Barb Ryan, formerly of the USGS and the World Geospatial Industry Council, joins us to talk about Barb’s 0,0 point at a hill and a creek in Dalton, New York, a trip to Las Cruces that stopped in Denver, joining the USGS at the water division, mass measurement of ground water wells, traveling to Antarctica, how Barb had a mountain in Antarctica named after her, Barb’s work as the Director of the Space Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), coordinating satellite observations of weather information, the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), a system of systems, how the Landsat archive became free and open data, the economic return and benefits of the satellite industry, the interconnectedness of the Earth system, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Chris McGinty from Utah State University joins us a guest instead of a host for this special one-year anniversary episode to talk about building 3D models of terrain from tinfoil, winning a Geography bee, a choice of a business degree in college, Chris’ time as a coal miner, the day the dean recommended a GIS class, Utah Geographic Information Council (UGIC), the birth of UtahView, Chris’ time as AmericaView’s Program Manager and his path to becoming the Executive Director of AmericaView, communicating science and education on Capitol Hill, the importance of Earth Observation data, the future of AmericaView, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Nicole Kong from Purdue University joins us to talk about choosing environmental science as a major, remote sensing of giant panda habitats, a slightly different choice to work outside of academia in the transportation field, a GIS Day event with Larry Biehl, developments and opportunities in IndianaView, Nicole’s role as Associate Dean, the growth of geospatial information science at Purdue, GIS and remote sensing in business and public health, the importance of open source tools and open data, MultiSpec, multidisciplinary collaboration in research, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com