Patrick Meier (humanitarian)
Patrick Meier invented the concept of using crisis mapping in humanitarian emergencies, and is a co-founder and the Executive Director of WeRobotics. Early life The son of a businessman, Meier grew up in Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Austria. As a 13-year old in Kenya, Meier created an online map of Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. Education Meier received his undergraduate degree from Tufts University, and studies for his Ph.D. at Tuffs University's Fletcher School. Digital mapping of the Haiti earthquake Meier's fiancée was in Port-au-Prince when the 2010 Haiti earthquake occurred. Working remotely, Meier invented the concept of a crisis map by creating an online digital map to help with the coordination of humanitarian assistance. Thousands of people in forty countries pulled information from YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as well as email, videos and text messages, and input it on the online map. The crisis map was used by United States Marine Corps, and the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency. Career Meier worked at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and is the director of social innovation at the Qatar Computing Research Institute. In November 2013, Meier aided the United Nations response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Later he