New Member Nominations 2026

This list of nominees is maintained by the Chief Returning Officer (cro@osgeo.org). This page is write protected and can only be edited by CRO

#	Nominee Name	Country	Positive attributes	Nominated by
1	Dirk Stenger	Germany	Astrid Emde: Dirk Stenger is a familiar face on FOSS4Gs and FOSSGIS as speaker. He is promoting deegree and OGC standards since many years. Dirk is an expert in designing and implementing SDI solutions based on Open Source software, OGC standards and cloud architecture. He is an active community member of the OSGeo project deegree contributing as a committer. He is based in Germany and is working at latlon. He is involved in the project TEAM Engine, an OSGeo community project that provides a testing facility for executing test suites. It ẃould be great to welcome Dirk in our community. Profile: Dirk Stenger Wiki: Dirk Stenger	Astrid Emde
2	Jin Igarashi	Japan	Vicky Vergara: Jin Igarashi is a Senior Software Engineer with over 13 years of international experience across Japan and Eastern Africa, specializing in GIS, information technology, and the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sectors. He holds an MSc with distinction in Water, Sanitation, and Health Engineering from the University of Leeds—where he conducted research on urban sanitation lifecycle costs in Kenya for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s CACTUS project—and an MSc in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of York. Jin Igarashi has made extensive contributions to open-source software (FOSS4G) and enterprise applications, primarily focusing on spatial data visualization, map interaction, and water management infrastructure. At the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), he architected and developed UNDP GeoHub, a centralized open-source cloud platform utilizing SvelteKit, MapLibre GL, and PostGIS to help policymakers analyze and visualize spatial datasets, as well as RAPIDA, a semi-automated geospatial tool for rapid crisis response. He is a key maintainer and contributor to popular map-drawing libraries like Terra Draw and maplibre-gl-terradraw, alongside developing custom SvelteKit component libraries and boilerplates for MapLibre JS. Through his open-source organization WaterGIS, Igarashi builds and maintains open-source mapping tools, vector tile generators, and WebGIS applications—work that supports water asset mapping, rural water supply tracking, and Non-Revenue Water (NRW) management for utilities in Kenya and Rwanda. His broader technical footprint spans enterprise software development for companies like Fujitsu and Fracta, as well as Japanese localization contributions for mobile geospatial tools like QField and Input. Profile: Jin Igarashi	Vicky Vergara
3	Matthias Mhor	Germany	Joana Simoes: Matthias has been heavily involved with STAC and other specifications from the cloud native geospatial realm, as well as their open source implementations. He is the main author of the openEO specification, which lowers the barrier to use EO data. By participating in OGC and OSGeo events like Code Sprints and Conferences, Matthias has been helping to build bridges between the two communities, pushing towards interoperability in Free and Open Source Geospatial Software. Profile: Matthias Mhor Wiki: Matthias Mhor	Joana Simoes
4	Luiza Marques Fonseca dos Santos	Brazil	George Porto Ferreira: I'm nominating Luiza because she supports and promotes the use of free and open source geospatial software and data in a collaborative manner. She volunteered at FOSS4G 2024 - Belém do Pará and presented the talk "Uber's Open Source H3 Index in Open Source Projects: Simplifying Distance Calculation and Data Storage". Her contribution to the open source community, mainly as a coder, has been consistent over the past years. Profile: Luiza Marques Fonseca dos Santos Wiki: Luiza Marques Fonseca dos Santos	George Porto Ferreira
5	Berit Mohr	Germany	Luís de Sousa: Berit Mohr is a passionate GIS expert and advocate for open-source software. With a background in Geology, she has worked in New Zeeland and accross Europe, in academia and the private sector, also in international development. Berit has regularly attended FOSS4G conferences, easily engaging with the community. In 2025 she was part of the effort to revive OSGeo-Europe as a legal and institutional entity. Since 2024 Berit has been a GIS specialist at OpenGis.ch. Profile: Berit Mohr	Luís de Sousa
6	Dominik Weckmüller	Germany	Marco Minghini: Dominik is an open source data and software advocate. He builds geospatial communities (MilanoGIS [1], gis.chat [2], social media), shares geospatial tutorials ([3]), researches (PhD Student at TU Dresden & Guest Researcher at IIASA) and is an active member of global geospatial organizations such as the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). He maintains core infrastructure such as CEOS' EO Glossary [4], a public dataset of all European legislation (EUR-LEX [5]) and contributes to a tighter integration of EU policy and EO products at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) at the European Commission [6]. Giving frequent talks at conferences (FOSS4G, EGU) and podcasts (Mapscaping [7]), he tries to share as much as possible and give back to the geospatial community. Dominik would like to take on more responsibilities and help strengthen the community he benefited from in his career. Profile: Dominik Weckmüller Wiki: Dominik Weckmüller	Marco Minghini
7	Jonathan Beliën	Belgium	Gaël Kruwialis: Jonathan Beliën has been a pillar of the Belgian open-source geospatial community since its earliest days. As a full-stack web developer specialising in digital cartography, he has contributed concrete open-source tools — including a PHP library for MapServer Mapfile management — and has been an active board member of OpenStreetMap Belgium, with involvement that extends well beyond Belgium's borders with a commitment that extends far beyond Belgium’s borders, building bridges between communities. Jonathan has been present at OSGeo Belgium events from the very beginning, helping build the local community that FOSS4G Belgium now represents. His combination of technical contributions, community leadership, and sustained long-term engagement makes him an ideal Charter Member candidate. Moritz Lennert: I second the nomination of Jonathan. Profile: Jonathan Beliën Wiki: Jonathan Beliën	Gaël Kruwialis Moritz Lennert
12	Alen Mangafić	Slovenia	Edouard Choinière: I met Alen as an user 3 years ago. Since then, he’s been a remarkable advocate for GRASS and open source GIS, introducing new members and even turning into a code contributor: created a whole set of tools for modern hyperspectral data processing and analysis. He pushed for the local OSGeo chapter in Slovenia and helped organise events. Luís de Sousa: It is a great honour to second Alen's nomination to charter member. Alen is one of the jokers in the GRASS project, no dull moment around him. He is regularly present at Community events and often promotes the project at venues like FOSS4G. Alen has contributed greatly to the development of satellite imagery processing in GRASS, being a major human engine in that domain within the OSGeo Community. Alen is also deeply engaged in the promotion of open source software for geo-spatial in his native Slovenia. Profile: Alen Mangafić Wiki: Alen Mangafić	Edouard Choinière Luís de Sousa