On behalf of GeoForAll , it is my great pleasure to honour Julia Wagemann as our GeoAmbassador. Julia is working at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts as Technical Data Analyst. She explores new ways of making ECMWF´s open datasets easier accessible for users with the help of geospatial web services and OGC standards. Previous to her current work, she worked at the European Space Agency in Frascati and explored ways to better predict Malaria Riskwith the help of Machine Learning methods. She has a strong interest in open data and free and open-source software. She is especially interested in a better exploitation of geospatial data for humanitarian purposes to improve emegency response and disaster preparedness.
Fig 1 – Julia Wagemann and organisors of ECMWF’s Open Data Week
Julia was one of the main initiators and organisers of ECMWF´s Open Data Week in March 2017, which aimed to promote open data from ECMWF and Copernicus. The highlight of the week was a hackathon that brought together around 70 developers and data enthusiasts during a weekend to build applications based on weather and climate data.
She also co-organised a hackathon in order to improve the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) in January 2016. I had the opportunity to participate in this hackathon, and I would like to thank Julia and all our ECMWF colleagues for hosting this excellent event and all volunteers who gave their time and expertise for helping improve the Global Flood Awareness System.
Fig 2- Participants at the hackathon on Global Floof Awareness System at ECMWF
During summer 2017, she co-mentored a project to develop a R plugin for QGIS as part of OSGeo for Google´s Summer of Weather Code. She also gives courses on R, Python (Jupyter Notebooks) and general Data Sciences at universities. She supports and leads the GeoForAll with social media outreach. I am sure Julia will expand these ideas for the future.
Openness is fundamental in harnessing the true potential of Geospatial Science and expanding digital economy opportunities for all. Open innovation is key in driving Digital Economy opportunities and to make sure that everyone benefits.
We are proud to honour Julia as our GeoAmbassodor and we are extremely grateful for her contributions to GeoForAll.
Best wishes,
Suchith Anand
