Karem Oviedo Prada
Karem Cristina Oviedo Prada is a Colombian engineer specializing in hydrography, marine geophysics, geodesy, and ocean mapping. She holds a degree in Cadastral Engineering and Geodesy from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, earned a master’s degree in Earth Sciences from Universidad EAFIT, and later received her Ph.D. in Marine Sciences and Technologies from the University of Cádiz.
She began her professional career at the Colombian Hydrographic Service, where she worked on hydrographic and geophysical surveys. Her work included field data acquisition, bathymetric and geophysical processing, and the production of thematic maps and scientific publications. She later joined Kongsberg Discovery as a Hydroacoustic Applications Engineer for Latin America, providing technical support and training and working directly with hydrographic and maritime organizations in different countries across the region.
Teaching has also been an important part of her career. She has taught geodesy, remote sensing, GIS, and hydrography, and one of the things she enjoys most is sharing in the classroom what she has learned from working in the field. For the past three years, she has also served as vice president and academic coordinator of the Latin American chapter of The Hydrographic Society of America (THSOA), helping organize events and opportunities for the hydrographic community in Latin America to share knowledge and experiences.
She is currently a co-founder of KRKEN Marine Consultants, where she provides technical support for hydrographic projects in the region. She is also part of the Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Training Program in Ocean Mapping at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM) at the University of New Hampshire. For Karem, being at CCOM is an opportunity to continue learning and expand her knowledge of geodesy, positioning, hydrographic data acquisition and processing, and seafloor mapping. She hopes to bring this experience back to Latin America and continue sharing what she learns with the hydrographic community.