A geography journey for all ages and stages

Dr Karen Joyce

Photo supplied by Karen Joyce

For the inaugural Geography Matters event we are proud to present Dr Karen Joyce, Associate Professor - Remote Sensing and Spatial Science, James Cook University presenting on her topic and interviewed by John Tasker, Remote Sensing Specialist and RGSQ President.

Dr Karen Joyce is a biographer for Mother Earth, using satellites and drones as her scientific illustrators. She shares her experiences drawn from more than 20 years as a geospatial scientist in academia, military, industry, and small business to help people discover science beyond lab coats and test tubes. But she has an ulterior motive. Karen is passionate about how we can use drones and geospatial technology to watch over our environment and its changes. So the more people she can inspire to join her, the faster we can put plans in place to help keep our environment healthy into the future.

Karen has a diverse history having worked in academia since the late 1990’s. After finishing her PhD at the University of Queensland in mapping live coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef, she made a career change and became a Geomatic Engineering Officer in the Australian Army. This allowed her to apply her mapping skills to new problems, and broaden her horizons.

Then Karen moved to New Zealand to travel the country mapping recreation opportunities with the Conservation Estate with the Department of Conservation. From phenomenal beauty to hazards, Karen turned her focus to earthquakes, landslides, floods, and volcanoes, at GNS Science using her mapping skills to better understand and inform authorities on disaster management.

Karen is now a Senior Lecturer at James Cook University in Cairns, and still works on the Great Barrier Reef and in the other surrounding ecosystems that far North Queensland has to offer.

For the past six years Karen has used her role as co-founder and Education Director of She Maps to actively diversify science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) through drones and geospatial technology. Her programs have been taught more than 300 times to more than 6500 students and teachers. She Maps is a regular feature in the media, has attracted international attention, and we even have programs running in 15 countries around the world. 

Most recently Karen co-founded the online drone data repository GeoNadir where she works with scientists and drone operators around the world to protect our world's most at-risk ecosystems. GeoNadir is based on FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable).

Date: 13 June 2023

Time: 7:30 – 8:30 pm EST

Delivery: ZOOM

Please note: the Zoom the link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the event date. This event may be recorded. If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.