Ran Goldblatt
Chief Scientist, New Light Technologies, Inc.
Since joining New Light Technologies, Inc. in 2017, Ran Goldblatt has supported many of the company’s clients within and outside the U.S. He is especially passionate about serving disadvantaged communities.
“Our success is thanks to the hard work of the entire team of motivated professionals who all care about our planet,” Goldblatt said.
He also serves as NLT’s team lead for its work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Response Geospatial Office, supporting its mission to effectively use geospatial data for disaster management and cope with the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters.
Countries and communities that lack necessary resources to cope with and recover from extreme natural disasters are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Goldblatt is passionate about helping the disaster management community accommodate and prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable.
“I also believe that geospatial literacy is a fundamental right and that all humans should be able to access and know how to interpret geospatial data, including climate change data, as this is the only way for people to be involved, make change and demand their rights,” he said.
He helped co-found the Geo4Dev Initiative aimed at bringing geospatial data to developing countries and ensuring everybody — including governments, academia and citizens — better understand the impacts of climate change and have the necessary tools to combat its impacts.
“Joining the private sector after spending many years in academia allows me to bring cutting edge scientific discoveries to the ‘real world’ and use scientific methods to actually save lives,” Goldblatt said.
Why Watch
Next year, Goldblatt will focus on helping NLT develop new tools and frameworks to combat climate change from the citizen’s perspective. He plans to do so by building capacity, addressing aspects of geospatial literacy, making geospatial data a fundamental human asset and strengthening NLT’s role in bringing together industry, government and academia.
“Dr. Goldblatt’s innovative approach fusion and operationalizing geoscience and data science has propelled the NLT Team’s intellectual capacity to accomplish large scale projects across our customer base,” said NLT CEO Ghermay Araya. “His approach to research-based solutions with peer-reviewed publications of solutions and findings is now a cornerstone of our work, and our customers benefit from world-class science-based solutions.”