Appointment of the DDE Governing Council President:

The Deep-Time Digital Earth (DDE) today announced the appointment of Harvey Thorleifson as the new President of the DDE Governing Council (GC). The decision was made base on the voting results on August 5, 2024, where members of the DDE Governing Council nominated Professor Thorleifson for the position. 

Following the selection, the motion was endorsed by all members of the DDE Governing Council. Effective immediately, Professor Harvey Thorleifson assumes the role of President, serving a term from 2024 to 2028.

Professor Harvey Thorleifson is a member of the Earth & Environmental Sciences faculty in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota in USA. Since 2020, he has been Chair of the IUGS Commission for Geoscience Information and has been representing CGI in DDE Governing Council. He was State Geologist of Minnesota for two decades, and he was President of the Association of American State Geologists (AASG). He held many AASG leadership roles, including Information Chair, and was a six-year member of the US National Geospatial Advisory Committee. He was a member of the committee that launched OneGeology. He was a Geological Survey of Canada research scientist for nearly two decades, as well as President of the Geological Association of Canada, and the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences.

Appointment of DDE Secretary General

In addition to the DDE GC President appointment, DDE also announced the appointment of Dr. Natarajan Ishwaran as Secretary-General of DDE. This decision was made during the thirteenth meeting of the DDE Executive Committee, held in April 2024. The motion was subsequently recognized by the DDE Chair's meeting.

Dr. Natarajan Ishwaran, who currently serves as the head of the DDE Secretariat, will continue in the role of Secretary-General for the second DDE Executive Committee. His term officially begins in Aug 2024 and extends until 2028.

Natarajan Ishwaran was Director, Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO from 2004 to 2012 and coordinated the Organization’s work on biodiversity and ecosystem services and geological sciences and their contributions to sustainable development. Between 1996 and 2004 he was Chief, Natural Heritage Section of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre.