Keynote Speakers

Dr. Urška Demšar is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), Director of Postgraduate studies in the School of Geography & Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK, and is an established international leader in Geoinformatics. She is Associate Editor of the International Journal of GIScience and leads the Bell-Edwards Geographic Data Institute (BEGIN) in St Andrews. She specialises in movement analytics, developing new animal movement and human mobility methods. Her current research vision is to apply spatial data science to difficult problems in animal movement and human mobility and to bring the two disciplines together in terms of concepts, data and methods.

Prof. Michele Acuto is Professor of Urban Resilience in the School of Geographical Sciences and a Pro-Vice Chancellor (Global Engagement) of the University of Bristol. Michele is also a managing editor of Urban Studies and a Trustee of Fondation Botnar. He is an expert on urban politics and international urban planning and a keen researcher and practitioner of urban governance. Michele has worked with numerous city networks, UN agencies, and mayors around the world supporting city diplomacy across climate, health, resilience and migration

Dr. Stef De Sabbata is an Associate Professor of Geographical Information Science at the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Digital Culture and the Turing Academic Liaison of the University of Leicester. She is the Chair of the Geographical Information Science Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). Her current research focuses on geographical artificial intelligence, including the development of spatially-explicit approaches to urban analytics – e.g., applying deep neural networks to geodemographic classification and the analysis of urban form and function – and the study and use of foundation models in digital geographies and cultural analytics.