Chris Aubrecht represents the European Space Agency (ESA) at the World Bank, providing strategic advice and coordinating collaborative activities. ESA’s Earth Observation for Sustainable Development #EO4SD initiative provides support to International Financial Institutions in increasing uptake of Earth Observation with the aim of long-term mainstreaming and transfer into development operations.
Prior to joining ESA, Chris was leading the spatial analytics efforts under the WB CDRP disaster resilience initiative. For 10 years he worked at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, in the end serving as senior advisor on geospatial strategy development. Further previous affiliations include GFDRR, NOAA, Columbia U. CIESIN & NASA-SEDAC, U. Southern California, and EADS-Astrium.
Chris has guest lectured at Johns Hopkins U. and George Washington U. and was recently appointed as visiting professor in GIScience at U. of Vienna where he had previously served for several years as adjunct lecturer on geospatial analytics and remote sensing. He holds a PhD in integrated GIScience and remote sensing from Vienna U. of Technology, a prior master’s degree in geography and GIScience from the U. of Vienna, and certificates in executive leadership and management development from Harvard University.