Principal Investigator
Dr. Peilei Fan is an associate professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Michigan State University and an adjunct faculty of the Department of Geography at Michigan State University. She has a Ph.D. in Economic Development and a MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, both from MIT. Dr. Fan has served as a consultant/economist for UNU-WIDER and ADB. Dr. Fan’s research focuses on urbanization, economic development, and environment changes of transitional economies. She has worked on research projects funded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Science Foundation (NSF), such as the current SENA project.
Dr. Jiquan Chen is a professor in the CGCEO/Geography Department at Michigan State University, an ESA Fellow, and an AAAS Fellow. He has authored more than 280 scientific articles and 11 books with a total citation ~14,000 (H-Index=60) since 1992. He is broadly interested in ecosystem science and landscape ecology. His research on forest edges, three dimensional canopy structure, ecosystem carbon and water fluxes, energy balance, riparian zone management, and fire ecology has been funded through more than 80 research grants and has been very influential in ecology, carbon/water cycle studies, forest management, and micrometeorology. He is a COI of SENA project.
Posdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Zutao Yang got his PhD degree from Department of Geography, Michigan State University in 2015. His research focuses on using remote sensing techniques, GIS, and mathematical and statistical tools to investigate spatial-temporal changes of ecosystems, especially vegetation, water and carbon related ecosystem characteristics. In the near future, he plans to continue research on synthesizing data from different sources with GIS/Remote Sensing techniques, classical and Bayesian statistics, and computer models/simulations in an effort to study the interaction between social, economic, and natural factors in human-nature coupled urban ecosystems.
Collaborators
Amartuvshin Amarjargal is a professor of University of the Humanities. She received her PhD in Economics from Kobe University and conducted her postdoctoral research at the American University in Washington DC. She actively involves in consultancy to ADB, UNDP and World Bank Projects on CBA analysis of the mining sector, sanitary issues and its economic values and financing methodology of rural primary health care and etc.
Dr. Duong Dinh Nguyen graduated from the Academy of military technology VAAZ, Brno, Czech in 1979 and received his Doctor of Engineering degree from the Academy of military technology VAAZ, Brno, Czech in 1983. He has done research in remote sensing since 1984 in Institute of Geography, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology with main interests in algorithm development, land cover mapping, forest mapping, integration of GIS and remote sensing. He is a member of the Vietnam Space Committee, the Deputy General Secretary of AARS, and the editor in chief of Asian Journal of Geoinformatics. He is also the regional representative of the ISPRS for the Southeast Asia.
Dr. Henebry earned his PhD in Environmental Sciences from The University of Texas at Dallas in 1989. He joined South Dakota State University in 2005 after serving at Kansas State University, Rutgers University-Newark, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Henebry is Co-Director of the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence (http://globalmonitoring.sdstate.edu), a research and educational collaboration with the USGS Earth Resource Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Dr. Henebry’s research interests are broad, but a recurrent theme is the use of remote sensing to study ecological patterns and processes, including quantitative analysis and modeling of land surface penology and land cover land use change.
Dr. Ranjeet John's research focus is to synthesize existing meteorological and satellite derived data (e.g. vegetation health and drought indices), aid regional up-scaling efforts from various eddy covariance flux towers in the context of rapid climatic, socioeconomic and demographic changes, and needs an understanding of ecological processes governing ecosystem function. Specifically, he seeks to find out how human induced land cover/use changes will modify land surface properties such as primary productivity/carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration, water use efficiency, land surface temperature, soil moisture and albedo across the vast water-limited and fragile grasslands with two contrasting political systems and land use policy regimes (Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China).
Dr. Leisz owns a PhD from the Geography Department at the University of Copenhagen (2007). His research focuses on land-use/land-cover changes and the drivers of these changes. For the last 18 years Dr. Leisz has worked in Southeast Asia. From 1999 to 2007 Dr. Leisz was based in Hanoi, initially working for an NGO and then a consultancy firm applying remote sensing to natural resource management issues. In 2002 Dr. Leisz started working for the University of Copenhagen, based in Vietnam, to develop capacity in the use of remote sensing and GIS in three regional universities. Dr. Leisz have been based at Colorado State University since 2008
Dr. Mingliang Liu’s research interests focus on characterizing effects of climate change and human activities on water resources and terrestrial ecosystems with the goal of improving our understanding of regional earth system and our ability to forecast its variability. His current research interest focus on greenhouse gas emission from terrestrial ecosystems, historical land-use/land-cover change detection by using remotely sensed data, interactions between hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, regional earth system modeling, and land-ocean interactions. The common theme of his research is the development and application of process-based computer model for integrating in situ and remote sensing data to solve scientific and policy-related questions on large-scale regional and global environmental issues.
Dr. Tatiana Loboda is an Associate Professor at the Geography Department of the University of Maryland at College Park. Her research interests include wildland fire, biodiversity, climate change, and their interactions with other human and physical factors on the landscape. Her research is mostly focused on boreal forest and tundra biomes, although she has also been involved in studies of temperate and tropical ecosystems. Dr. Loboda uses remote sensing and modeling to study fire extent and impact on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health in the present and to develop potential scenarios of climate-induced changes of these systems in the future. This research is focused on developing deeper understanding of potential impact of climate change on future quality of life and overall habitability of the planet.
Dr. Lu is working at Michigan State University. He had worked at Indiana University as associate/senior scientist in 2008-2012 and as PostDoc/assistant scientist in 2001-2006. He also worked at Auburn University in 2007-2008 as research fellow. He received BA from Zhejiang Forestry University in 1986, MA from Beijing Forestry University in 1989, and PhD from Indiana State University in 2001. His research interests include land-use/cover change, biomass/carbon estimation, land degradation, and urban impervious surface mapping. He has published 80+ peer-reviewed journal papers and 15 book chapters. His research projects have been funded by NASA, NSF, NIH, and Brazilian CNPq.
Dr. Joseph Messina is a Professor of and the associate Dean of Research for the College of Social Sciences at Michigan State University. His research focuses on Population-Environment Interactions, Medical Geography, Geographic Information Science, Remote Sensing, Spatial Analyses, and Land Change Science. Dr. Messina is awarded research honors from NASA through the New Investigator Program, the National Institutes of Health Roadmap Program, and the Sigma Xi / MSU Young Scholar of the Year. Dr. Messina is Associate Editor of Plant Ecology, and serves on editorial board for the International Journal of Applied Geospatial. He also served on the EPA panel establishing a national program on behavioral and social science research and the environment, and on national review panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS, NIEHS, NIAID); on the National Science Foundation’s Cyber Enabled Discovery and Innovation I and II, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, and the GSS senior panel; NASA’s Terra, Aqua, and ACRIM, ESSF, Carbon, ESSF, and the LCLU programs; EPA’s Advanced Monitoring Initiative.
Dr. Moore is an associate professor. He completed his B.A. in Physics in 1993 from the University of Virginia and received a M.S. in Physics in 1997 from the University of Oregon. He earned is Ph.D. in Earth and Ocean Sciences from Duke University in 2004. Dr. Moore has ongoing research projects in China, East Africa, and the Amazon. Dr. Moore's research interests include regional climate modeling, Land Cover/Land Use Change (LCLUC), integrating models of human and natural systems, food security, remote sensing and water issues
Dr. Zin Nwe joined the Yangon University in 1986. Her first degree was BA (Honours) in 1985, Dr. Zin Nwe earned her M.A. with Credit in 1998, and PhD in 2004. She was a tutor in 1997 at Yangon University of Distance Education, and transferred to University of Yangon on 1999. Dr. Zin Nwe was promoted as assistant lecturer in 2006, as lecturer in 2010, and associate professor in 2015 at Geography Department, University of Yangon. Her current research interests are urban geography, tourism and regional development.
Dr. Myint’s early research and expertise in the fields of remote sensing, GIS, geospatial statistics, spatial modeling, and classification algorithm development has led to the current funding, totaling approximately 1.2 million dollars, on which he serves as Lead PI—NOAA (2012-2015) Evaluation of Drought Risks and its Impact on Agricultural Land and Water Use to Support Adaptive Decision-making; NASA (2012-2015), Understanding Impacts of Desert Urbanization on Climate and Surrounding Environments to Foster Sustainable Cities Using Remote Sensing and Numerical Modeling; and NSF (2012-2015), Wavelet Analysis of High Spatial Resolution Imagery for Urban Mapping Using Infinite Scale Decomposition Techniques.
Zaw Naing leads Mandalay Technology, a geospatial technological company in Myanmar. He has been a fellow at Center for Global Change and Earth Observation (CGCEO), a fellow member of Consortium on Remote Sensing and Geo-information Systems for Agricultural and Environmental Intelligence in Asia (CoRGAA), and a member of International Economic Development Council (IEDC). He worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C., in 2008-09, as a Consultant in Global Information Communications Technology (GICT) Division. Zaw Naing is also the national team leader in the “Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)” Strategic Study in close cooperation with the National Water Resources Committee (NWRC) led by the Vice President of the Government of Myanmar.
Dr. Hang is a lecturer of Cartography, Remote sensing and GIS at faculty of Geography, VNU University of Science (VNU-HUS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi. She earned a Ph.D in Geography, specialized in Use and Conservation of Natural Resources in 2012 and Environment and a BSc in Cartography - Remote Sensing from VNU-HUS in 2003. She has participated in several research on application of remote sensing and GIS in mapping, building database, managing natural resources and studying global change. Her research interests include the advance of remote sensing and GIS and their applications in landscape ecology, in large scale like the urban context.
Dr. Jiaguo Qi is the Director of the Center for Global Change & Earth Observations and also professor in the Department of Geography. He has years of experience in several technical areas critical to global change science, including remote sensing and geospatial technologies; environmental monitoring, assessment and modeling; land use and land cover change dynamics, and decision support system. Dr. Qi led several large-scale research efforts to quantify impacts of climate change on ecosystem services and functions, including grasslands carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions as well as agricultural systems. Integrating climate, ecosystems and social systems, Dr. Qi now is focusing on the nexus of water, energy and food systems. Geographically his research focuses on societal relevant issues in developing countries in Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.
Dr. Annemarie Schneider (Ph.D., Boston University Geography and Environment) is an Associate Professor at the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Geography and the Center for Demography and Ecology (CDE). Her research is focused at SAGE, while her teaching spans multiple schools and departments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research areas include land use and land cover change,urban geography, particularly urban environment and urban form Global environmental monitoring and change, quantitative methods in geography, spatial analysis Remote sensing and geographic information science (GIS).
Saly Vasaly graduated in July 2014 from the National University of Laos, Faculty of Architecture. Saly Vasaly works as a secretary for the director general of Department of Housing and Urban Planning, Ministry of Public Works and Transport. He started working at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Department of Housing and Urban Planning since Sept 2015, and was involved in correcting data and statistic of water supply and urban planning.
Outhailak graduated from Comcenter College in Lao PDR, 2013. She is currently working in Administration-Planning Division, Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE). Outhailak assists drafting National Water Strategy 2025 and Action Plan 2016-2020 and is involved in improvement of water resource strategy, water resource planning, flood and drought management planning, wetland management planning, sustainable development in the country, and in sub-river basin management visioning and future modeling for water and related implacable change.
Mr. Sok Vanna is currently a housing and urban poor community specialist for Cambodian Institute for Urban Studies (CIUS) and also a Habitat Program Manager for United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) in Cambodia since November 2010 to present. Prior to joining UN-Habitat, Vanna was employed as Population and Development Program Manager for United Nations for Population Fund (UNFPA) Cambodia from April 2004 to October 2010. He used to work with UNICEF Cambodia as a Project Officer for Community Action for Child Rights Program in 2003. Before that, he was also a Decentralization Training Advisor of a UNDP Project on Partnership for Local Governance in 2001-2002. From 1993-1999, he was the project coordinator of AIT Aqua Outreach Program in Cambodia.
Dr. Yuyu Zhou is an assistant professor at the Dept. of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University. He received his B.S. degree in geography and M.S. degree in remote sensing from Beijing Normal University and his Ph.D. degree in environmental sciences from University of Rhode Island. His research interests lie in the applications of geospatial technologies including remote sensing, GIS, geovisualization, spatial analytic tools, and integrated assessment modeling to understanding the problems of environmental change and their potential solutions for a sustainable environment. Currently, He is working in research areas concerning sustainability.