2019 GEO Awards Winners

GEO launched the GEO Award for the first time in 2019, and recognized three individuals with Individual Excellence awards in Canberra, Australia.

Angélica Gutiérrez

As a driving force behind AmeriGEO, the regional GEO in the Americas, and a champion of GEOGloWS, she has made exceptional contributions to the work of GEO by improving water sustainability in multiple countries, pioneering scientific and regional collaboration.

She has championed GEOGloWS, annual AmeriGEO Weeks, and has served as an ambassador for open data policies resulting in 16 national open data portals in the region. As the AmeriGEO Coordination Working Group Co-Chair, her efforts have resulted in expanding AmeriGEO to new countries throughout the Americas region, which we are pleased to welcome El Salvador and Guatemala as two of GEO newest member countries in 2019.

Catherine Nakalembe

Catherine has been a driving force behind GEO’s food security initiatives. Her work has saved lives and improved livelihoods while reducing the costs of food security emergency response in East African nations.

She leads NASA Harvest Eastern Africa-Hub + Mali activities alongside capacity building in the use of Earth Observations (EO) data for agriculture monitoring in support of food security in GEOGLAM. She has worked with national ministries of agriculture in Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda and regional agencies ICPAC and RCMRD.

Throughout all of her work, she has embraced the GEO values of open sharing of knowledge and co-development, putting trusted and authoritative information in the hands of decision makers. This effort translates to proactive policies and programmes that save lives, and her extraordinary commitment to this mission is an inspiration to the entire GEO community.

Paul M. DiGiacomo

Paul has been a champion for water quality observations in GEO for more than 10 years. He has been instrumental to the development of two GEO Initiatives – GEO Blue Planet and GEO AquaWatch – into active and impactful activities.

He ‘walks the talk’ of supporting GEO initiatives, leveraging both funds and stakeholder support for the growth of key activities. With countless peer-reviewed publications over his career, his work is making real strides in advancing the use of Earth observations for water resource management.