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SPC Director General wins global award for putting science and technology in Pacific hands
The Pacific Community’s Director General, Dr Stuart Minchin, has received a lifetime achievement award for his dedication to unlocking access to data for communities in the Pacific and abroad.
The 2025 Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr Minchin for his decades long leadership in taking hard to use satellite imagery and turning it into useful decision-making products for communities.
Dr Minchin championed Digital Earth in Australia, Africa, and most recently in the Pacific, which provides free and accessible tools to show how coastlines are changing, how mangroves are changing, or how illegal river gravel extraction is impacting rivers, for example.
Dr Minchin recognises the importance that data plays for the Pacific, especially in the face of the climate crisis.
“This award belongs to every Pacific community turning satellite imagery into decisive action”, Dr Minchin said. “With the right partnerships, it can also anchor climate-finance deals and sharpen the Pacific’s voice in global policy rooms.
SPC is the Pacific’s scientific and technical agency, serving Pacific Island countries and territories by accessing, catalysing, and using the best available science for effective decision-making.
Digital Earth Pacific, launched in 2023, has provided real-time tools to governments across the region to understand how remote islands are being impacted by climate change or to better understand how erosion is impacting key sites such as the Runit Dome in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The system uses the global satellites that fly over the region daily and turns the data into useful information that is free and accessible however in the past this data cost countries thousands of dollars.
Democratising access to data and scaling investment in digital transformation alongside countries is paramount for the Pacific and an area of work that Dr Minchin continues to champion through SPC and regional organisations of the Pacific.
This work is already being recognised by countries and will continue to grow over the coming years.
About the GEO Lifetime Achievement Award
The GEO Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates individuals whose career-long contributions advance GEO’s core values of collaboration, open data and societal benefit. Dr Minchin joins a select group of global leaders whose work has expanded equitable access to Earth-observation science throughout his career.
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