Dr. Vasit Sagan is an Associate Professor with the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at Saint Louis University (SLU). He directs M.S. in Geographic Information Science (GIScience) degree and graduate and undergraduate Certificate programs in GIScience. He teaches an array of courses in GIS, remote sensing, geospatial methods, and GIS programming. His research focuses on developing state-of-the-art remote sensing and GIS tools, machine learning algorithms, sensor/information fusion, and geospatial methods to study food and water security, bioenergy, and power grid sustainability from regional to global scales. 
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Patrick Paheding  (aka Paheding Sidike) is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the  Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at Saint Louis University. Dr. Paheding earned his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Dayton, Ohio, USA. His research interests cover a variety of topics in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Deep Learning and Remote Sensing. Currently, He is actively involved in UAS based plant phenotyping using machine intelligence. He has authored or coauthored more than 50 publications, including refereed journals and conference proceedings, and serves as a reviewer for a number of reputed journals and international conferences. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society). [​Homepage]
Sean Hartling is a PhD student who received his B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Remote Sensing and GIS from Saint Louis University. 

Dissertation topic: Storm damage forecasting for regional utility network using UAS/satellite remote sensing and GIS.
Matthew Maimaitiyiming is a PhD student in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program. He earned his B.S. in Geographic Information System from Xinjiang University (2009), and M.S. in Geospatial Technology from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2013). He utilizes field, airborne, and satellite based hyperspectral data and crop biophysical variables for characterizing tipping points of abiotic stress, which is critical to develop stress-resistant crops under changing climate.
Dissertation topic: Climate Change and X farming: Integrating multi-scale remote sensing observations and biochemical modeling for early detection of crop responses to abiotic stress.
Kathleen E. Thatcher is a PhD student in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program. She earned her B.S. in Geography from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2003), and M.A. in Rural Geography from Northern Arizona University (2007).
Dissertation topic: Interactive feedbacks between forest dynamics, conservation efforts and plant and animal species diversity in Betampona Nature Reserve, Madagascar:  findings from high resolution remote sensing data, field studies and forest growth modeling.
Elizabeth Loesch is a PhD student in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program. She earned her B.S. in Earth Sciences from University of California, Santa Cruz (1997), and M.S. in Geosciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2004). Her research involves remote sensing, GIS and model based approaches for predictive monitoring global landslides.
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Dissertation topic: Predictive monitoring of sinkholes using InSAR and geophysical modeling
Mason Maitiniyazi is a PhD student in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program. He earned his B.S. in Urban and Rural Planning & Resource Management from Peking University (2005), and M.S. in Geography from Zhongshan University (2007), China. His uses computer vision, machine learning, remote sensing and modeling for crop growth monitoring and food security.
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Dissertation topic: UAS and manned aircraft regional monitoring for improved crop productivity.
Bethany Marshall is a PhD student in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program. She earned her B.S. in Geography from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL  (2015) and M.S. in Geographic Information Science from Saint Louis University (2017). Her research focuses on a UAS surveying for engineering applications.

​Thesis topic: TBD 
Kyle Peterson is a M.S. student in Geographic Information Science program. He earned his B.S. in Geography from University of Missouri in Columbia (2016). He joined the Remote Sensing Lab in Summer 2016. His research focuses on remote sensing of water quality.
Thesis topic: Machine learning based ensemble prediction of water quality variables with proximal remote sensing using feature-level and decision-level fusion.  
Kevin Eblimit is a M.S. student in Geographic Information Science program. He earned his B.S. in Geographic Information Systems and Technology from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas (2017). He joined the Remote Sensing Lab in Fall 2017. His research focuses on remote sensing applications in engineering and oil exploration.
Thesis topic: TBD.  
Stephen Leard is a M.S. student in the Geographic Information Science program. He earned a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park (2008). He joined the Remote Sensing Lab in Fall 2017. His research focuses on conservation technology, immersive interfaces for remote sensing data visualization, and human factors affecting zoonotic spillover risk.

Thesis topic: Developing and evaluating immersive interfaces for exploratory data analysis in remote sensing.
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​David Ridge is a M.S. student in the Geographic Information Science program. He earned his B.S. in Aeronautics with a Minor in Strategic Intelligence from Saint Louis University (2017). He joined the Remote Sensing Lab in Fall 2017. His research focuses on multi-modality remote sensing using multiple remote sensors using UAS photogrammetry, Airborne LiDAR, and InSAR.
Thesis topic: Using LiDAR, aerial photogrammetry, and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture RADAR to estimate tree growth.

Undergraduate Researchers (2012 - )

  • Kahaer Alafate (Spring & Summer, 2015), Undergrad researcher from Computer Sciences program. Kahaer is involved with a NASA funded project, working on compiling and entering field data and developing IDL/Matlab programs to read and process spectral and imagery data, as well as implementing statistical algorithms. 
  • Laura L. Bernett (Spring 2015), Undergrad researcher from Environmental Sciences program of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. Laura's research focuses on quantifying the impact of ambient ozone on ion/nutrient concentrations of soybean plants using field based spectroscopy and hyperspectral imager.
  • Liyang Yu (Spring 2015), Undergrad researcher from Environmental Sciences program of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. Liyang's is working on mineral resources mapping in Midwestern US using field and satellite remote sensing.
  • Kirsten Butcher (Spring 2013), Undergrad student from Environmental Sciences program of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. Her research (GIS Capstone) study focused on sustainable agriculture.
  • Timothy Barbeau (06/2013 - 09/2013), Undergrad student from Environmental Sciences program of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. His research/independent study focused on Changes in Leaf Area Index attributed to aerosols.

Past Graduate Students 

Mark Grzovic (2013-2017) earned his PhD degree in Geophysics in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at Saint Louis University. Mark received his B.S. in Geology and B.S. in Mathematics, respectively, from Lamar University (2007), and M.S. in Geology from the University of Missouri, Columbia (2013).  Dissertation topic: Monitoring land subsidence in Midwestern U.S. using multi-temporal InSAR.
Ethan J. Shavers (2013-2017) earned a PhD in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program in May 2017. His research focused on integrating remote sensing and economic geology. Dissertation topic: Geochemistry and Multiscale Remote Sensing of Carbonatite-ultramafic Intrusive Lithologies. ​Dr. Shavers' PhD work has yielded 3 peer-review journal papers published in Lithos (2016), Tectonophysics (2017) and Ore Geology Reviews (2018).
Bethany Marshall (2015-2017) was awarded a M.S. in Geographic Information Science from Saint Louis University in May 2017. She earned her B.S. in Geography from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL  (2015). Her research focused on a NASA funded project to characterize land surface albedo for TEMPO using Geo-TASO observations. Thesis topic: The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function and Albedo Analysis for Various Land-Cover Types in the Midwestern United States for the TEMPO Satellite
Ben Bira is a M.S. student in Sustainability program. He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO  (2012). He earned MS in Sustainability in May 2016. 
Guzhaliayi Sataer  (2015-2016) was a PhD student in Environmental Sciences and GIS track of Integrated Applied Sciences program. She worked as research assistant in Remote Sensing Lab during 2015-2016 academic year, and joined Western Michigan University to pursue a PhD in Geosciences in Fall 2016. Her work at Saint Louis University involved an NSF funded research on multiscale remote sensing and model based approaches for crop growth monitoring and management.
Yuyan C. Jordan (2010 - 2013), Ph.D., Saint Louis University; Dissertation title: Surface water quality under climate and land use changes derived from remote sensing data integrated with SWAT hydrological modeling. Dr. Jordan's PhD work has yielded 3 peer-review journal papers published in Landscape Ecology (2012), Earth Science Reviews (2014) and Journal of Environmental Inforamtics (2014).

Past PostDoc fellows and Visiting Scholars 

Dr. Maria Librada Chu, post-doctoral fellow (2011-2013). Dr. Chu's research focused on a project examining the potential influence of climate change on hydrologic aspects of human and natural systems in the Midwestern U.S.

Mason Maitiniyazi (August 20, 2013- August 19, 2014), visiting faculty from Xinjiang Agricultural Univeristy, China. Mr. Mathew's research focuses on GIS and remote sensing based modeling of socio-economic drivers of land-cover/land-use change and urbanization in post industrial US cities.

Dr. Mason Sawut (April 20 - July 20, 2013), visiting faculty from Xinjiang Univeristy, China. Dr. Sawut's research focused on remote sensing estimation of soil sand content, soil quality and its environmental impacts.

Dr. Tao Zeng (June 24 - December 31, 2013), visiting faculty from Chengdu University of Technology, China. Dr. Zeng's research focused on estimating the volume and spatial extent of loose deposits, and its contribution to potential geological hazards over Wenchuan Earthquake zone, China using airborne and space borne optical remote sensing and InSAR coherence approach.
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