Lucia Lovison-Golob

Hello! I'm a consultant specialized in Geographic Information Systems and a GIS Instructor at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education. I  have a master in geotechnic from the University of Padua, Italy and a master in geophysics from Harvard University. I worked briefly for the University of Architecture, in Venice (Laboratory of Material Sciences) and for two mountain communities (a total of 40 towns and villages) during and after an earthquake emergency in Italy. Serving for two-years as their geologist, I coordinated locally the first microzonation effort in an epicentral area, under the overseeing of the Region of Friuli and what became afterwards the Civil Protection Department in Italy. My heart goes to those years, to  the wonderful people that rebuilt their lives from ground zero, after having lost so much, and to the excitement of building and testing the first Protezione Civile in Italy. Every time I go back, they treat me as if I am still part of their community.
Afterwards, I worked for the Italian national oil company, Agip SpA,  ENI Group, with the group in charge of handling the environmental and geodynamical issues in the field of non-renewable and renewable resources operations of the company worldwide. Later on, I became an oil exploration geophysicist. I was thrilled to discover and name two gas fields (Calpurnia and Cecilia) in the Adriatic sea, Mediterranean region. I loved to direct the work of the oil rigs and the excitement of the mining exploration. I also had a great working environment. I heard that the Calpurnia Field entered production in 2001.
The relationship with my husband, Richard Golob, brought me to the United States. Here, I've been a researcher and teaching assistant at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1987 to 1999.  I have been involved in earthquake prediction, energy exploration and production, and  environmental issues during all my professional career.
Since 1993, I have been increasingly involved with the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I found this set of tools absolutely amazing in bringing together the "pure science" with the "social science,'' the stochastic approach with the deterministic approach, imagery with life sciences. I'm convinced that Geographic Information Science is a science in its own right and it will penetrate every part of our society.
As a volunteer, I started the Geographical Information Systems User Group at Harvard (1997) and the GIS Colloquium Series in 1998, thanks to some funding of the Provost Harvey V. Fineberg and the commitment of Professor Göran Ekström. In 1999, thanks to an initial donation of Mr. Jack Dangermond and the good will of many other people, I started the Howard T. Fisher Prize in Geographical Information Science.

In 2002, I'm event coordinator for the celebration of the GIS Day by the GIS User Group at Harvard University, on November 20, 2002, titled "GIS at Harvard and Beyond." . This effort involves the participation of faculty, staff and students across different departments and institutes at Harvard university and other universities and agencies in the Boston area and will have an outreach component. I'm extremely honored to have the opportunity to bring together so many constituencies to focus their attention on incorporating GIS technology and science (GPS, GIS, aerial and remote sensing imagery) into their teaching and learning.

At the present time, I'm focused on the development of web-GIS applications, particularly on the Map Events Tool: a web-based collaborative GIS tool for teaching, and training both within a lab environment and in the field. I also closely follow the on-going efforts in interoperable GIS standards with the Open GIS Consortium and open source GIS software.

My research interests have been the use of  Environmental Indicators combined with GIS visualization in collaboration with Professor Peter Rogers (DEAS).

Latest teaching activities:

Fall 2002: Harvard Extension School course -- CSCI E40 -- "Geographic Information Science"

Summer 2002: workshop on "SAPHYRE" (Spatial Physical Resoures database);

Spring 2002: Harvard Extension School course -- CSCI E40 -- "Geographic Information Science and GIS Programming";

September 2001: seminar: "GIS, Remote Sensing, and Environmental Sensitivity Index Mapping in the Niger Delta";

Fall 2000: Harvard Extension School course -- CSCIE-40 --"Introduction to Geographical Information Science ".

I'm Co-Chair of the Harvard ABCD- Technology in Education user group.

Contact me at http://lab.dce.harvard.edu/extension/cscie40/lovison@eps.harvard.edu