dswayne@cis.uoguelph.ca
http://www.crle.uoguelph.ca/dswayne

Professor David AB (Dave) Swayne is working at the Computing and Information Science, University of Guelph in Canada since 1981. He is also Adjunct Professor University of Waterloo and Algoma University College (Canada) and Saarland State University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and a William Evans Fellow of the University of Otago (NZ). Current research concentrates on the application of computing to environmental problems, using decision theoretical principles and graphical probability models, with an aim to link economic and engineering process models. Collaborative work with Environment Canada has put in place prototype and working environmental information systems at the national, regional and local levels: regional climate change modeling, particularly in the Arctic Great Lakes; acid rain deposition in Eastern North America; water pollution in the Great Lakes Basin and in the Northwest Territories; decision support for the Toronto (Canada) bioregion and also the Greater Vancouver (Canada) Water District; Lerma River / Lake Chapala in Mexico; Lake Malawi; the Murray-Darling River Basin in Australia (working with Australia’s CSIRO) and in Brazil. Our laboratory (the Computing Research Laboratory for the Environment or CRLE) has been a major contributor to Environment Canada’s web services WildSpace system. Prototype systems have been developed for pulp mill effluent, ocean dumping and mining effluent, and Sustainable Community Indicators (for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation). A current project involves land-lake-atmospheric regional climate change modeling, and parallel algorithms for environmental model auto-calibration. In the near future, collaboration will begin with El Salvador. Research service contributions have included: editorships and contributions to five books;78 refereed articles and 83 other contributions to conferences and workshops, Dr. Swayne is Associate Editor of the journal Environmental Modelling and Software; and Chair of International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 5.11 (Computers and Environment), a working group of IFIP Technical Committee 5 (Computers and Technology).

PROFESSOR (DR) INDURLALL FAGOONEE, is currently the Vice-Chancellor (Chief Executive) of the University of Mauritius. Professor Fagoonee’s academic and professional paths have been marked by noteworthy milestones. He studied in Paris (France) and Miami, Fl. (USA). He has published abundantly in scientific journals, including in the SCIENCE journal. His current interests are Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Trade, Productivity and Competitivity, and the Environment. He is a Consultant of national and international repute. He has also served as Adviser to his government. He is currently Chairman of the COMESA Regional Investment Agency, Board Director of the Board of Investment (Mauritius); Chairman of Mauritius Oceanography Institute and UN Commissioner for Legal Continental Shelf; he has also been Visiting Professor at various international Universities. Decoration: (Knighthood)Chevalier des Palmes Académiques. Fellow of the UK Institute of Biology (deemed DSc.)

gamtesfaye@yahoo.com

Mr. Tesfaye Woldeyes, graduated from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Forest Management and has also completed his postgraduate degree training programme (M.Sc.) in Geoinformation Science and RS in Natural Resource Managment at the Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation Institute of the Wageningen Agricultural University of the Netherlands. He has extensive experience in vegetation surveying, land use planning and environmental information management. He is currently Head of the Environmental Information Center of the Federal Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia. He is also a focal person and coordinator of the African Environment Information Network (AEIN) and is a member of the African Data working group for the AEIN. Mr. Tesfaye , has been utilizing GIS and RS tools as well as ICT extensively throughout his career.