Stefano NATIVI is the Big Data Lead Scientist of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. His present research activity deals with the Digital Transformation of our Society and AI. He co-ordinates the JRC AI&BD Community of Practice and co-chair (for the Digital Economy unit) of the Megatrend on “Accelerating technological change and hyperconnectivity”, part of the EC Megatrends hub. He is the JRC contact point with the ISO JTC1 –Information Technology and the SC42 working on AI. He is co-editor of the 'AI section” of the “Remote Sensing” journal (MDPI) and associate editor of the “Big Earth Data” journal (T&F). For more than 10 years, he has served as Head of Unit for the National Research Council of Italy, coordinating several international research activities (funded by EC, ESA, and US NSF) on Data Science and Digital Technology applications. He funded and chaired the Earth and Space Sciences Informatics (ESSI) Division of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). He is member of the Council of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) and co-chair of the GEOSS Development Task Team (GIDTT) of Group on Earth Observation (GEO). He was the Scientific and Programme Chair of the 2019 International Symposium on Digital Earth. He also served as co-chair of the Scientific and Technology Committee of GEO. He was professor at the University of Padua (IT), University of Florence (IT) and Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (DE). He was Visitor scholar at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder CO (USA).

He received, in 2019, the EGU Ian McHarg medal; in 2014, the Geospatial Innovation Award for "Technology Innovation in Interoperability" by the Geospatial World Forum; and in 2009 the Meritorious Service Medal by the IEEE Committee on Earth Observation (ICEO). In 2019, he also received an appreciation award from ISDE, for the scientific and program chairing of ISDE11.