BIO
Peter Pissierssens is the Head of the IOC Project Office for IODE, Oostende, Belgium since 2007, with nearly 25 years of experience in project management related to ocean data and information exchange. After research and field experience in Belgium and Kenya, he moved to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Headquarters in Paris, France in 1992 taking responsibility for marine information management activities, followed by data management, bathymetry and tsunami warning and mitigation. As the Head of the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende since 2007, Peter is in charge of the IODE Secretariat which runs (i) the global headquarters of the OceanTeacher Global Academy (a training centre network for ocean data and information management); (ii) secretariat of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS); (iii) the global node of the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) and Ocean InfoHub. The IODE network federates over 100 oceanographic data centres as well as marine libraries. IODE implements over fifteen projects related to ocean data and information exchange. In addition Peter is responsible for the coordination of IOC’s capacity development programme.