Meanwhile, geologist Sinelethu Hashibi explains why she’s driven to translate geoscience for isiXhosa-speaking communities. And for those of you fond of card games, don’t miss the launch of QUARTETnary: a game about the geological time scale, developed by Iris van Zelst and Lucia Perez-Diaz and partly funded by the EGU Public Engagement Grant 2021.

Finally, don’t forget to visit our EGU24 page to stay up-to-date with information on the upcoming General Assembly this April. You can also subscribe to receive monthly updates in your inbox at the beginning of each month.