Dr Adam Lewis

Branch Head of National Earth and Marine Observations
Geoscience Australia

Dr Adam Lewis leads Geoscience Australia's National Earth and Marine Observation Branch. Adam led the development of the Australian Geoscience Data Cube which won the 2016 Content Platform of the Year at the World Geospatial Forum in Hyderabad. The data cube is now a fully funded government program called Digital Earth Australia, and there is a growing international community around the open source code-base (opendatacube.org).

Before joining Geoscience Australia Adam worked for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority where he led the spatial analysis team in the Representative Areas Program or RAP. RAP expanded the fully protected areas of the Park from 4%, to 30%; it set new international benchmarks for marine planning, and won Australia’s Banksia Environmental Award for Government Leading by Example.  Adam’s team was also recognised with a Special Achievement in GIS Award in 2004.

Adam was also an early pioneer in GIS. As a researcher at James Cook University he developed the first depth & elevation model of the Great Barrier Reef and its catchments. Adam also helped to establish one of the earliest ESRI sites in Australia, in the Victorian Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands. His legacy included spatially enabling Victoria’s first Forest Management Plan, and establishing a Corporate Geospatial Data Library for the Department’s natural resources datasets.

Adam was part of a large team within Geoscience Australia that stepped up to support the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in its search for the missing aircraft MH370. Geoscience Australia’s work was recognised in with a Special Achievement in GIS Award in 2018.

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