Blas M. Benito, PhD

Senior Data Scientist | Geospatial Tech Lead

• 🎓 PhD in Computational Ecology | MSc in Geographic Information Systems 🌍

• 🧠 18 YOE in Spatial Data Science, Scientific Software Development, and Research

• 🌍 International experience in world-class multidisciplinary research teams across 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇩🇰 Denmark, and 🇳🇴 Norway

• 💼 Current Role: Senior Spatial Data Scientist at Biome Makers Inc

Professional Profile

• 🗺️ Spatial modeling & product development

  • Design and development of high-resolution soil/crop mapping products
  • Build production pipelines for spatial data engineering and modelling
  • Develop software packages encapsulating business logic for AgTech applications
  • Implement a data infrastructure to support AgTech products
    
  • Integrate remote sensing, environmental data, and spatial machine learning to boost company products

• 📈 Time series analysis & engineering

  • Design of optimized algorithms for large-scale time series analysis
  • Automated extraction of phenological indicators at global scale from remote sensing time series
    

• 🏛️ Research, innovation & knowledge transfer

  • Bridge fundamental and applied research in AgTech
  • Communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
    
  • Author of international scientific publications in Computational and Spatial Ecology
  • Write clear and effective technical documentation
    

• 🚀 Strategic leadership & mentorship

  • Geospatial Tech Lead & Developer
  • Drive strategic planning and execution to advance data science initiatives
  • Build and lead high-impact data science teams focused on innovation in AgTech
  • Support data science advancements in a rapidly evolving industry
    
  • Mentor and guide teams to develop impactful, data-driven solutions

Tech Stack

• 🛠️ Programming & Development
  R | Rcpp | targets | RStudio/Positron/VSCode | RMarkdown/Quarto | plumber | Jenkins | Git | GitHub | Shiny

• 🤖 Machine Learning & Stats
  xgboost | ranger | rpart | partyKit | tidymodels | glm/gam | lme4 | nnet | kernlab

• 📊 Data Visualization
  ggplot2 | plotly | leaflet | mapview

• 🗄️ Databases & Data Management
  PostgreSQL/PostGIS | DuckDB | Apache Arrow | DBeaver

• 🧭 Geospatial Tools
  GDAL | terra | sf | leaflet | GRASS GIS | Quantum GIS (QGIS) | TerrSet (formerly IDRISI) | SAGA GIS

• ☁️ Cloud & Distributed Systems
  AWS/awscli | Google Cloud/gcloud | Slurm | Spark

• 🔧 Package & Environment Management
  renv | Docker

Open Source Development

• distantia          Fast Dynamic Time Warping Library
• spatialRF          Spatial modelling with Random Forest.
• collinear          Automated multicollinearity management.
• memoria              Time series lag analysis.
• virtualPollen   Mechanistic simulation in plant ecology.

Social Media