Dr. Nadine Alameh
US National Geospatial Advisory Committee

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Dr. Nadine Alameh is an award-winning globally recognized thought leader in geospatial technologies and their intersection with some of today's most pressing global challenges, including climate resilience, sustainability, and the future of intelligent infrastructure.

She’s known for championing interoperability, collaboration, and bridging technology and policy as CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium, as board member of the UN Geospatial Experts Group, as appointed advisor to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, and recently as inaugural Executive Director of the Taylor Geospatial Institute.

Dr. Alameh has received multiple leadership awards: OGC Service Award (2024), Women in Technology Leadership (2023), Geospatial World Diversity Champion (2022), and Geomatics Canada Leadership (2019). She holds a Ph.D. and 2 M.S. degrees from MIT.

Dr. Chloe Barnes
2Excel Geo

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Dr Chloe Barnes joined the 2Excel Geo team in 2017 following the completion of her PhD in Remote Sensing. She is a domain expert in tree disease detection using spectral imaging and lidar techniques from airborne platforms, and is an experienced data analyst.

Chloe has since expanded her skills and experience, and was promoted to Head of Remote Sensing in 2019.

Since that time, she has built the Geo team to deliver a significant national tree health contract. Chloe’s leadership and vision has ensured the delivery of this ground-breaking solution to a real-world problem.

In June 2023, Chloe was appointed to head up Insight; 2Excel’s fourth division, alongside Capability Development, Special Missions, and Charter, and she was also promoted to the Company’s Executive Board.

Dr. Caitlin Kontgis
CPK Global

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Dr. Caitlin Kontgis is an accomplished executive and remote sensing expert with a proven track record of scaling high-growth tech companies. She has led global teams across product, sales, and engineering, delivering innovative solutions to commercial and government sectors. Formerly SVP of Commercial & Growth at Satellogic, she now leads CPK Global, advising startups on product strategy, go-to-market, and partnerships. Caitlin holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Rehman Eon
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Rehman Eon is a Research Assistant Professor at the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing (DIRS) Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where he serves as Principal Investigator (PI) on multiple federally funded projects in the field of environmental remote sensing. He is a core member of the NASA/USGS Landsat Calibration and Validation Team, contributing to the radiometric performance assessment of Landsat 8 and 9, and plays an active role in the development of Landsat Next. His research primarily focuses on the development and validation of land surface temperature (LST) algorithms from UAS-, airborne- and spaceborne-based thermal infrared sensors.

Abstract

Landsat and Beyond: The Evolution of Thermal Imaging for Global Environmental Monitoring
Abstract: For over four decades, the Landsat program has provided the longest continuous record of Earth’s land surface thermal measurements from space, enabling scientific discoveries and operational applications across hydrology, agriculture, urban studies, monitoring wildfires and climate science. With the introduction of thermal sensors aboard Landsat 4 in 1982 and their continued improvement through Landsat 5, 7, 8, and 9, researchers have been able to monitor land surface temperature (LST) with global coverage, moderate spatial resolution, and consistent calibration.

This talk will highlight the evolution of thermal imaging within the Landsat program, including key advancements in sensor technology, calibration strategies, and validation efforts that make Landsat a cornerstone for long-term Earth observation. We will also discuss the scientific utility of this data record and how it has informed policy and management decisions.

Looking forward, we will examine what’s on the horizon, including the upcoming Landsat Next mission and its expanded thermal capabilities, as well as emerging commercial and international missions. Together, these platforms are expected to deliver higher spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution data, opening new opportunities for environmental monitoring and decision-making in a warming world.

Bernard Hubbard
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Bernard Hubbard is a remote sensing geologist with expertise in volcanology, landslide hazards, planetary geomorphology and energy-mineral resources. For much of his career at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), he has worked with a variety of newly emerging hyperspectral and multispectral sensors with emphasis on mineral mapping and determining the location, abundance and distribution of critical mineral resources. Recent examples of his published work include spectral characterization of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits and rare earth elements concentrated in laterite and bauxite regolith materials. He is currently using spaceborne sensors such as ASTER and EMIT to study Ni-laterite and bauxite occurrences in the Greater Antilles.

Abstract

Using Spectral Data to Locate Critical Minerals Associated with Energy Production and Mine Waste
Hyperspectral (or imaging spectrometer) data allows for the direct and indirect detection of various critical and industrial minerals/elements needed to aid in the clean-energy transition. This includes uranium minerals, rare earth elements (REEs), as well as minerals that allow us to pinpoint the location of critical elements. Some of these critical minerals and elements are often the by-products and co-products of mining base- and precious-metal ore deposits. This talk will give an overview of field, laboratory and remote sensing based spectral studies of critical and industrial minerals at various locations in the United States and the Greater Caribbean islands. I will also discuss work in progress in detecting REEs in a variety of geologic materials, such as coal waste.

Sam Lawrence
CytoViva, Inc.

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Mr. Lawrence is the Chief Executive Officer and a Co-Founder of CytoViva, Inc., based in Auburn, AL. Mr. Lawrence led the development of the core, patented illumination technology which is the foundation for CytoViva’s products. He continues to lead all product development efforts as well as actively support the company’s sales efforts both domestically and internationally. In addition to his duties at CytoViva, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cumberland Emerging Technologies, a pharmaceutical development company located in Nashville, TN.

Dr. Alex Melnitchouck
DigiFarm and Dark Horse Ag Ventures

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Alex Melnitchouck is a Digital Farming and Precision Ag expert. He holds his Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences, and second Master’s Degree in Soils and Environmental Sciences, backed up by almost 30 years of work experience at the international level, including digital Ag projects in Canada, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia, and Eastern Europe.

Alex is the founder of IntelMax Corp. In 2015, the main asset of his business (Zoner.Ag) was acquired by Bayer CropScience to become a geospatial engine for the new Digital Farming Platform, which is currently branded as XarvioTM and owned by BASF. From 2019-2023, Alex served as Chief Technology Officer – Digital Ag at Olds College of Agriculture and Technology, leading the college’s Digital Ag strategy and the development of the Digital Ag Platform at the Olds College Smart Farm - a 3,500-acre, technology enabled applied research and learning environment.

Being an active contributor to the digital Ag community, Alex serves as a business partner in Dark Horse Ag Ventures (Canada), and DigiFarm (Norway).

Cherie Tyrell
NV5

SPECTRAL SESSIONS

Cherie Tyrrell joined NV5 in 2003 and has worked as Manager of Technical Support Services, ENVI Product Manager, Global Technical Solutions Engineer, and Channel Manager for Australia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. She is currently the Asia Pacific and Latin America Regional Manager, responsible for managing all areas of the NV5 geospatial business, relationships with NV5 geospatial partners, and the distributor network.

Prior to joining NV5, Cherie worked as a research assistant for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute for Arctic Biology, studying the relationships between arctic biology and climate change, using remote sensing and GIS. She also was a member of the NASA Land Cover and Land Use Change program, studying vegetation migration on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska.

Cherie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Middlebury College and a Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Dr. Andrew Brenner
NV5

Lidar SESSIONS

Andrew Brenner is a Vice-President for Solution Engineering for NV5 and leads the Forestry and Water Programs. He works closely with the acquisition, analytics and enterprise GIS teams to support projects that cover the full range of geospatial solutions including created digital twins from the building to the landscape scales. He has been in the geospatial arena for over thirty years, focusing on the utilization of geospatial data and tools to solve natural resource management challenges. To this end he works with imagery, lidar, and other sensors to create information that can be integrated with GIS decision making systems to manage resource effectively.

Prior to joining the private sector 24 years ago he worked in natural resource research heading the GIS and Remote Sensing Research Facility at the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan. He has a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Physics from Edinburgh University and a Bachelors in Soil Science from the University of Reading UK.

Clint Graumann
NUVIEW, Inc.

Lidar SESSIONS

Clint Graumann is a serial entrepreneur in the New Space industry, and the Co-Founder and CEO at NUVIEW, Inc. and TerraMetric, LLC. At NUVIEW, he oversees the vision and strategy of the company and is responsible for the overall growth and financial profitability. As a seasoned professional, Clint's expertise is in building and leading teams in the technology space. He has vast experience in international project management, global growth strategies, corporate strategy development and business planning at company, business division and product levels, as well as distribution and go-to-market design innovation. With NUVIEW, Clint is setting high standards for the New Space industry. He is a frequent presenter at NewSpace and Geospatial events

Dr. Martin Pfennigbauer
RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems

Lidar SESSIONS

Dr. Martin Pfennigbauer holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Vienna University of Technology. He has been with RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems since 2005 and presently assumes the position of Chief Research Officer. Martin Pfennigbauer manages RIEGL’s research activities and projects funded by the European Space Agency, the European Union, and Austrian national programs. His special interest is the design and development of lidar instruments for surveying applications, with a focus on rangefinder design, waveform processing and point cloud analysis, specifically in the context of lidar bathymetry.

Filippo Britti
e-GEOS

SAR SESSIONS

Filippo Britti, master’s degree in telecommunications engineering with remote sensing specialization. He has been working since 2006 in TELESPAZIO Earth-observation dept. that, on July 2009, became e-GEOS company. Technical manager for several projects focusing on EO data exploitation, since 2015 till 2019 he has been the product manager of the brAInt platform, the e-GEOS solution for satellite IMINT applications. Senior technical reference for EO imagery exploitation with advanced experience in SAR data and D&I applications, he participated to several national and international conferences on EO, SAR and D&I fields. He is also member of the team of instructors of e-GEOS training programme and has a long experience in teaching remote sensing fundamentals with specialization in very high-resolution spaceborne SAR systems and related applications. He is currently head of the “Radar Application” organizational unit in the “Product Development and Innovation” and responsible for “Image Intelligence Product Development” in the “Defense, Intelligence and COSMO-SkyMed Global KAM”

Fergus Craig
NV5

SAR SESSIONS

Fergus Craig is the UK Sales Manager for NV5, a leading provider of remote sensing solutions and geospatial services. At NV5, Fergus has been pivotal in promoting the company’s advanced remote sensing technologies, including ENVI, a powerful image analysis software.

In addition to his role at NV5, Fergus serves as the Co-chair of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI), where he advocates for the effective use of geographic information across various sectors. His leadership in the geospatial community is dedicated to advancing the field through collaboration and thought leadership.

Paola Filippi
NV5

SAR SESSIONS

Paola has been working in the geospatial sector since 1996, following the completion of a master’s degree in remote sensing and a PhD experience in the United States. She began her career focusing on technical pre- and post-sales support for Italian customers and training activities for both national and international customers. Over time, she transitioned into more commercial and business development roles within the same company. She currently serves as the Managing Director of the Italian branch of NV5 Geospatial Solutions.

Markus Jochum
Airbus

SAR SESSIONS

With a degree in Remote Sensing and Forestry and a background in entrepreneurship, Markus began his career at Airbus (formerly Infoterra) 18 years ago. His diverse academic and professional experience has given him a strong understanding of user and customer needs, which he now applies in his role as Future SAR Programs Manager. Markus specializes in business case development for next-generation radar satellites and is dedicated to driving innovative, commercially viable solutions that contribute to the growth of satellite-based services. He leverages his expertise in business analysis, strategic planning, and satellite technology to help shape sustainable and efficient space programs.

Dr. Thomas Lege

Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Germany (BGR)

SAR SESSIONS

Thomas Lege is a geophysicist with a PhD in civil engineering. Thomas has professional experience at the Leibniz University of Hannover and at the two German Federal Institutes for “Waterway Engineering and Research” and “Geosciences and Natural Resources.” At the latter, he heads the “Geo-Hazard Assessment, Remote Sensing” Division, which, among other things, has launched the InSAR-based Ground Motion Service Germany online. Thomas Lege is currently also responsible for managing the department “Geoscientific Information, International Cooperation”.

Dr. Alessandro Novellino
British Geological Survey (BGS)

SAR SESSIONS

Alessandro is a senior Remote Sensing Geoscientist in the Earth Observation team (12 people) at the British Geological Survey (BGS) in the UK. He has >12 years of postgraduate experience in Earth Observation (EO) and disaster risk management. He is also the Head of Education and Training at the UK Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society, where he runs their YouTube podcast.

He drives the development of new methods and tools (e.g., Artificial Intelligence) to identify, monitor and model natural and anthropogenic hazards (e.g., landslides, volcanoes) from satellite data. His science is advancing knowledge in the field of EO, Earth Sciences and computer science (e.g., automatic processing of petabytes of satellite data) for a better understanding of the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on our planet. He is currently leading a project funded from the European Space Agency to assess multi-hazards conditions in Türkiye and Italy using both optical and radar satellite data.

Dr. Salvatore Stramondo
National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Italy (INGV)

SAR SESSIONS

Salvatore Stramondo received the Laurea (M.S.) Degree in Electronic Engineering in 1996 from the University “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy, and the Ph.D. in Geoinformation in 2007 from the University “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy. He joined the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in 1997 where he is Research Director. From February 2017 to December 2023 has been the Director of the National Earthquake Observatory of Italy. Since January 2024 is Contract Professor of Earth Observation Data Analysis at the Dept. of “Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale – DIAG” at Sapienza Univ. (Rome). His main research activities concern the application of Satellite EO to Earth Sciences.

Dr. Giulia Tessari

SAR SESSIONS

MSc in Environmental Engineering and PhD in Earth Sciences at University of Padova. Formerly researcher at the Department of Geosciences at University of Padova. Expertise in measuring and modeling landslide and subsidence motions, and building and infrastructure deformations.

Dr. Mousa Diabat

NV5

FOCUS WEBINARS

Dr. Mousa Diabat (pronounced Moo-sa, De-ya-bat) is a Technical Domain Expert at NV5 Geospatial, specializing in remote sensing thermography and hydrology. He has led the development of innovative airborne thermal infrared imaging solutions for infrastructure inspection, pipeline monitoring, and the mapping of geothermal resources and natural assets. Dr. Diabat’s work brings cutting-edge technology with practical applications, advancing the role of thermal infrared remote sensing in environmental and engineering domains.

Dave Bernstein
NV5

FOCUS WEBINARS

Dave Bernstein is the Vice President of Hydrospatial Operations at NV5, with over 25 years of experience providing management, oversight and support to all aspects of hydrographic solutions. With formal education and training in Marine Geology, GIS and Hydrography, and a diverse record of practice, he manages the technical, operations, and strategy of hydrographic surveys from inland, nearshore and offshore waters. He holds a B.A. degree in Environmental Geoscience and GIS, and an M.S. in Marine Geology. Dave has a PLS license in North Carolina and is also a Certified GIS Professional (GISP), and an ACSM Certified Hydrographic Surveyor (CH). He is on the ACSM-THSOA Hydrographer Certification Board and is active in education, outreach, and career development of the hydrographic community.

Steve-Mulberry
NV5

FOCUS WEBINARS

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