European Geosciences Union
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.
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
The 2022 Ian McHarg Medal is awarded to Mikhail Kanevski in recognition of outstanding pioneering innovative research in the field of environmental data mining, in integrating geostatistics and machine learning algorithms and other digital transformations.
The 2022 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Christopher Kadow for outstanding and innovative research in climate informatics, including modelling, prediction, climate change, and the applications of artificial intelligence/machine learning in the field of climate science.
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Melanie Lorenz FID GEO: Promoting Open Science for Geosciences
In a first-of-its kind analysis of the Antarctic ice sheet, researchers Ronja Reese and Emily Hill break down their ice loss study and reveal a small window of hope; while dendrochonrologist Nazimul Islam tells us how tree rings act as one of the finest proxies for studying past climate, hydrology, archaeology and more.
Meanwhile, EGU Policy Manager Chloe Hill dissects the Science Europe publication, Science–Policy in Action: Insights for the Green and Digital Transition, and its relation to climate change, biodiversity loss and digital technologies. And EGU’s Media Survey reveals that despite willingness to speak to the media, journalists say scientists often do not follow through, fearing their science will be misrepresented. If you are a scientist or researcher yourself, do you agree with this? Let us know at media@egu.eu
And don’t forget to stay up-to-date with information on our next General Assembly EGU24. Subscribe to receive important updates in your inbox at the beginning of each month!