Who I am
I am a civil and geological engineer
by formal training but work in a Department of Geosciences where
I study vegetation, soils, surface processes and image processing!
Needless to say, I am interested in working across disciplines
and with a variety of scientists and engineers.
I’ve worked in the Department of Geosciences
at Idaho State University since 2000. I am a professor and director
of the Boise Center Aerospace Laboratory (BCAL) (http://bcal.geology.isu.edu/).
I have two young children and am active in a
new public charter school, Sage International School of Boise.
I enjoy dedicating my time to the school in the capacity of grant
writing.
I enjoy spending time with my family in the outdoors
(especially mountain biking and skate skiing), traveling, reading,
and gardening.
What I like most about my job
I love my job because I work with talented and fun people. My lab
is full of energetic scientists and all-around great people.
We work hard, and strive to be the best we can be without taking
ourselves too seriously. I also love my job because it is rewarding
to have our research published, have a project idea funded, work
in a team environment, and help students gain experience that
helps them grow in both the short and long-term.
My Research Interests
My lab’s research interests include pushing
the limits of what remote sensing data tell us about a vegetation
species, soil type, earth surface process, and how these all interact
across the landscape, especially with disturbance such as fire.
For these investigations, I use hyperspectral (visible to shortwave
infrared) and LiDAR (laser) sensors from satellites, airplanes
and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). I’m interested in developing
new methods for feature extraction in remote sensing imagery and
teaching others how to do this. Another aspect of my research is
visualization and data fusion. We integrate different remote sensing
datasets and visualize them in 3D to extract quantitative information
about how the landscape has changed over time. My lab also creates
3D visualizations for K12 and the public: http://bcal.geology.isu.edu/videos.shtml
