ESRI adds to Environmental Management Team

14 October 2008, 7:11pm

Redlands, California—October 14, 2008—The many people who use geographic information system (GIS) technology to better understand and manage the environment have a new resource in ESRI's environmental industry manager Dr. Robin D. Smith. GIS users will benefit from his 25 years of experience conducting and managing more than 60 environmental investigations and modeling projects and subsequent ecological and human health risk assessments for corrective actions both nationally and internationally.

Smith holds a Ph.D. in toxicology and a bachelor of science degree in evolutionary ecology. Throughout his career, he has worked with representatives from industry, national and local governments, and nongovernmental organizations, providing him with useful experiences for his new position at ESRI. Having a solid grasp on environmental management theory and concepts, he has been a professor at the graduate level in environmental risk analysis. In addition, he has real-world practice in applying his capabilities as a state regulator working in the areas of air quality and pesticide regulation. Smith is a member of the Air and Waste Management Association and a full member of the Society of Toxicology.

"We face increasingly complex environmental issues that demand we use the best technologies available to understand, communicate, and address these challenging situations," notes Smith. "GIS plays a pivotal role in our ability to analyze, manage, and preserve and sustain our environment. GIS is powerful because of its ability to rapidly bring together groups, organizations, and individuals in a way that facilitates environmental decision making on a shared or common problem. My goal is to bring this technology to all levels of society, industry, and government to support the stewardship of our environment."

ESRI president Jack Dangermond says, "We are highly committed to the efforts of GIS users to understand environmental issues and develop strategies for managing a sustainable planet. Bringing Dr. Smith to the ESRI team will aid in the focus and growth of this critical goal."

Some of ESRI's earliest software users were environmental scientists and managers who used GIS to improve their understanding of environmental quality issues for regulatory compliance purposes. Since that time, environmental science GIS applications have continued to grow and expand into research and decision support tools for evaluating and managing issues. Smith's work has focused on identifying and bringing together disparate groups of stakeholders in collaborative processes to reach agreements on solutions to public health and environmental concerns. This expertise serves ESRI and the environmental management community well in continuing ESRI's objectives of building software that responds to users' needs.

www.esri.com

Geo: International