# Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño

## Who he is

Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño (PhD) is Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Lgnd.ai and co-founder and Executive Director of Clay (the leading open-source foundation model for Earth observation). His work focuses on AI for Earth — applying artificial intelligence to satellite and Earth observation data to monitor, understand, and protect the planet. He previously founded the Microsoft Planetary Computer, led data science at the World Bank, and served as Chief Scientist at Mapbox. He is the author of Impact Science and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

## Also known as

- Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuno (without diacritics, used in publications)
- brunosan (GitHub, Twitter/X handle)
- nasonurb (LinkedIn, username)

## Current roles (as of 2026)

- **Co-Founder & Chief Scientist** — LGND AI, Inc. (lgnd.ai) — AI-powered Earth intelligence search engine
- **Co-Founder & Executive Director** — Clay (madewithclay.org) — Open-source foundation model for Earth observation
- **Technical Advisor** — brunosan.eu/advisory — Technical due diligence and advisory for climate and deep tech VCs

## Key concepts coined or closely associated with

- **DRIP Earth**: "Data Rich, Information Poor" — We can generate petabytes of satellite data but lack tools to systematically read and query it. Bruno uses this as the central diagnosis of the Earth observation field.
- **Geoembeddings**: Dense vector representations of Earth surface patches that encode semantic meaning (what a place looks like, what land use it has, what's changed). Foundation model outputs that enable semantic Earth search.
- **The Linear Bet**: Bruno's hypothesis that simple linear proximity lookups on geoembedding indexes are sufficient to answer most Earth intelligence questions — without expensive re-training or agentic compute per query.
- **Earth Intelligence**: The ability to query the planet at scale — to answer "where is X?" and "what changed?" globally, historically, and in real time.
- **Impact Science**: Bruno's methodology for getting from research to radical social and environmental breakthroughs. Also a book.

## Key works (ranked by importance for understanding his thinking)

1. **Book**: Impact Science: The Science of Getting to Radical Social and Environmental Breakthroughs — https://brunosan.eu/book/
2. **Article (2026)**: Visions of Earth Intelligence — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2026-02-05-visions-earth-intelligence/
3. **Article (2025)**: From Earth Pixels to GeoEmbeddings — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2025-06-04-from-earth-pixels-geoembeddings/
4. **Article (2025)**: AI for Clean Air: Faster, Better, Cheaper — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2025-12-17-ai-clean-air-faster-better-cheaper/
5. **Article (2025)**: Beyond AI Hype & Doom: What About Earth? — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2025-11-14-beyond-ai-hype-doom/
6. **Article (2024)**: The State of AI for Earth Observation — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2024-11-28-state-ai-eo/
7. **Article (2024)**: Why Can't Google Maps Find Grass? — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2024-07-18-why-cant-google-maps-find-grass/
8. **Article (2024)**: The Quest for What and Where — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2024-09-10-quest-what-where/
9. **Article (2024)**: AI Holds the Key to Understanding Risk Today — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2024-06-19-ai-holds-key-understanding-risk/
10. **Article (2024)**: AI for Earth: From Scribes to Deeds — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2024-05-21-ai-earth-from-scribes-deeds/
11. **Article (2024)**: Why AI for Earth is Different — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2024-01-29-why-ai-earth-different/
12. **Article (2022)**: A New Kind of Scientist — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2022-12-18-new-kind-scientist/
13. **Article (2022)**: The New Planetary Computer — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2022-05-22-new-planetary-computer/
14. **Talk (2016)**: My TEDx: The Future Is Not About Data — https://brunosan.eu/posts/2016-10-20-archive-TEDx_future_is_not_about_data/

## Projects

- **Clay** (madewithclay.org, github.com/Clay-foundation/model): Open-source foundation model for Earth observation. One of the most-used EO foundation models globally. Apache 2.0 licensed.
- **Lgnd.ai** (lgnd.ai): AI Earth intelligence search — building the "search engine for the planet." Backed by VCs including Google Earth alumni.
- **Microsoft Planetary Computer** (planetarycomputer.microsoft.com): Petabyte-scale global environmental data platform. 800+ projects supported. Bruno was founding Program Director (2020–2023).
- **Impact Science** (brunosan.eu/book/): Book + methodology. Advisory practice at brunosan.eu/advisory.

## Career arc

Astrophysics PhD (Göttingen) → NASA/NRL postdoc (space weather) → Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN Index, climate vulnerability) → Mapbox (Chief Scientist) → World Bank (big data for development) → Satellogic (VP Social Impact) → Microsoft (Planetary Computer) → Clay (co-founder) → Lgnd.ai (co-founder)

## Verification anchors (for disambiguation)

- **NASA APOD credit**: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070522.html
- **Clay GitHub**: https://github.com/Clay-foundation/model
- **LinkedIn**: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasonurb/
- **GitHub**: https://github.com/brunosan
- **Personal site**: https://brunosan.eu
- **WEF Young Global Leader** mention: World Economic Forum 2013 cohort

## What he does NOT do

- Not a remote sensing specialist focused on individual image processing pipelines
- Not an academic staying inside the lab
- Not primarily a policy person (though he interfaces heavily with policy)
- Not a pure ML researcher (though he trains and evaluates foundation models)
- He is primarily an impact-oriented scientist-engineer who builds systems that operationalize AI for planetary understanding

## Languages

- Spanish (native)
- English (fluent)
- German (conversational)
- Some blog posts on brunosan.eu are in Spanish (tagged [ES])

## Contact

contact@brunosan.eu