Open Science Platform Engineer, Department of Climate Action, Sustainability and Science ,European Space Agency

Open source enthusiast with strong experience in Java development and GIS. Personal interest range from high performance software, managing large data volumes, software testing and quality, spatial data analysis algorithms, map rendering.
Full time open source developer on GeoServer and GeoTools, regular presenter at FOSS4G.
Received the Sol Katz's OSGeo award in 2017.

I am a Geoinformatics Engineer and graduate of the Department of Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering at the International Hellenic University (IHU), with more than seven years of professional experience in the geospatial sector. My expertise lies in the design, development, and implementation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with a strong focus on spatial data management, analysis, and visualization.

I have extensive experience working with geospatial technologies and platforms, including QGIS, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, AutoCAD, and web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Since 2023, I have been a member of the Consortis Geospatial team, contributing to projects across both the public and private sectors and supporting the delivery of effective, data-driven geospatial solutions.

My professional interests are closely aligned with open-source geospatial technologies and the development of practical, scalable systems that improve decision-making and operational efficiency through the effective use of spatial data.
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Andrei is a PhD student at the Doctoral School of Natural Sciences and a research assistant at the Institute for Advanced Environmental Research (ICAM), West University of Timișoara, Romania. His research focuses on periglacial geomorphology and snow science in alpine environments, with particular emphasis on understanding snowpack variability and its influence on surface and subsurface processes. His work combines optical remote sensing, UAV-based surveys, and a range of airborne sensors (RGB, LiDAR, thermal, and multispectral) to capture the spatial complexity of snow distribution and its interaction with terrain and microtopography.
A central component of his research is the development of automated and reproducible geospatial workflows that integrate open climate data with physically based snow modeling tools. By combining climate reanalysis datasets with terrain-aware downscaling approaches, he generates high-resolution atmospheric forcing for snowpack simulations, enabling the analysis of snow dynamics under complex topographic conditions. These workflows are designed to operate across scales, linking detailed UAV-derived observations of snow depth and distribution with regional-scale satellite products such as MODIS, providing a consistent framework for multi-source data integration.
His work also explores the role of snow cover in controlling ground thermal regimes, particularly in marginal periglacial environments where snow acts as an insulating layer influencing freeze–thaw processes and permafrost conditions. Through the integration of modeling and high-resolution observations, he investigates how spatial variability in snow cover affects snow–ground coupling and the evolution of periglacial landforms. In addition to methodological development, his research contributes to improving the understanding of snow-related processes in the Romanian Carpathians, a region where in situ observations are limited and spatially heterogeneous.
Overall, his research aims to advance the use of open geospatial technologies for cryosphere studies, emphasizing reproducibility, scalability, and the integration of multi-source datasets. His broader interests include snow–ground interactions, alpine environmental change, and the application of geospatial workflows to better understand the dynamics of mountain landscapes under changing climatic conditions.

Antti Vasanen is Head of Information Services at the Regional Council of Southwest Finland, where he leads the regional geoinformation and open data network Lounaistieto and oversees regional data management and digital development. The projects led by Lounaistieto focus on building interoperable data infrastructures and advancing the availability of open data.

Astrid Emde is a Geospatial Expert and works in Bonn at WhereGroup (https://wheregroup.com) since many years. She works as Senior GIS Consultant on WebGIS solutions with FOSSGIS. She is trainer at the FOSS Academy (https://foss-academy.com).
Astrid Emde is an active member of OSGeo and a Charter Member since 2010. From 2017-2021 she was in the OSGeo Board of Directors and is OSGeo Secretary. She recieved the Sol Katz Award in 2018 at FOSS4G 2018 in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).

Aubin Lambaré is a Lead Software Engineer at CS Group, contributing to EODAG and maintaining stac-fastapi-eodag. He leads the technical development of the Destination Earth Data Lake HDA API for EUMETSAT, with a focus on cloud‑native geospatial data access and STAC‑based APIs.

Bart Louwers is maintainer of MapLibre Native

Software Developer (-present), Virtual City Systems GmbH Berlin
M.Sc Geodesy and Geoinformation Technology (2017) TU Berlin
B.Sc. Geoecology (2014), University of Potsdam

Berit Mohr is a passionate GIS expert and advocate for open-source software. Since October 2024, she has worked as a GIS specialist at OPENGIS.CH, where she provides consulting, training, and manages projects of all sizes. After ten years in New Zealand, she gained extensive experience in academia, the private sector, and development cooperation. Berit brings a global perspective to her work, enriching her talents for teaching and translation. In her free time, Berit enjoys exploring nature by bicycle, tending her garden, and hiking in the mountains – she spends every spare minute outdoors, often with her new addition, her little American Shepherd, Ambo - who will be an additional guest at the conference :).

Codrina Ilie is a technical geographer, an open source GIS/RS power user, actively working as a project officer to support geospatial data services development at Terrasigna. In her 13 years of activity, Codrina has essentially focused on using open source GIS and RS solutions for data management, processing and visualization. As an advocate for free and open source software for geospatial, since 2010 she has been a volunteer trainer in the Romanian geospatial community, geo-spatial.org. Since 2013, Codrina has been a Charter Member and today serves the community as an OSGeo Board of Directors elected member, within her forth term.

I am Daniel da Silva, a web developer based in Lisbon and currently working at Development Seed.
I really like the web and all the bits and pieces - from systems' administration to user interaction - that make it tick.

Junior GIS technician, Giswater specialist

David Montero Loaiza is a PhD candidate in Physics and Earth System Science at Leipzig University, Germany, and a Google Developer Expert for Google Earth Engine (GEE). He is the main developer of Awesome Spectral Indices and its associated Python and GEE Code Editor APIs, spyndex and spectral. He has also developed several other open-source projects, including eemont, cubo, and sen2nbar.

I am a graduate of the Department of Geology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) and hold a master's degree from the same institution, specializing in technical projects and hydrogeology.

I have completed my studies in the Department of Informatics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 2022, I have been working as a developer at Consortis Geospatial. With my knowledge, passion, and dedication to self-improvement and work, I actively contribute to the company's growth.

In terms of skills, I have experience and expertise in languages and technologies such as Javascript, Typescript, Angular, Ionic, Node.js, Express.js, and PostgreSQL, while also possessing knowledge in Python. Over time and with experience, I continuously upgrade my existing knowledge in Web and Mobile application development and expand my skill set. Furthermore, I stay updated on technological advancements and enhance my expertise, particularly in the field of Machine Learning and modern tools, ensuring the delivery of high-quality services in support of Consortis Geospatial's progress.

Dirk Stenger is active community member of the OSGeo project deegree.

He has expertise in SDI solutions based on open source software, OGC standards and cloud architecture.

He works at lat/lon GmbH as a software developer and consultant since 2012.

Eike Hinderk Jürrens is a software engineer working for more than 15 years in the geoinformatics field.

Elias Pajares is a GIS and mobility expert, as well as the co-founder and CEO of Plan4Better. He studied and earned his PhD at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in the fields of transport planning, geoinformatics, and accessibility modeling. Today, he combines this academic depth with profound expertise in software development to drive sustainable change through technology.

Together with his team at Plan4Better, he developed GOAT—an innovative WebGIS platform for modern web mapping and integrated planning. His goal is to shape a sustainable future through map- and data-driven technologies. A central focus of his work is the development of digitally sovereign software that combines state-of-the-art technology with maximum usability. He is a passionate advocate for the open-source philosophy and open data, striving to make spatial data processing and visualization more efficient and accessible.

Professor in Geoinformatics at University of Tartu and lead of Landscape Geoinformatics Lab (https://landscape-geoinformatics.ut.ee/). Passionate about open-source geospatial software and open data, actively using and promoting it in both her research and teaching activities. Foodie and coffee junkie :)

GDAL contributor since 2007, chair of its Project Steering Comittee

Felix is a software engineer and open data advocate with a history contributing to the Free Software communities of Debian, OpenStreetMap, and OSGeo. He has mapped bus routes in Nicaragua, led the development of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s Tasking Manager v4, and organized Free Software events across Latin America. Nowadays he works at Development Seed on projects for the European Space Agency, providing open earth observation information at scale.

Head of Technology — Camptocamp Geospatial
Florent Gravin has been working in the open source geospatial ecosystem for over 20 years. As CTO of Camptocamp, he drives the company's innovation strategy and positions its teams at the forefront of the intersection between artificial intelligence and geographic data. Convinced that territory is one of the most promising application domains for LLMs and agentic AI, he has been leading hands-on experiments in GeoAI, conversational map assistants, and natural language interfaces for GIS tools for several years.

Open Source GIS Developer at the European Space Agency (ESA)

Frank Elsinga from the Technical University of Munich is a member of the MapLibre Governing Board. He is committed to open innovation in vector-based map rendering and helps connect MapLibre’s open-source ecosystem with research and public administration

Software developer at Lutra Consulting. Actively working on improving Mergin Maps.

Gefei Kong is a GeoAI researcher specialising in GeoAI (computer vision), mutlimodal geo data processing, and geospatial analysis, with a PhD in Engineering. She has contributed to multidisciplinary projects, applying her knowledge of GeoAI and GIS to support urban 2D/3D data infrastructure and downstream climate actions and urban planning insights. Driven by both technological innovation and societal impact, she is motivated to develop solutions that support more sustainable and resilient futures.

I am Associate Professor for Geoinformatics and Ecology at the Depatment of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS.

Roles and functions:
* Chair of the UNIGIS International Association
* Programme Director of UNIGIS Salzburg
* Head of the Spatial Simulation research group

My research interest is spatially-explicit simulation modelling of complex, ecological systems. My aim is to advance spatial simulation modelling methods, as well as to use these models to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of animals and the functioning of ecological systems.

Education: I teach various Geoinformatics courses in distance-learning and residential programmes. As Chair of the UNIGIS International Association I am engaged in supporting and advancing GI-education worldwide.

Hannah Jukes is a dynamic and detail-oriented Geospatial Analyst/Developer for Global Maritime with expertise spanning offshore wind and the wider renewable energy sector, as well as public sector policing.
Hannah started her career as a GIS and Graphics Officer for Devon and Cornwall Police where she led initiatives for Dorset county and contributed towards the acquisition and processing of high-resolution photogrammetry and LiDAR data for high profile security and training purposes in the south west of England.
Hannah then moved into the renewables space after presenting her master's research on pre-drilling structural and heat source models for the Corbetti geothermal reservoir at the World Geothermal Congress, 2020+1. She worked as a Geothermal Geologist for TownRock Energy, contributing towards the design of drilling campaigns and acting as an on-site geologist for novel geothermal projects across the UK.
More recently, Hannah moved into the offshore wind industry and spearheaded the Geospatial Engineering team at Vekta Group, driving innovation and excellence in web-based GIS solutions and data pipelines.
Currently, Hannah contributes to both project work, analysing and modelling geospatial data, as well as automating workflows and developing innovative geospatial solutions that enhance decision-making in the offshore wind sector. Hannah has previously largely worked in and with open-source tools and hopes to streamline the movement to a fully open-source stack at Global Maritime.

A software engineer specializing in stable high performance software. Currently working at Flanders Marine Institute ( www.vliz.be ) analyzing sensor data from the the Scheldt River. Interested in a wide area of technology, from Python to Rust, from databases to front end, from HPC to GIS.

Hans van der Kwast is an Associate Professor in Open Science and Digital Innovation at IHE Delft and a QGIS certified trainer. He runs his own company QWAST-GIS, shares free course materials on GIS OpenCourseWare, is co-author of the book QGIS for Hydrological Applications and has a popular YouTube Channel. He is also a board member of the Dutch QGIS User Group and a member of Cooperative.

I am the lead developer and product owner of QFieldCloud, part of OPENGIS.ch. I also do QGIS, QField, pyQGIS and Django development. Based in Bulgaria, citizen of the world.

Iván has been a web developer and FLOSS advocate since the early 2000s; then he bought a GPS receiver and got involved in OpenStreetMap and OSGeo.

He’s worked with nautical charts, indoor positioning, USB microcontrollers, LibreOffice, multispectral rasters, all of it with unhealthy amounts of Javascript.

• software engineer with focus on geodata
• OpenStreetMap and OpenSource contributor

website: https://jakobmiksch.eu/

James is a software developer at Telespazio UK, where he works on ESA's EOEPCA+ project, developing open-source building blocks for Earth Observation exploitation platforms. He has experience across the full stack of EO platform development.

James is a open source developer living in East London. He works as a Staff Engineer at Addresscloud, a UK based company that provides location intelligence and risk data for the insurance industry.

Backend Engineer at UP42

Civil engineer and software developer (mainly C++). The last years I'm focused on GIS, contributing to PROJ and GDAL libraries. Member of the PSC of both projects.
Technical coordinator of the SRS team in Pix4D.

Jelena Lukić is a GIS Analyst and environmental professional from Belgrade, Serbia, with over a decade of experience in environmental monitoring and laboratory analysis. She holds an MSc in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Belgrade (2026), where her master’s thesis focused on spatial risk assessment of heavy metal pollution in surface waters using GIS‑AHP and Getis‑Ord Gi* cluster analysis.
At the City Institute of Public Health, she managed water, soil, and air quality assessments in compliance with ISO 17025, combining rigorous laboratory science with a data-driven perspective on environmental challenges. Her work integrates multi-criteria decision analysis (AHP) with spatial statistics to identify contamination patterns and assess environmental risk using open-source tools such as QGIS.
At FOSS4G Europe, Jelena will present the outcomes of her master’s research, demonstrating how open-source geospatial tools can transform complex environmental data into actionable insights for monitoring, regulatory compliance, and sustainable management. She is passionate about making advanced GIS methods accessible and practical for real-world environmental protection.

Jeremiah Domingues Gorrin | Senior Backend Engineer, UP42
I am a Senior Backend Engineer at UP42, based in Berlin, where I build the cloud-native infrastructure that turns complex Earth observation data into accessible, actionable insights. UP42 is a leading geospatial developer platform that simplifies the way organizations access and analyze satellite imagery, providing a unified ecosystem for data, processing, and scaling geospatial products.

As a member of the Processing Team, I focus on the "engine room" of the platform. My work involves architecting the backend systems responsible for managing and storing terabytes of geospatial assets, primarily in STAC (SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog) and COG (Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF) formats. By ensuring this data is indexed, stored, and highly available, I help provide the foundation for our users to perform advanced analytics without the typical infrastructure overhead.

A major part of my current focus is building our production-grade WMTS (Web Map Tile Service) using GeoServer. Operating in a Kubernetes environment, I’m tackling the unique challenges of scaling GeoServer Cloud to deliver seamless, high-speed imagery streaming to professional GIS tools. In tandem, I develop the systems that power our processing engine, which allows users to trigger heavy-duty geospatial jobs—such as orthorectification and upsampling—directly on their stored assets.

My technical toolkit is built on Kotlin, Java, and Python, leveraging both GCP and AWS to maintain a resilient, multi-cloud infrastructure. I am passionate about the intersection of software engineering and geospatial science—solving the "unseen" bottlenecks in data throughput and compute orchestration so that our users can focus on solving global challenges.

Ultimately, I see my role as the bridge between raw geospatial storage and production-ready intelligence. Whether I’m optimizing a GeoServer cluster or streamlining a processing job workflow, my goal is to ensure that the view from above is always just an API call away.

CEO/Owner of GeoCat BV, GeoCat Geospatial S.L. and GeoCat Canada Ltd. – Chair and founder of the GeoNetwork opensource – OSGeo President of the Board of Directors.

GeoCat was founded by Jeroen in 2007. Jeroen studied Tropical Forestry at Wageningen University specialising in GIS and Remote Sensing. Following graduation in 1997, he worked for the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Rome for nine years. Jeroen held various positions for the FAO in GIS/remote sensing and established the GeoNetwork opensource project. The FAO GeoNetwork is the first implementation based on this software, releasing a large quantity of geospatial data to the public.

Today GeoNetwork opensource is widely used as geospatial catalogue application with implementations from smaller projects to national and international level catalogs including National Geospatial & Open Data Registries and the INSPIRE GeoPortal in the EU.

Jeroen has been promoting the use of international standards and Free and Open Source Software for geographic data and information for over twenty years now. Jeroen is Project Officer for the GeoNetwork opensource project. He currently serves on the OSGeo Board, and did so in 2007 & 2008. He is a Charter member since the early days of OSGeo.

Besides everything geospatial Jeroen loves travel, carpentry, working on his overland truck, study Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology, and walk, work and live outside.

Jody Garnett is an open source developer and advocate working with GeoCat Canada. He has over 20 years experience consulting, training, building solutions, and guiding technology development. Jody is on the steering committee for the GeoServer, GeoTools, and JTS Topology Suite projects, and volunteers as chair of the OSGeo Incubation Committee.

In early 2021, Kurt moved from the USA to Denmark and now works for Septima in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has a broad skillset. He is a spatial analyst, cartographer, trainer/teacher and author. He has just published his 11th book on the open-source GIS software QGIS with Locate Press - Descubriendo QGIS 3.x – Segunda Edicion. He was elected as an OsGeo Charter Member in 2015. He's also a fellow of the Rewilding Institute and a board member of Wild Arizona.

Data scientist building Shiny applications powered by GeoServer, with prior experience in QGIS and remote sensing for disease vector modelling. For the past year at Flanders Marine Institute, she has focused on translating geospatial services into practical data tools.

Laurențiu is quite passionate about software performance and optimization, the Rust programming language, and unfinished projects, but somehow ended up at a fuzzy point between Remote Sensing, agriculture and, occasionally, IDE development.

Senior Software Engineer in GIS and Technical Lead of the MapStore project, active in the open-source GIS community since 2011. I have a background in neural networks, expert systems, and early AI approaches to the Semantic Web. In my free time, I study Japanese, follow science and technology, enjoy problem-solving, and contribute to science outreach with a local amateur astronomy group.

Loïc is a Cloud Engineer at Development Seed with a blend of scientific data expertise and cloud infrastructure experience. Before moving into software engineering, he spent over a decade as a physical oceanographer, building data-processing systems for large geospatial datasets from ocean robots, research vessels, buoys, and satellites.

At Development Seed, Loïc designs and builds scalable cloud platforms that help organizations process and access Earth observation datasets.

A seasoned WebGIS developer with extensive experience in building and managing geospatial applications. With a strong focus on usability and open-source technologies, there is a clear drive to make spatial data more accessible and practical.

As CTO at Plan4Better, the work centers on developing innovative solutions at the intersection of mobility, sustainability, and GIS. With a passion for turning complex data into useful tools, the focus lies in bridging the gap between advanced geospatial technology and real-world decision-making.

Marco Minghini obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Environmental and Geomatics Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Since August 2018 he works as a Scientific Project Officer at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, supporting EU policies on geospatial data sharing (including the INSPIRE and Open Data Directives) and digital sovereignty (including open source software). He is a researcher, educator and advocate on open source software and open data. He became an OSGeo Charter Member in 2015. From 2018 to 2021 he was a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards. Since 2022 he is the Chair of ISPRS Intercommission Working Group “Open innovation in Geospatial science and Remote Sensing”. He is a regular participant and presenter at global and local FOSS4G events. He was the Secretary of FOSS4G Europe 2015, a member of the Local Organising Team of FOSS4G 2022 and a Co-chair of the Academic Track at FOSS4G 2022 and FOSS4G Europe 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Marian Neagul is currently a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Institute eAustria Timisoara. Marian graduated with a B.A. degree in Computer Science from West University of Timisoara (UVT). He obtained his M.S. from UVT in 2011 and a Ph.D. also from UVT in 2015.

Marian’s general research topics cover machine learning, distributed systems, computer networks and operating systems. Lately he has focused on Machine Learning applied to Earth Observation applications, Earth Observation platforms and Cloud Computing, particularly orchestration, deployment and configuration management.

Marian was involved in several research projects ranging from areas like GRID Computing, Cloud Computing up to Digital Preservation. Some of the notable research projects include the FP7 mOSAIC Project (building an PaaS and API for cloud applications), FP7 MODAClouds (focusing on model driven development of cloud applications), H2020 CloudLightning (targeting the research of self organising clouds), H2020 Harmonia and AI4Europe. As part of his work in the afore mentioned projects Marian coauthored more then a dozen research papers in the areas of interest of the projects.

Marian is also involved in standardisation activities with ESA and OGC, particularly in the area of exploitation platforms and EO processing specifications.

Mariano Salas completed his Master’s degree in Geoinformatics and GIS Programming at the University of Girona in 2023. During and after his studies, he gained practical experience in the GIS field, including working as a GIS Support Technician at Hexagon Switzerland in Zurich.

From late 2023 to early 2026, he worked as a GIS Specialist, supporting the decarbonization of heat supply systems, particularly in large-scale district heating projects in Switzerland.

Since 2026, he has been working at Sourcepole as QGIS Cloud Product Owner and GIS Project Manager.

Mariano is actively involved in the international geo-community and regularly participates in open-source events. His academic and professional experience in Spain, Germany and Switzerland, as well as his participation in international events, have contributed to building a large professional network.

Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience, including the last three at UP42 scaling cloud-native geospatial systems. Expert in Java, Kubernetes, and microservices, I specialize in OGC-compliant services and high-concurrency WMTS architectures. I focus on bridging the gap between complex spatial processing algorithms and robust, production-ready cloud infrastructure to ensure reliability and performance at scale.

I am a dedicated software developer with over eight years of experience in the field.
Currently, I serve as a Software/Python Developer at GeoSolutions, where I am a key contributor to the GeoNode project.
My professional background includes extensive work on various initiatives, encompassing web platforms, data processing pipelines, and more.

Nuno earned his BS and MS in Software Engineering from University of Minho. He started his career in the telecommunications industry by developing solutions for managing and monitoring telecommunications infrastructures. Currently he works at GeoSolutions where he develops advanced solutions for GIS challenges using open source software. In the last years he focused on distributed systems, big data technologies, maritime data processing and GIS. He contributes to several open source projects and is a committer of GeoServer, MapStore and GeoTools.

Octavian is Lead EEU Product Partnerships at HERE Technologies in Romania, with background in GIS and geospatial data ecosystems. His work focuses on building partnerships around data, standards, and interoperability across the globe.
He is actively involved in the open geospatial community and is a strong advocate for open data, open‑source software, and collaborative geospatial infrastructures. Octavian is particularly interested in how FOSS4G technologies, INSPIRE‑aligned data, and community‑driven initiatives can support public value, transparency, and sustainable decision‑making. He regularly contributes to civic, educational, and community projects aimed at strengthening the community.

Octavian Iercan got his PhD in remote sensing while also working on various research projects at the FELIS Institute of Remote Sensing and Landscape Information Systems, from the Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany. After his studies, he worked at TeleAtlas (Vienna) as country manager for Romania, at Google (Zurich) as Operations Lead for StreetView projects, at EPFL (Lausanne) as a Postdoctoral Researcher, and at SwissRe (Zurich) as Head of Geoinformation.

Tech Lead und GIS developer at Camptocamp seit 8 Jahre, wohnt in Berlin.

Leading organizations to higher level of field data collection.

As GIS consultant at Lutra Consulting I focus on helping companies adapt QGIS and Mergin Maps to minimize data loss during data collection and enabling them to scale their projects.

As an extrovert I like to meet new people and learn their point of view on topics!

Pekka Sarkola has over 30 years of experience in building GIS solutions. He began his career at the National Land Survey of Finland, spending several years working with closed-source GIS software before transitioning to actively using FOSS4G software in 2012.
Pekka is the founder of Gispo companies in Finland (Gispo Suomi Oy) and Sweden (Gispo Sverige AB). He currently works as a senior GIS expert, focusing primarily on Enterprise GIS solutions and GIS database design and modeling. Pekka has worked in numerous GIS domain areas, including forestry, topographic data management, aviation, defense, telecommunications, and city planning.
As a volunteer, Pekka is a founder member of OSGeo Suomi ry (the local chapter of the OSGeo Foundation in Finland) and has organized FOSS4G Suomi (most recently in 2025). He is also a Charter Member of the OSGeo Foundation and the president of OSGeo Suomi ry. Furthermore, he is a co-organizer of the Helsinki PostgreSQL meetup and an active neighborhood OpenStreetMap mapper.

Hans has been working at IHE Delft in The Netherlands, helping students use open source tools to mitigate water issues. He is also an annual contributor to QGIS, owner of QWAST GIS, and he hosts a popular Youtube channel on QGIS tutorials

Software Engineer at Sourcepole AG

Simone Giannecchini is founder and managing director of GeoSolutions. He is a Charter Member of OSGeo, the Open Source Geospatial foundation. He is also a member of the Steering committee for the GeoTools as well as the GeoServer Open Source projects.
Before founding GeoSolutions he has worked as Software Engineer at the NATO Undersea Research Center, a Military R&D facility based in La Spezia (Italy), on the implementation of a client-server infrastructure capable of storing, managing and disseminating geospatial data (vector, gridded, imagery) leveraging on WCS, WFS and WMS Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Specifications.

Born and raised in Thessaloniki, I am a graduate of the Department of Topography and Geoinformatics Engineering at the International Hellenic University, and I also hold a Master’s degree in Applied Informatics from the University of Macedonia, specializing in Application Development and Cloud Computing.
Over the past six years, I have cultivated expertise in Database Engineering, with a focus on both relational (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, Neo4j) databases, as well as IoT data integration. My role also extends to Application Development, where I engage in JavaScript development and configuration, collaborating closely with the development team to deliver efficient web-based solutions.
As a GIS specialist, my work centers on the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with database infrastructure modeling. I design systems to host geospatial data, enabling consistent integration into applications and ensuring data management and presentation for clients and the public.
I am deeply passionate about the ever-evolving field of technology, particularly in GeoInformatics and Data Engineering. This passion fuels my commitment to continuous learning and innovation, as I aim to push the boundaries of what is possible in GIS, database management, and application development.

I build high-performance mapping and navigation systems—especially when OpenStreetMap data, mobile/embedded constraints, and real-time UX all collide.
What I do best:
- Map & navigation architecture (SDKs, services, data formats, integration patterns)
- OSM-driven data engineering (compilation pipelines, incremental updates, size/perf optimization)
- Rendering engines (OpenGL/mobile & embedded performance, platform constraints)
- Engineering leadership (teams, delivery systems, hiring/mentoring, multi-year roadmap execution)

Stefanie Lumnitz works at the intersection of environmental data, artificial intelligence, and European policy. She is an Environmental Observations Policy Officer at the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, currently seconded from the European Space Agency. Her work focuses on strengthening Europe’s Earth intelligence ecosystem by connecting environmental observations, modelling, AI, and open geospatial technologies. Through initiatives such as the EC–ESA Earth System Science Initiative, she brings together scientific communities across Europe to close key knowledge gaps in the Earth system while fostering open, collaborative infrastructures for environmental data and analytics. She is particularly interested in how open geospatial ecosystems can strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty, support sustainable digital infrastructures, and stimulate a stronger innovation and start-up culture around environmental data and open-source technologies.

Software developer at CS GROUP France and main contributor of EODAG Open Source library

Thijs Oosterhuis is a Solutions Architect for Geo and Remote Sensing data at the Province of South Holland, where he builds spatial data infrastructure and AI-powered geospatial tools for regional policy and planning. He holds an MSc in Geo-Information Sciences from Wageningen University and has worked across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America in earth observation, GIS, and remote sensing roles at organisations including CGI and Space4Good.
At Zuid-Holland, Thijs helps the development of a provincial spatial data warehouse combining open Dutch datasets into an H3 geo-datacube, and is building natural-language interfaces that make that data accessible to non-technical users. He writes about spatial data, H3, and open geodata at maps.mapsthatmatter.io and is an active member of the OSGeo.nl community.

Senior Software Engineer and project manager at GeoSolutions Srl. Product Owner and coordinator of the MapStore WebGIS project. Public profile at www.linkedin.com/in/tobia-di-pisa-1b59a83a

Tom Kralidis is with the Meteorological Service of Canada and longtime contributor to FOSS4G. He leads and contributes to numerous projects in the Geopython ecosystem. He is the 2024 recipient of the Sol Katz Award for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G), awarded annually by OSGeo to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in the FOSS4G community.

Tom is the co-chair of the OGC API - Records Standards Working Group, chair of the WMO Expert Team on Metadata, and serves on the OSGeo Board of Directors.

Software Engineer | GIS / Web Developer | Researcher (Geospatial Stack)

Hydrographic Senior Software Engineer with QPS BV, core developer of Qimera, a post-processing toolbox for hydrographic data.

Former Hydrographic Chief Survey Technician aboard the NOAA Ship Fairweather, and former land surveyor.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2088-8353

Yanko Godaert is a GIS consultant at GeoSquare Belgium, specializing in open-source and low-code geospatial solutions. He holds a Master’s degree in Geography with a specialization in Geo-ICT from Ghent University, where he developed a strong foundation in spatial data analysis, modelling, visualization and application development.

He started his career as a front-end developer and evolved towards data engineering. Over the past years, he has gained experience across industry and government, including projects for ArcelorMittal and the Flemish Department of Mobility and Public Works.

Yanko has built extensive expertise in open-source technologies such as MapStore, GeoServer, PostGIS and QGIS. As an expert in Open Source & Low Code GIS Solutions, he focuses on delivering flexible, scalable geoportals that support data-driven decision-making and promote the adoption of open geospatial ecosystems.

Founder of MapLibre & OxiBUS, author of Wikipedia API and Maps, lead Rivian and Elastic maps efforts.

Freelancing GIS Vizier who dabbles in all things geospatial with a focus on quantifying climate change. Lately, I have been involved a lot with community building activities including organizing FOSS4Gs, attending or organizing meetups.
My specific interests are in EO for Climate Change.

• jsonsingh.com
• linkedin.com/in/jsonsingh

Engineer at IGN for over fifteen years, and a photogrammetrist by training, I specialize in the development of tools for the creation of 3D geographical data (3d urban models, DTM, DTS, etc.). Currently, I lead a team of fifteen engineers, developers and UX designers. The main function of our team is to create tools for the production of data as lidar classified, raster (oriented images, orthophoto), 3d data (3d urban models, DTM, DTS) and mobile-mapping data. We are currently heavily involved in the development of tools for the production of lidar coverage of entire France, in large part by proposing Open-Source components. We are also involved in 3D geographic data visualization as one of the main maintainers of the iTowns library (also Open-Source).