Episode 27: Ed Kearns - Exploring the ocean, generosity, and a culture of data
Ed Kearns has been a pioneer of exploring the ocean through data, but his impact goes beyond big data and into his sensibility of generosity and building community. Listen to how his story cultivated that way of being in the world.
I was first inspired by Dr. Ed Kearns when he was a keynote speaker at a NASA workshop that was focused on the future of data in science. In that talk he described a vision for what collaboration looked like in our digital age.
As I listened to him talk, I happened to look around and found everyone in the room, which was a cross-section of the greatest minds in data and science across the government, academia, and industry, was like me — hanging on his every word. Such is Ed’s presence, his vision, and his authenticity.
Dr. Kearns is an oceanographer by training, receiving a BS in Physics & Marine Science from the University of Miami (1990) and a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island (1996). But his curiosity and his ability to see through disciplinary boundaries has led him across fields and even to invent his own.
During his time as a research professor at the University of Miami he created systems for collective, organizing, analyzing, and discovering with ocean data. He then applied his sensibilities with data to coastal ecosystem restoration in the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks.
As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for 12 years he led work on ocean sensors and data systems, on operational climate data records, data science and scientific stewardship issues, work that had such an impact that the agency eventually created an entirely new position for it — Chief Data Officer, and named Ed the first ever.
Ed is now serving that same role with a non-profit focused on effective communication of climate risk to the public called the First Street Foundation.
Ed is a visionary and an important voice for now, as our society attempts to make sense of an existence overwhelmed by data and is faced with an imperative to use those data intelligently and responsibly. I’m excited to give that voice, and the forces that shaped it, platform here on Origins.