topic Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist in Science Questions

Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

MichelleMathias — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 01:46:10 GMT

Event details:

• What: Join us, with special guest Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist, for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) live on the GeoNet Community in the Sciences group. Ask Dawn anything about science, GIS, her work at Esri (including the relationship of Esri to the scientific community), what's coming up at AGU, and any fun, interesting and thought-provoking questions.
• When: The AMA event will take place in this discussion thread on Friday December 8, 2017 from 10:00am-11am PT.

How to participate:

• During the AMA, if you are logged into GeoNet, you can post your questions in the comments below and Dawn will reply to your questions in the comments.
• You're welcome to post questions ahead of the AMA but we won't begin answering them until the AMA begins on December 8th at 10:00am PT.

Reminder: AMA Tips and GeoNet Community Guidelines

• You will need a GeoNet account in order to participate. If you don't have one, you can create one here.
• When asking questions and comments during the AMA, remember to follow the GeoNet Community Guiding Principles.
• During the AMA this discussion page will not auto-refresh, so please remember to refresh this page to see new questions, comments and replies.

You'll know the AMA is live when you see the picture below with Dawn. And then remember to refresh the page to see our updates and new questions and comments.

Thanks for joining us and we'll see you then!

10:00 am - And we're live! Go ahead and ask your questions!

10:30 am - We're halfway through. Great questions! Keep 'em coming!

10:55 am - Five minutes to go! Got any fun questions for Dawn?

11:00 am - Overtime! We'll continue to take your questions during this bonus 10 minutes!

11:10am - And that's a wrap! The live AMA has ended but Dawn will continue to answer questions as schedules allow. Thanks for joining us and asking great questions!

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

GregJameson — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 17:59:02 GMT

What is a cool project that you are currently working on?

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DeniseWesley — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:01:29 GMT

What inspired you to pursue GIS?

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DonaldBorer — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:02:34 GMT

What database architecture would you recommend for point vectors of water quality information? I am not believing the EMU has sufficient scale for such a near shore project.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

JosephKerski — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:02:47 GMT

Hi Dr Dawn!

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:02:58 GMT

Hi Gregory - Thanks for this great question to get us off and running! There are so many great project that I'm working on at Esri right now but I'd say the coolest is the Ecological Marine Units, http://www.esri.com/ecological-marine-units which is essentially a "digital ocean" that Esri has built along with colleagues at USGS, and several other partners. This was built as commissioned by the Group on Earth Observations, sort of a United Nations of Earth observing organizations. There is a lot of info on the web site shared but happy to provide more info later.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:04:57 GMT

Hi Denise! I was inspired to pursue GIS while a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara in the early 1990s when GIS was really starting to evolve from not just a mapping technology, but a whole field of science, now known as geographic information science or geospatial data science. So it was a FANTASTIC time to be introduced to GIS and to take courses from some of the great innovators of the field there at UCSB.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DrewStephens4689 — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:07:16 GMT

On behalf of Chris Mathias, Executive Director of Puente Institute (who is texting from remote Mexico):

Dawn-

How do you suggest we engage with science deniers?

Or, less political

What do you experience as the greatest threats and possibilities to research?

Thanks! Chris Mathias

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:07:48 GMT

Great question Donald! There is an excellent post by Kevin Butler of our Spatial Statistics Team, that may answer this question much better for you: https://community.esri.com/thread/200285-is-there-a-way-to-displayanalyze-vertical-profile-data-eg-water-temperature-at-several-depths-using-arcmap And in addition, the next phase of the EMU project now includes the release of a "task" in ArcGIS Pro that allows you to "localize" your own EMUs with much higher resolution data, hopefully data that you have yourself, rather than just relying on the global World Ocean Atlas that the EMUs were originally built on.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:08:11 GMT

Hi Joseph! Thanks for joining us!!

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DeniseWesley — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:09:57 GMT

Could you share who your primary influential female role models are, and how they have influenced your science career?

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:11:13 GMT

Thanks Chris for these excellent questions, both that could be fodder for an AMA in and of themselves! But quickly, I would say the best way to engage science deniers is to first LISTEN to them and to their concerns. And then to try to find points of commonality, hopefully revolving around SOLUTIONS that we all need to seek, such as how do we ensure that we all have access to clean water and clean air, and enough food for our communities. That's a good starting point I think.

One of the greatest threats to research right now that also holds great potential, has to be the funding that is available, so that researchers are able to ask the proper questions to gain solutions, knowing that they can propose research projects that are properly resourced.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DeniseWesley — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:11:58 GMT

Hi Dawn!

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DonaldBorer — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:13:39 GMT

thanks.

Have you heard of the Fox River Watershed database as documented in

DEVELOPMENT OF A RELATIONAL DATABASE FOR

STUDYING ECOLOGICAL RESPONSE OF STREAMS

TO ANTHROPOGENIC WATERSHED STRESSES AND

STREAM MODIFICATIONS by Alena Bartošová, Ph.D. at the Illinois State Water Survey?

I am thinking of using this model. (I see you are not so keen on MGET anymore.)

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DeniseWesley — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:14:01 GMT

What do you consider as one of the scientific greatest challenges of our time that has the potential to be addressed using geographic information systems?

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:14:39 GMT

Thanks Denise, for the opportunity to answer a question like this! My absolute top female role model is my own mother, an educator in speech communication, but always a beacon of integrity, grace, patience, and good humor. Others who have inspired me include Dr. Sylvia Earle because of her energetic, articulate, and passioned crusading for the oceans and for the entire planet. Her ability to communicate with beauty and passion, as well scientific accuracy, has inspired me. I could go on and on but would also like to salute to Dr. Rachel Haymon, now retired from UCSB as a geology professor who taught me so much about how to lead scientific expeditions at sea and in the lab, and how to be unrelentingly rigorous and careful in doing science.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

JanBenson1 — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:15:51 GMT

Hi Dawn, is the Marine Data Model still around? Is there a link for it?

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

DawnWright — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:17:03 GMT

Hi Donald - no have not heard of this database but will try to look it up after the AMA and would be happy to discuss with you further. And regarding MGET, my colleagues and I remain super keen on that platform of tools. They continue to improve upon the existing ones, to add new ones, and their use of the ArcGIS platform pushes us to improve on this end as well.

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

Anonymous User — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:17:22 GMT

Hey Dawn! Our NOAA group focuses of spatial planning related to commercial aquaculture screening and siting throughout the US EEZ. We are working on a NOAA (NCCOS/OCM)/DOE project now to integrate EMUs (or the capsule) into an ocean - reporting framework. We would love to collaborate further with yourself, Keith and the rest of the ESRI Ocean Team to optimize aspects of our efforts. Would ESRI be interested in this opportunity?

Re: Join us for a GeoNet AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist

ChristineWhite — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:17:39 GMT

Great point about the solutions focus! Some of the push back against science is rooted in fear... problems that feel daunting and hopeless. The solution focus - "what you can do now for a problem you experience" - is just the opposite: tangible, actionable, and empowering.