Interview: Cornelia Freund
ED: You grew up on a small island in the Philippines. You studied Environmental Engineering and Physics. How do your professional career and your personal experience relate to space technologies? How did you become a geodata scientist?
Stephanie: When I was a kid, I always looked up to the sky at night and dreamt about reaching the stars. This may sound like a cliché, but I guess that's what every child does, especially when you’re on a small island with a clear night sky. And during the day, I enjoyed the incredible nature around me, and I started to realize that I’m surrounded by a mix of diverse and rich environments. We have the sea and the forests, and it felt like I was truly connected to nature. But growing up, I also started to realize that the rapid changes around me in the name of development have somewhat degraded the natural resources I have around me.
However, it didn't come up to me to take a course that is related or close to environmental science. I took applied physics in the university for my bachelor’s degree because I came from a science high school and it influenced me a lot and my interest in the physical world, like, you know, your understanding that science works in every single fabric of your life. And this decision made my parents worried if a degree in physics would do me any good because from where I come from, it’s an unusual field to take. They wanted me to be a nurse but I was stubborn. I still pursued applied physics and while I was at it, I took a lecture class on environmental physics, which convinced me to proceed to do my master's in environmental engineering and take courses on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and attend lectures on remote sensing, where I learned about mapping and related data analysis.
While doing my master’s, I also worked for an astrophysicist who, despite wanting me to take astrophysics, still encouraged me to look into space science and its applications on Earth systems. It became a full circle moment because he knew that I loved the Earth more than the stars. Eventually, I took another master’s degree through the Copernicus Master in Digital Earth Programme with a focus on geodata science, and the rest is history.
As you can tell, there were a lot of converging paths in my journey but as they say, if you want something, the universe conspires to make it happen. And I’d like to think that yes, the universe is my limit, it was never the sky. But, I chose to go back down to earth and see what I can do here because I know that this is where I belong.
You were chosen as one of the ten women leaders recognized for contributing to cloud-native geospatial technologies. What fascinates you about geodesy?
I guess it’s how we’re able to present the Earth through various concrete representations. For example, measurements. Through these, we’re able to see and quantify changes over time. It’s incredible that we’re able to do this and see every part of the Earth in a smaller scale, like a pixel, and in a perspective where we can study and understand how the world works. And with the enormous amounts of data that we get, it also helps improve our technologies and hopefully, find solutions to the problems that we face at present.
I’d like to connect it back to my personal experience because much of my motivation comes from the changes I’ve seen and exposed to when growing up. I come from one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to climate change. We’re seeing the numbers and the erratic trend of weather patterns. This year, it is already hitting 40 degrees celsius in my country, which is crazy but not surprising. And its effects could be drastic, from agriculture to the degradation of nature.
And I believe that studying in the field of geodesy can lead me to a future career aside from the scientific perspective, but also to science-based policy implementation or in science communication. This is what makes our field amazing because it is interdisciplinary. How can we convey to the public the environmental problems we face and what science-based solutions can we take to help the human race and the environment? How can we be sustainable with our feasible solutions and help the public understand the process?
I know this is very idealistic. It makes me optimistic but also nervous because I'm still a student. I hope to use my research and put my experiences into fruitful endeavors.
Currently, you are doing your doctoral studies at Imperial College London and TUM. What are you researching for your doctoral thesis?
The main idea is to develop or adapt new methodologies such as looking into new mathematical methods that can be used for modeling remote sensing data, aiming at predicting and detecting anomalies. The project combines expertise of remote sensing and the big geospatial data at TUM and the stochastic analysis at Imperial. Prof. Marco Körner and Prof. Martin Werner in Munich and Prof. Almut Veraart and Prof. Dan Crisan in London supervise me.
One area we’re looking into is using stochastic analysis methods in estimating values of new or missing data in remote sensing. In data collection, there are physical factors we cannot control. For instance, if you collect optical data using a satellite and a big cloud covers a part, data will be distorted or missing. The challenge is to find new ways to efficiently construct the nearest possible value. An example would be using stochastic models that account for changing variances across space. So that's how the mathematical aspect comes in.
What is your professional goal for the future?
I aim to work in an institution where I can implement science and policy for the global south. Having a deeper understanding in my field and the ability to communicate means I can be a potential bridge to the public.
Science should be felt by the people and to those who (or which) can benefit the most. Science should not confine itself or limit its impacts to paper publications. I really think we can do more. And I think we can only mobilize people if they understand science, which is also why it is imperative that science should be accessible to everyone.
And we have to remember that most of the research funding granted to us comes from public domain stakeholders, so there must be a return of their investment.
You are not only interested in remote sensing, deep learning, and data fusion but are also a journalist and science communicator. How did that come about?
I started with photojournalism in 2013 when the chief photographer of a nationally-circulated business newspaper approached me at an event where I was also taking photos for a friend. He asked if I wanted to try freelancing for a newspaper and I agreed. Eventually, the editorial staff learned that I had a physics degree and asked me to try writing science articles for the publication. I could still vividly remember the first article I wrote. The editor handed it back to me with a lot of marks indicating what I needed to improve. I tried my best over time to improve my style of writing, and learned through guidance and experience. And it's amazing how much feedback you get from people coming from all walks of life who read your articles and realize that you are contributing to their scientific understanding.
Meanwhile, I wore many hats in science communication. In my job before with the astrophysicist, for example, I was involved in crafting the policy for my country’s space program. In addition, I also developed space science modules for 3-to-5-year-old children and up to high school level which were used in teaching or in outreach activities. This experience taught me creativity, patience and understanding. It also taught me that people, especially children, are very receptive to learning and that a grassroots approach is the way. This means developing activities that utilize all their senses and use materials that are easily accessible and available to them instead of relying on technological gadgets for teaching where a lot of students around the world could not possibly afford.
These accumulated experiences helped me understand why teaching and communication is an integral part of science. No, we don’t aim for everyone to be scientists but we aim that science influences the society’s train of thought. We aim for a community that is curious, critical thinkers and reliant on logic for better decision-making.
One of your advocacies is to promote the welfare of women, young people, and minorities in the field and give them a voice - a goal for inclusivity. What is your motivation? What changes do you want to see?
If you look into statistics, my race and gender can be considered as underrepresented in this field, and I think we have a lot of things to do to improve the current situation on diversity and inclusion.
Come to think of it, if I ask the readers of this article which living female scientist do they admire the most, a good number would not be able to immediately think of a name. It’s because society continues to limit spaces for women to speak, to be seen and heard. And in turn, it hinders representation. Young girls could never see themselves as future scientists because of the lack of relatable role models they can identify with and aspire to emulate. And this is why, I hope that through the affiliations that I am part of, I am able to provide a platform that could give more women the space and visibility they need.
Another voice that I see the need to strongly support are the minorities especially the Indigenous communities. In one of the episodes in the podcast I host, I have spoken with people who represent these minorities and their stories only underlines a common thought which is the call for their inclusion and meaningful participation in research. And this hits home because a lot of areas that are used in remote sensing research are those in the scope of Indigenous communities. As scientific research progresses, we must also take into account how we are able to incorporate the principles of data sovereignty in a way that leads to rightful data governance and stewardship. And I’d like for the remote sensing community to start building and practicing a culturally-sensitive thought process in conducting their research.
In general, I’d like to see a shift in culture, something that is transformative. There is a significant amount of work that we all need to do. I think it’s not enough to just rely on engaging conversations and changing our perceptions or attitudes, but also, action must be done. And we all start by implementing systemic changes, step by step.
Stephanie Tumampos
is a doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich, in collaboration with Imperial College London. She is working on modelling, prediction and anomaly detection of Earth surface dynamics.
Exemplifying leadership in the Earth Sciences field, Radiant Earth Foundation (REF) has selected Stephanie Tumampos as one of the 10 women leaders recognizing their leadership and contribution to cloud-native geospatial technologies.
Stephanie is under the Joint Academy of Doctoral Studies (JADS) of the International Graduate School of Science and Engineering (IGSSE) under the supervision of Prof. Marco Körner and Prof. Dr. Martin Werner. Her project, MoPreAnESD is in collaboration with Imperial College London under the supervision of Prof. Almut Veraart and Prof. Dan Crisan.
She also serves as the Chief of Publicity & PR of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, member of the IDEA and DEIAB Committee, as well as the host of Down to Earth: A podcast for Geoscientists by Geoscientists. She is also part of the International Society for Digital Earth as their Youth Ambassador.