The Google Developer Experts (GDE) are a group of experts, specialised in different technologies in which the internet giant is involved. For its development, Google hires people that have shown technological expertise and skill in the Android, Google Maps, Google Cloud, Machine Learning, Earth Engine, Internet of Things or Firebase fields, acknowledging them as GDE.

Álvaro Moreno has just become part of the small group of expert developers of Google Earth Engine –less than 40 in the world– in order to contribute to the development, improvement and dissemination of geospatial data processing.

Launched in 2010, Google Earth Engine is the most powerful platform that offers global access to geospatial data, advanced analysis systems and processing capacities in the cloud. This makes it a very important tool when it comes to adressing environmental problems, doing scientific research or developing solutions on a spatial and temporal scale, something that was unimaginable before.  

Álvaro Moreno Martínez  –physicist, electronical engineer and PhD in Earth Physics and Thermodynamics– is a researcher in the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) of the Universitat de València. Specialised on signal processing for remote sensing applications, he has been a postdoctoral researcher at NASA Earth Science Information Partner (ESIP), the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG) of the University of Montana. There, he dedicated himself to maintain and improve operational algorithms of the NASA for the estimate of carbon dioxide absorption and water consumption for the planet’s vegetation.

At the end of 2018 he became senior researcher of the IPL. During this period in the Image & Signal Processing (ISP)  group of the IPL, he has been part of the research team of two ERC projects of great impact for Earth Observation –a Consolidator Grant and an eynergy Grant–, both on the field of the artificial intelligence, machine learning and remote sensing applied to earth science and environment. His research has been mainly focused on satellite image use for the monitoring of vegetation, ecosystems and forests at a global level.

Álvaro Moreno’s addition to the Google Developer Experts group is mainly the result of a constant scientific collaboration with Google Earth Engine. This platform has not only been a tool for publications of several important scientific journals for more than five years, but also, the scientist has contributed to its distribution through dissemination activities. Álvaro Moreno is currently the first expert developer GEE from a Spanish research centre.