User:Peter Loewe

Peter Löwe

Peter Löwe

Current Location: Potsdam / Hannover, Germany

Native Place: Michelstadt, Germany

Peter is a physical Geographer. He learend the ropes of GIS at UT Austin in 1994 (Geographers Craft Project by Ken Foote) and ventured into FOSS GIS during his PhD study (Radarmeteorology/Soil Erosion in South Africa), which relied heavily on GRASS GIS.

In 2000 he became the first person to actually join the newly founded german GRASS User Society (renamed in 2008: FOSSGIS.de).

After receiving research prices for his PhD and spin-off work, he founded GEOMANCERS.net (now: GISIX.com), producing GISIX, the first portable FOSSGIS workbench based on on a live-linux CD/DVD.

He also worked as a Ranger in the UNESCO Geopark Bergstrasse-Odenwald (south of Frankfurt a.M., Germany), developing prototype WebGIS-solutions and Globe-Browser interfaces for the trail network.

For the development of early warning systems, triggered by the Sumatra Tsunami of 2004, he joined the National German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam in 2006. After a two-year excursion into the remote sensing satellite industry (Rapideye AG), doing project management and developing GRASS/Google Earth based visualisation tools, he returned to GFZ for work at the Centre for Geoinformation Technology in 2011. His FOSS-related work focused on FOSSGIS-themed business process workflows (ITIL), large scale computing on the GFZ High Performance Cluster and data visualisation, including 3D Printing.

He actively advocates FOSSGIS in Science in the Earth and Space Informatics (ESSI) chapters of both the European Geoscience Union (EGU) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Reach out activities also include the launch and hosting of the annual GFZ GISDAY in November, which comes with a strong FOSSGIS flavour. Starting in 2012, informal "beer and pizza" meetings are staged to connect participants of the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco with the local OSGeo-chapter and the GIS industry.

On the side, he supported the Geoinformatics Department of the U of Potsdam by teaching Computational Visualisation and does FOSSGIS-related consulting.

By September 2013, he joined the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB), while continuing his work in FOSS GIS for High Performance Computing / Big Data as a visiting scientist at GFZ Potsdam.

OSGeo Experience

• Member of German Chapter [1] since 2000. Deputy Chairperson from 2008 - 2009
• Member of GRASS GIS (Add-on Developer) [2]: g.infer, v.out.kml, r.mandelbrot

• OSGeo Meeting Participation (excerpt)
  • GRASS Users Conference 2002
  • FOSS/GRASS Conference Bangkok 2004
  • FOSS4G Lausanne 2006
  • FOSS4G Cape Town 2008
  • QGIS Community Sprint Wroclaw 2010
  • FOSS4G Barcelona 2010
  • WGUG Meeting Wroclaw 2011
  • GRASS Community Sprint Prague 2011
  • FOSS4G-CEE Prague 2012

• OSGeo Reach Out Activities
  • Albert Einstein Science Park GIS Day 2011
  • European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2012: Splinter Session on FOSS in Science
  • Albert Einstein Science Park GIS Day 2012
  • American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2012: Full session of FOSS in Science (Convener)
  • European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2013: Splinter and full Session on FOSS in Science
  • Albert Einstein Science Park GIS Day 2013 (invited speaker)
  • American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2013: Full session of FOSS in Science (Convener)
  • European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2014 (Convener Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Geoinformatics and Geosciences)

Contact

Email: peter DOT loewe AT gmx DOT de

Spoken Language(s)

German (native speaker), English (fluent), Spanish (basic), Lisp, Python, Perl, Java, Bash

Profile last updated

2014-02-18

Present position

Head of Development at the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB)

Work experience

• 2011 - 2013: Project Manager / Senior Geoinformatics Troubleshooter @ Centre for Geoinformatics Technology (CeGIT) at the German Research Centre for GeoSciences (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany.
• 2008 - 2011: Project Manager in the Product Development Group of Rapideye AG
• 2007 - 2008: Scientific Project Manager (Distant Early Warning System Project: DEWS) at the German Research Centre for GeoSciences (GFZ)], Potsdam, Germany.
• 2006 - 2007: Geoinformatics Specialist (German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System: GITEWS) at the German Research Centre for GeoSciences (GFZ)], Potsdam, Germany.
• 2003 - now: General Manager of Geomancers.net(Würzburg)/GISIX.com (Potsdam), Germany.
• 2003 - 2006: Ranger at the Geopark Bergstrasse-Odenwald
• 1999 - 2002: Research Assistant (Geography / Computer Sciences) at the University of Würzburg, Germany.

Education

• Dissertation: "Artificial Intelligence Methods in Radar-Meteorology and Soil Erosion Research" Geography Department, University of Würzburg, 1998.

• Masters thesis knowledge-based reomte sensing classification: "Knowledge based classification of geographic spatial elements applied to a test site in southern Namibia", Geography Department, University of Würzburg, 1998.

• 1994/95 Exchange Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Focus: GIS (The Geographers Craft), Urban Studies, Geoarcheology

Computer skills and related activities

• Languages: Python, Perl, Lisp, R, C, Java, bash, SQL, COOL.
• Software: GRASS GIS, Quantum GIS, Clips, POV-Ray, Blender, Google Earth, R
• LSF-based High Performance Clusters
• Memberships:
  • FOSSGIS.de
  • American Geophysical Union
  • European Geosciences Union
  • Interessengemeinschaft Odenwald (IGO)
  • Breuberg-Bund

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