Chris George

Chris George is currently Associate Director of the International Institute for Software Technology of the United Nations University, in Macao, where he has been working since 1994.  A software engineer by profession, he has become interested in environmental software in the last couple of years, and is actively working on the WaterBase project.

Dagnachew Legesse Belachew

Dr. Dagnachwe is Assistant Professor of GIS and Remote Sensing and Environmental Modeling at Addis Ababa University, Department of Earth Sciences. He has extensive consulting experience in GIS, image processing, database management, and modeling.

He holds a BSc from Addis Ababa University, an MSc from the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC),  Enschede, The Netherlands, and the PhD in Environmental Geosciences from the University of Aix-Marseille, France. He participated in many short-term training courses and symposia in modeling, hydrology, climate change and environmental sciences in the Netherlands, France, Canada, Kenya and Switzerland). Dr. Dagnachew held a postdoctoral fellowship at the European Center for Environment and Earth Science (CEREGE). Marseille, France. He is participating in may transport network studies. He serves ad coordinator and trainer in a number of GIS and remote sensing training programs at Addis Ababa University, and has been both a principal investigator and a collaborator in many research projects,including remote sensing of geothermal areas in the Rift Valley, and has participated extensively in hydrological, climate change, water supply and flood risk analysis, and many other studies requiring his expertise. His research has resulted in numerous refereed publications. 

Giovanni Molina.

Mario Giovanni Molina Masferrer is Chief of Territorial Reference System of SNET (Servicio Nacional de Estudios Territoriales or Territorial Studies National Service) in El Salvador. His department is responsible for the development of ICT for early warning systems and geospatial applications for forecasting, monitoring and mapping of natural phenomena that can generate a disaster. He has worked with GIS Applications for ten years and for the last five years his interest is geo-hazards, risk and vulnerability zone classification using GIS technologies. He holds the degrees and diplomas of: BSc (Mathematics) and MSc (Applied Statistics), University of El Salvador and Diploma, Geo-Hazards Zone Classification using GIS, ITC, Enschede, the Netherlands. He is Professor of Computing and Mathematics, University of El Salvador and has previously been a GIS specialist in the El Salvador Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

Lindsay Marshall

Lindsay Marshall is the Associate Dean of the Mi’kmaq (First Nation) College Institute at Cape Breton University. He is the former Chief (1996-2002) of the Chapel Island First Nation (Potlotek) on Cape Breton Island (Canada) and brings local, regional and national experience to his new position. Marshall has been a member of the Board for the Mi’kmaq Association of Cultural Studies, Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, and Assembly of First Nations (of Canada). Current affiliations include: Co-Chair, Sustainable Communities Initiatives; Member, Pitu’paq, Chiefs, Wardens and Mayors Committee; and a Member of Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO). Mr. Marshall has just being reappointed to the Mi’kmaw Council for Higher Education an advisory body for the Minister of Education of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Dr. Mieso Denko

Dr. Mieso Denko is an Associate Professor of Computing and Information Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.  He also teaches in the Applied Computing and Wireless Telecommunications Technology Program at the University of Guelph-Humber, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  His current research interests include Wireless networks, mobile computing, wireless sensor networks, mobile & wireless telemedicine and the appropriate telecommunication technologies for developing countries. He has published several research articles on the above areas in refereed international journals, conferences, workshops and contributed to book chapters. Dr. Denko has been involved in WITFOR since the first WITFOR event which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a co-founder of an International Workshop on Wireless Communications and Information Technology in Developing Countries which was first held in Santiago, Chile, in conjunction with World Computer Congress (WCC-2006).  Currently, he is the Vice-chair of the IFIP TC6 Working Group 6.9 (Communication Systems for Developing Countries).

Prof. Knut-Erik Solem

Dr. Knut Erik Solem is Professor of Political Science (Chair: Environment, Technology and Social Change) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), located in Trondheim. He has advised the Norwegian Government (on Cabinet as well as departmental levels) as well as private organizations and companies on issues of educational competence, labour market and socio-economic change. Dr.Solem has taught and lectured widely in Europe, the US and Canada.

Professor Virginia Brilhante

Virginia Brilhante's first degree is in Computer Science, having started her career as a software engineer in industry. She later received an M.Sc. degree in IT: Knowledge-Based Systems from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and a Ph.D. degree in Artificial Intelligence, from the same university, for her work on ontologies and knowledge reuse in synthesis of ecological models. She now holds an associate professorship at the Department of Computing Science, Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil, where she has been teaching and doing research on knowledge engineering with a special interest on the environmental modelling application domain.

Prof. Dr. Zerihun Woldu

Prof Zerihun Woldu has a long and distinguished career in vegetation and landscape ecology, natural resources conservation, plant biodiversity research, remote sensing and GIS in plant ecology, ecological rehabilitation, and biosafety. He holds BSc and Master’s degrees from Addis Ababa University and the PhD in Plant Ecology from Uppsala University (Sweden). He has risen through the academic ranks at Addis Ababa University, where he currently holds the rank of Professor. He has participated in many international certification programs, His extensive research record includes 39 refereed publications and 15 contributions to national and international symposia, having contributed to more than 30 international workshops and symposia in his research areas. He has served as a consultant in numerous projects in plant ecology, remediation and biosafety. Prof. Zerihune continues to contribute to many Ethiopian and international societies, as a member and as an Editor-in Chief of various societies’ publications, and has a prolific record of teaching and graduate research supervision.

Ouédraogo M. Paulin

Ouédraogo M. Paulin is chief of the project NTIC/ Sahel Solidarité. M. Paulin is experienced in presentation technologies, community mobilization, training leaders, educators and audiences in ITC tools, production of ICT based tools for raising sensitivity to issues with the aid of software tools, basic computer software and data processing maintenance.

NTIC stands for Nouvelles Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (New Information and Communications Technologies - in English known as ICT)., and Sahel Solidarité is a Burkina Faso-based not-for-profit non-governmental organization dedicated to the assistance of communities at risk in the Burkina Sahel and Mali.