John Cirucci

"Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." - Tobler’s Law of Geography

The concept of PLACE has never been more prominent and ubiquitous in our personal and professional lives. Maps have evolved into sophisticated, interactive, decision-support systems. The confluence of big data, remote sensing, and communication technology has revolutionized our ability to incorporate spatial analysis into a broad spectrum of application fields. This is particularly the case for energy and environmental domains in which spatial relationships with physical surroundings, distribution networks, social demographics and political boundaries play a significant role in process performance, operations, system optimization, supply chain management, market development and decision support. A geographic information system (GIS) is the tool which enables the transformation of georeferenced data into vital information and practical knowledge. Spatial analysis with GIS has become a specialized discipline. An introduction and “quick start guide” to GIS and geospatial analysis will be given emphasizing energy and environmental applications, with examples including spatial suitability analysis for CO₂ direct air capture system siting.

John Cirucci is a chemical engineer, process technologist and geospatial analyst, consulting in the field of spatial analysis and process development. Currently, he is collaborating with ASU LightWorks and the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions. Previously, he worked at Air Products for 34 years, most recently serving as manager of corporate exploratory technology, and engineering technology manager for the Electronics Division. He is a Fellow, Foundation Trustee and past Board Director of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. John holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Geographic Information Systems from Penn State, and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University.