About me
Since 2005 I work at the Spatial Data Infrastructures Unit, European Commission- DG Joint Research Centre. The SDI Unit is responsible for the technical coordination of the INSPIRE Directive, aimed at creating and infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe.
Within the Unit I have been responsible for the development of the INSPIRE Implementing Rules for Medatata, and for research on the impact assessment of SDIs and INSPIRE.
I am the technical coordinator of EuroGEOSS project (www.eurogeoss.eu) an Integrated Project developing INSPIRE-compliant GEOSS Operating Capacity in three thematic areas: Drought, Biodiversity/Protected Areas, and Forestry. I am also hte Scientific coordinator of the GEO Weather, Ocean, Water project (GEOWOW) which extends the approaches developed in EuroGEOS to these other 3 thematic areas.
I have been a member of GEOSS Science & Technology Committee, and the GEOSS Data Sharing task Force.
I was one of the founders and I serve as Chief editor of the International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research http://ijsdir.jrc.ec.europa.eu), and I was also one of the founders of the Vespucci Initiative for the Advancement of Geographic Information Science (www.vespucci.org)
In my Previous Life:
2000-05
Senior Lecturer in Information Management, Dept. Town & Regional Planning, University of Sheffield. PI of one the ESRC e-social science pilot projects. Director of the Sheffield Centre for Geographic Information and Spatial Analysis, and of EC-funded Geographic Information Network in Europe. Editor for the Extended Impact Assessment of the INSPIRE initiative of the EC (2003-04). Chair of European Special Interest Group of the AGI.
1993-2000
Lecturer in GIS and Information Management, Dept. Town & Regional Planning, University of Sheffield and Co-ordinator of the European Science Foundation’s GISDATA scientific programme. I was also Director of the EC-funded Project on Methods for Access to Data and Metadata in Europe.
Even before that:
1984-89
Urban and Regional planner with the United Nations’ Department for Technical Cooperation and Development, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
I have a degree in Civil Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, a MPhil in Urban & Regional Planning , University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in GIS and Planning, University of Sheffield.
