Prof. Dr. Monika Kuffer is a Professor at the Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences (BMS) and at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC, University of Twente, the Netherlands). She earned an MSc in Human Geography (TU Munich), a second MSc in Geographic Information Science from the University of London, and a PhD from the
University of Twente. Her research focuses on sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly poverty (deprivation), living quality, and economic development in urban/rural environments using remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GISs), and AI-based methods. Prof. Kuffer is also a Steering Committee Member of the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE), the Dutch representative of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL), SIG chair for developing countries, and a member of the Steering Committee: EO for Sustainable Cities and Communities Toolkit.
Dr. Dana R. Thomson is the Associate Director of Science Applications at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Climate School, Columbia University, a Visiting Researcher at the University of Twente, and the coordinator of the IDEAMAPS Network. She obtained a BA in Geography from George Washington University, an MS in Global Public Health from Harvard University, and another MS and PhD in Social Statistics from the University of Southampton. Dr. Thomson’s research focuses on the identification of populations who are under-represented in large-scale household surveys, and the development of tools and protocols that improve survey accuracy of vulnerable and mobile populations. Her work is characterized by open-data, user-centered design, equitable partnerships that address historical inequities, and co-design of meaningful information. She has worked in service delivery or research alongside marginalized populations at AmeriCorps, the Brookings Institution, Johns Snow Inc (JSI), Measure DHS Project, World Bank, Harvard University, University of Rwanda, WorldPop, and Flowminder Foundation.
