Ayumi Arai

Ayumi is Project Researcher of the Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo, and a leading member of the Spatial Data Commons, an initiative to utilize big data and open technologies for addressing development problems. Ayumi is active in the international community for the use of mobile phone data for addressing data gaps in the Global South; she is a member of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UNCEBD) Mobile Phone Data Task Team where she leads the Displacement and Disaster Statistics Subgroup. She is a member of the Disaster Mobility Data Network. She also works as a consultant for the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. Before joining the University of Tokyo, Ayumi worked for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). She obtained her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies (Spatial Information Science) from The University of Tokyo, Master of International Development Studies (Development Economics) from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and Master of Architectural Engineering from Waseda University.

Ayumi is a member of GEO DRR Working Group, supporting subgroup 3.