A different kind of leader: Scaling impact in geospatial science

David Page doesn't talk about leadership in terms of titles or authority. He talks about judgment - about knowing when to step in, when to step back, and how to help brilliant people do their best work without getting in the way.

"I've realized that I don't have to be the smartest person in the room," Page said. "In fact, I'm happiest when I'm not."

It's a perspective shaped by a career that has moved between academia, entrepreneurship and national security science - and one that now defines Page's impact as Head of the Geographic Data Science Section in Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Geospatial Science and Human Security Division.

Seeing the big picture: a career built on adaptation and exploration

Page earned his doctorate in computer vision in the 1990s, long before artificial intelligence became a cultural buzzword. At the time, staple computational constructs such as neural networks were often considered no more than a mathematical curiosity. "I remember being taught that anything deeper than three layers was a waste of time," Page added. "The field I was trained in barely resembles what exists today - everything I thought I knew had to be re-learned."

That willingness to evolve became a defining trait of Page's professional life. After several years as an instructor and mentor at the University of Tennessee, he took a leap that reshaped how he thought about science entirely. In 2008, with a young daughter at home and a successful academic career well underway, he walked away from his stable trajectory to join a startup developing 3D display technology for home use.

"It was terrifying," Page said, "But it taught me so much that I even didn't know I needed to learn."

The company never became the next Google - "more like the next Giggle," Page added - but the experience transformed his perspective. Knowing that his continuing and effective contributions were what determined whether the lights stayed on, he quickly learned to communicate value, manage risk and navigate the realities of sponsors and stakeholders. When he arrived at ORNL in 2016, he brought both worlds with him.

Page was initially recruited to the lab by Budhu Bhaduri - now ORNL's chief data officer - to support large-scale geospatial analytics projects with his expertise in computer vision. He quickly joined a team working to modernize classic stereovision and 3D terrain-mapping techniques by adapting methods developed in the 1970s for today's high-performance computing environment and national security applications. The team used an iterative codesign process to update both hardware and algorithms, eventually resulting in a more than 500 times improvement in processing speed.

Satellite images that once took a day to process are now ready in less than five minutes with updated resolutions that can determine altitude differences at distances of two meters. This massively reduced processing time has turned 3D terrain mapping from a bespoke, one-off product into a global, automated service - Page likens it to the difference between paper maps and live traffic updates. That speed has enabled near-real-time situational awareness for worldwide national security and civil missions, supporting faster planning, safer routing and rapid disaster response.

As he became familiar with the lab environment and with his colleagues, Page's technical contributions were naturally supplemented by his budding capacity to provide strong guidance and interdisciplinary support to researchers across a wide range of projects, even those in which he was not an expert.

"I have really flourished out here," Page remarked "There are so many incredibly bright people around me, and I think one of my most effective roles has become helping them be the best scientists they can."

A transition to leadership

Page spent three years at ORNL focused primarily on his work as a researcher, before naturally transitioning to a role as a group leader as his projects grew and teams increasingly looked to him for guidance. The shift changed how he spent his time: less on writing code himself, more on shaping how others worked together, setting direction and helping teams navigate complex technical and organizational decisions. This transition was only emphasized when Page accepted the position of Section Head in 2022. For Page, it didn't feel like stepping away from science, it was about broadening his impact - from solving problems personally to creating the conditions for entire teams to solve them well.

That philosophy has shaped how Page manages teams tackling problems ranging from geospatial analytics to remote sensing and autonomous systems development. Rather than

protecting expertise behind silos, he emphasizes resilience and shared ownership - making sure no single person becomes the critical path for success.

"If I were to win the lottery tomorrow," he said, "the team should keep running just fine. That's how you know you've built something healthy."

Broadening impact and positioning for success

In recent years, Page has advocated for his fellow researchers to think about geospatial science less as a set of static products and more as a living system - one that evolves as quickly as the world it models. Instead of asking what a place looked like yesterday, he wants to ask what it looks like now - and how to build the tools to understand what it might look like next.

"If you use Waze," Page said, "the map itself isn't the point anymore. It's the live model of traffic - that's what actually gets you where you need to go. I think that's the future of geospatial intelligence too."

From integrating diverse data types and sources to exploring how large language models can enhance geospatial workflows, Page is working to position his teams to move into emerging spaces before they become mainstream. "I'm constantly trying to ask myself where our unique strengths can make the biggest impact," he said.

Reflecting on his career, Page notes that his conception of success has shifted from impactful publications and technical breakthroughs towards something much more holistic and process oriented.

"When you stop thinking only about your own work and start thinking about the people who come after you, everything changes," he said.

Today, his focus is on building highly collaborative teams that are resilient to changing research priorities, fluctuations in staffing and funding, and technological paradigm-shifts.

"I've been lucky," he added. "I've gotten to take some big risks in my career. What matters most to me now is making sure the next generation has what they need to take a few of their own."

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. - Galen Fader