Science Team Lead
Competed Science Team Principal Investigators
| Principle Investigator | Institution | Project |
| Laura Duncanson | University of Maryland, College Park | Analyzing patterns of forest growth, loss and degradation in global protected areas with GEDI |
| Ranga Myneni | Boston University | Leveraging GEDI and Other Satellite Products, Ground Observations and Dynamic Process-based Modelling for Mitigation-Oriented Forest Restoration and Carbon Sequestration Planning and Evaluation |
| David Roy | Michigan State University | Using GEDI Data to Improve Understanding of Species-Specific central Africa Tropical Forest Regrowth |
| Marcos Longo | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Integrating GEDI and Process-Based Ecosystem Modeling to Assess the Impact of Wildfires on Forest Structure and Recovery |
| Jody Vogeler | Colorado State Univeristy | GEDI data fusions for characterizing post-fire landscapes to understand habitat refugia for threatened species: the case of the Canada lynx |
| Lei Ma | University of Maryland, College Park | Leveraging GEDI observations and mechanistic ecosystem modeling to quantify forest regrowth under a changing climate |
| Michael Keller | Forest Service | Biomass and structural changes in tropical forests from GEDI and airborne lidar observations |
| Chi Chen | Rutgers University, New Brunswick | Embracing the 3D Era: Exploring Vertical Acclimation of Vegetation Canopy Structure and Photosynthetic Activities through GEDI Data |
| Trevor Keenan | University of California, Berkeley | Understanding thresholds of ecosystem vulnerability with GEDI |
| Christopher Hakkenberg | Northern Arizona University | Deriving continuous maps of forest structure to characterize the relationship between fuels, burn severity, and post-fire vegetation transitions across California wildfires |
| Jingfeng Xiao | University of New Hampshire, Durham | Using GEDI data to understand the effects of structural diversity on productivity and carbon uptake of U.S. forests |
| Jim Kellner | Brown University | Strengthening GEDI algorithms through improved stratification and quality filtering |
| Atticus Stovall | University of Maryland / NASA GSFC | Understanding post-fire disturbance forest recovery in Mediterranean ecosystems using GEDI |
| Birgit Peterson | USGS Sioux Falls | Decomposition of GEDI waveforms to derive vegetation structure information for 3D fuels and wildfire modeling |
| KC Cushman | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Disturbance Recovery Dynamics Of Ecosystems from Footprint-Level GEDI Vegetation Structure |
| Sean Healey | Forest Service | Using Transfer Learning and Ten Billion GEDI shots to Improve Landsat-based Biomass and Habitat Trend Monitoring |
Laura Duncanson
Associate Research Professor, University of Maryland
Project: Analyzing patterns of forest growth, loss and degradation in global protected areas with GEDI
Dr. Duncanson is a remote sensing scientist focused primarily on modeling and mapping biomass, biomass change, and individual tree structure. On the GEDI team she plays a key role in the development of the footprint Level 4A biomass algorithms, and the management of the GEDI cal/val database of global field and airborne lidar datasets.
Ranga B. Myneni
Professor, Boston University
Project: Leveraging GEDI and Other Satellite Products, Ground Observations and Dynamic Process-based Modelling for Mitigation-Oriented Forest Restoration and Carbon Sequestration Planning and Evaluation
Dr. Myneni’s research interests are vegetation remote sensing and climate-vegetation dynamics. He teaches the remote sensing, biogeosciences and weather/climate at BU. His academic website at BU contains other details (https://sites.bu.edu/cliveg/)
David Roy
Professor, Michigan State University
Project: Using GEDI Data to Improve Understanding of Species-Specific central Africa Tropical Forest Regrowth
Dr. Roy’s research interests include development of remote sensing and computing methods to integrate remotely sensed data to map and characterize terrestrial global change due to human activity and climate change.
His academic website at MSU contains other details (https://sites.google.com/view/msu-roy-lab/home)
Marcos Longo
Research Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Project: Integrating GEDI and Process-Based Ecosystem Modeling to Assess the Impact of Wildfires on Forest Structure and Recovery
Dr. Longo is an Earth System scientist who studies the impacts of climate and land use change on forest structure and ecosystem function, by integrating remote sensing, process-based terrestrial ecosystem modelling and field observations. He and his team will use GEDI to quantify the changes in forest structure associated with fires across the western US and to benchmark the representation of fire impacts and post-fire recovery predicted by ELM-FATES.
Jody Vogeler
Project: GEDI data fusions for characterizing post-fire landscapes to understand habitat refugia for threatened species: the case of the Canada lynx
Lei Ma
Project: Leveraging GEDI observations and mechanistic ecosystem modeling to quantify forest regrowth under a changing climate
Michael Keller
Research Physical Scientist, USDA Forest Service
Project: Biomass and structural changes in tropical forests from GEDI and airborne lidar observations
Dr. Keller is an Earth scientist who realized early in his career that biology is important. He studies tropical forest ecology and will use GEDI waveforms to initialize the ED2 ecosystem model to explore the effects of current forest structure on the future of tropical forests globally.
Chi Chen
Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
Project: Embracing the 3D Era: Exploring Vertical Acclimation of Vegetation Canopy Structure and Photosynthetic Activities through GEDI Data
Trevor Keenan
Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
Project: Understanding thresholds of ecosystem vulnerability with GEDI
Chris Hakkenberg
Assistant Research Professor, Northern Arizona University
Project: Deriving continuous maps of forest structure to characterize the relationship between fuels, burn severity, and post-fire vegetation transitions across California wildfires
Dr. Hakkenberg’s research examines cross-scale relationships between forest structure, biodiversity and wildfire. His work on the GEDI Science Team involves using optical imagery with air- and space-borne lidar to examine the role of forest structure in driving wildfire severity and post-fire landscape trajectories.
Jingfeng Xiao
Research Professor, University of New Hampshire
Project: Using GEDI data to understand the effects of structural diversity on productivity and carbon uptake of U.S. forests
Dr. Xiao is a global ecologist, and has expertise in remote sensing, carbon and water cycles, machine learning, and terrestrial biosphere modeling. He has served on NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Science Definition Team and ECOSTRESS Science Team. With GEDI data, his group has been studying how forest structure and structural diversity regulate forest productivity, carbon storage, and resilience.
Jim Kellner
Assistant Professor, Brown University
Project: Strengthening GEDI algorithms through improved stratification and quality filtering
Dr. Kellner is a biologist and remote sensing scientist at Brown University with experience in the application of lidar to quantifying forest structure and changes. He is leading the development of algorithms for GEDI’s footprint aboveground biomass data product (Level 4A). Dr. Kellner is also contributing to calibration and validation activities.
Atticus Stovall
University of Maryland; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Project: Understanding post-fire disturbance forest recovery in Mediterranean ecosystems using GEDI
Dr. Stovall is a forest ecologist and remote sensing scientist researching how the global environment shapes forest structure, function, and biodiversity. His team’s work with the GEDI Science Team will track Mediterranean forest recovery after fire, improving our understanding of how different environmental conditions influence recovery in these systems.
Birgit Peterson
Project: Decomposition of GEDI waveforms to derive vegetation structure information for 3D fuels and wildfire modeling
Dr. Peterson is a geographer with the US Geological Survey with expertise in using various remote sensing technologies to meet wildfire management and science needs. She and her team are exploring the use of GEDI data to develop wildland fuel products that will inform currently operational as well as next-generation fire behavior modeling systems.
KC Cushman
Staff Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Project: Disturbance Recovery Dynamics Of Ecosystems from Footprint-Level GEDI Vegetation Structure
Dr. Cushman is a forest ecologist broadly interested in understanding variation in vegetation structure and function across space and time. Before joining ORNL in late 2023, she worked with the NISAR mission biomass calibration/validation effort. Her research with the GEDI Competed Science Team will combine GEDI and SAR data to study ecosystem disturbance dynamics.
Sean Healey
Research Ecologist, US Forest Service
Project: Using Transfer Learning and Ten Billion GEDI shots to Improve Landsat-based Biomass and Habitat Trend Monitoring
Dr. Healey is in charge of the algorithms of GEDI’s gridded biomass product (Level 4B product), exploiting his experience in the use of different types of remote sensing data for monitoring forest carbon with remote sensing data.
