LEIF HOLMQUIST
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LEIF HOLMQUIST

EO & Geospatial Data Scientist

I make Earth observation data answer practical questions: where drought monitoring breaks under cloud cover, which coasts would have a higher tsunami risk, how a wildfire scarred the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where a national fiber network should grow next. Ten years of remote sensing, GIS, and machine learning, from UN field programmes to hyperspectral pipelines.

MAP INITIALIZING…

// PROJECTS

// EXPERIENCE

Condensed. Full role details available upon request.

2025-09 — present

Earth Observation Specialist · ForestSync

Remote

Sentinel-2 and biomass raster processing in Python for forestry monitoring: masking, normalization, and AOI-based time-series.

2023-10 — 2024-10

Geospatial Data Scientist · TDC Net

Denmark · see project ↓

Street network routing, constrained clustering, and capacity forecasting for national fiber rollout; layers and dashboards used directly by planners.

2023-01 — 2023-06

Geospatial Data Engineer · Ecogain

Sweden

Automated geospatial ETL from multiple sources into ArcGIS, cutting prep from a day to minutes, plus sensitivity analysis tooling for a land-use model.

2021-10 — 2022-12

GIS & Data Analyst Expert · UN Development Programme

Remote · see project ↓

Satellite change detection and regional analytical mapping for humanitarian risk, agricultural development, and food-security monitoring.

2019-06 — 2020-07

Geospatial Data Engineer & Analyst · Malmö University, Urban Studies

Sweden · see project ↓

Accessibility research on ~6 billion Swedish registry records: national scale distance computation, maps, and a researcher focused analysis tool.

2018-11 — 2019-02

GIS Technical Writer · Lund University GIS Centre

Sweden

Revised and modernized a 100+ page GIS manual and 20+ lab exercises for the ArcGIS Desktop to Pro migration: updated iconography, reworked wording, and new sections; supporting 20+ courses.

2017-10 — 2018-01

Geospatial Data Engineer · City of Malmö

Sweden

PostgreSQL/PostGIS administration and Python + SQL automation for permissions, ingestion, and municipal planning support.

2017-02 — 2017-07

Master's Thesis Researcher · HEIG-VD

Switzerland · see project ↓

Environment weighted network routing in PostGIS/pgRouting for my master's thesis on runners' response to route greenness.

2016-06 — 2016-08

Remote Sensing Analyst · UN-SPIDER

Germany · see project ↓

MODIS based drought monitoring (VCI/SPI) and cloud frequency analysis across Central America for operational assessment.

// EDUCATION & TRAINING

MSC, GEOINFORMATICS · LUND UNIVERSITY · 2015–2017
Geomatics Coursework
Satellite Remote SensingSpatial Statistical Analysis & Machine LearningGIS I & IIGeographical DatabasesProgramming for Applications in GeomaticsAlgorithms in GISWeb GISPhysical Geography & Ecosystem Analysis: Master's Degree Project
Elective Coursework
HydrologyPhysical Geography: Practical Work
BSC, GEOSCIENCE · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2005–2010
Geology Coursework
Applied Remote SensingSedimentary Geology & StratigraphyOceanographyPrinciples of PaleontologyEvolution of EcosystemsIntro. to GeologyEvolution & the History of LifeStructural GeologyMineralogyPetrologyGeologic Field Methods (Montana)Geology Summer Field Course (Utah)
Science & Mathematics Coursework
Physics I & IIChemistry I & IIBiology IEngineering Math I, II, III
BSC, ANTHROPOLOGY · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2005–2010
Anthropology & Archaeology Coursework
Urban AnthropologyHuman ImpactsCulture & ConsumptionHuman OriginsPrehistoryLanguage, Culture & CommunicationCulture & SocietyAnthropology of DeathArcheaology in the Iberian PeninsulaLithic AnalysisNative Peoples in North AmericaIssues in AnthropologyField Research in Archaeology (excavation, Iowa)
Humanities Coursework
Civilizations of Asia: JapanCivilizations of Asia: ChinaAsian Humanities JapanInterpretation of LiteratureRhetoric IILanguage: Japanese Year I & II
TRAINING
NASA ARSET
SAR for Disasters & Hydrological ApplicationsForest Mapping & Monitoring with SARSAR for Landcover ApplicationsRemote Sensing for Disaster ScenariosFundamentals of ML for Earth Science
SUSPI
Groundwater modelling with FREEWAT
INDEPENDENT COURSEWORK
EO College
Intro. to Hyperspectral Remote Sensing
Uppsala University
Applied Geoinformatics for Earth SciencesDynamics of Earth Systems: Global Change
Kaggle
Intro. to Machine LearningIntermediate Machine LearningPythonPandasData VisualizationIntro. to SQL

// SKILLS

EO DATA & SENSORS
Multispectral
Sentinel-2Sentinel-3LandsatMODIS
SAR
Sentinel-1ICEYE
Hyperspectral
Wyvern DragonettePlanet Tanager
VHR optical
MAXAR30 cm aerial multispectral
Terrain & bathymetry
ASTER DEMGEBCO
REMOTE SENSING ANALYSIS
Change detectionTime-series analysisImage interpretationSpectral indices (NDVI, NBR, NDTI, NDCI)Cloud & QA maskingTOA reflectance conversionDrought monitoring (VCI)Land cover mappingWater quality proxies
MACHINE LEARNING
Supervised
Random ForestXGBoostSpectral Angle MappingRegression forecasting
Unsupervised
KMeansDBSCANPCA
Practice
Segmentation workflowsTrain/val/test designClass imbalance handlingModel evaluationPyTorch
PYTHON & GEOSPATIAL LIBRARIES
GDALRasterioGeoPandasXarrayShapelyPyProjNumPypandasscikit-learnOSMnxNetworkXSTAC toolingpsycopg2
GIS & GEOSPATIAL PROCESSING
QGISArcGIS / ArcPyCartographic productionCRS managementRaster/vector integrationNetwork & routing analysisWatershed delineationGeospatial validation
DATABASES & ENGINEERING
PostgreSQL / PostGISMySQLSQLReproducible pipelinesConfig-driven workflows (YAML)ETL & validation routinesGit
COMMUNICATION & DOCUMENTATION
Map & infographic designTechnical reportingAnalytical briefsPresentationsStakeholder communicationMethod documentationTeaching materialsReusable templates

// LEADERSHIP & VOLUNTEERING

Leadership
Launchpad Participant ESA BIC Denmark, space business development & pitch 2021 Vice Chair → Chairman Physical Geography & Geology Student Council, Lund University 2016–2017 Student Parliament LUNA Science Faculty, Lund University 2016 Vice President Japanese Culture Club, University of Iowa 2005–2009
Volunteering
Volunteer Living Planet Symposium (ESA) 2025 Volunteer Lund Fantastic Film Festival 2025 Scouts animal habitat & nature park building 1995–2005

// OFF THE MAP

SynthwaveBoard gamesNature & trail explorationHistorical sites & ruinsMuseumsReadingFilm