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Faculty
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Rod Hanley 
rshanley@umac.org
Associate Professor and Chair
Rod's research is organized around several complementary themes,
including the biogeography of invasive species, phylogenetic
systematics, and the evolution of insect/host associations. These themes
greatly overlap
in their relationships to one another and routinely require the
use of common approaches in their study. Most recently, Rod has produced
predictive
distributional models of various infectious diseases, including
West Nile encephalitis and Lyme disease. This work combines the use of
remotely
sensed data (aerial and satellite imagery), GIS technologies,
and bioinformatic techniques to examine their geographic spread and predict
areas of invasion.
Rod joined the Earth Systems Science Institute in August 2001 after receiving
a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas.
While at KU, Rod worked in the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity
Research Center on a large NSF funded research project dealing with the
biodiversity of rove beetles. Some of this work was highlighted in an
issue of Science Magazine dealing with bioinformatics and biodiversity
(vol. 289, 29 Sept. 2000, pp. 2305-2308). Rod has also participated in
numerous field research expeditions, including ones to Bolivia, Costa
Rica, Panama, and Venezuela. Rod also holds B.S. (1991) and M.S. (1993)
degrees in Environmental Science from Eastern Illinois University.
Dr. Hanley is also adjunct faculty with the Departments of Geography and Computer Science at the University of North Dakota.
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Michael J. Hill
hillmj@aero.und.edu
Professor
Michael joined ESSP in September 2006 from the Bureau of Rural Sciences, a
science-policy agency within the Australian Government.
Michael received his B Agr Sci in 1975 and M Agr Sci in 1980 from La Trobe
University in Melbourne, and his PhD from The University of Sydney, in
Australia in 1985.
He has a background in grassland agronomy, but has been working with spatial
information and remote sensing of land systems for the past 15 years. He has
published widely on agronomy, ecology, biogeography and production of
grasslands, and radar, multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensing of
grasslands, and more recently has been involved in development of scenario
analysis models for assessment of carbon dynamics in agricultural and
rangeland systems, multi-criteria analysis of coupled human-environment
systems and carbon cycle modeling in tropical savannas.
Michael worked for 12 years for CSIRO, the national science agency of
Australia before joining the BRS in 2000. Michael was a project leader and
member of the Management Team of the Co-operative Research Centre for
Greenhouse Accounting, based at the Australian National University, from
2001 to 2006. His current interests are in coupling Earth Observation data
with process models, multi-criteria and decision support systems for
terrestrial landscapes, methods and approaches to application of spatial
data for land use management, and hyperspectral remote sensing.
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Gary Johnson
gjohnson@umac.org
Assistant Vice President for Research
Professor, Earth System Science and Policy
Dr. Gary Johnson joined UMAC in November of 2002. He holds Bachelor
and Master's degrees in Geography from UND, and a Ph.D. from Indiana State
University. He began his academic career with the Department of Geography
at UND in 1966, culminating as Associate Professor and Chair of the Department
in 1976. He subsequently spent two years with the administration of ND
Governor Art Link managing the West Central ND Regional Environmental
Impact Study on proposed lignite coal development in a seven county area
of western ND. He has returned to UND from the Mississippi gulf coast
where he managed the Science and Applications Division of Lockheed Martin's
Remote Sensing Directorate in support of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise
at Stennis Space Center.
Johnson's intervening career has spanned industry, government and academia.
His international work has included two years as an Associate Professor
at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand where he was
responsible for the implementation of the Asian Regional Remote Sensing
Training Center. He subsequently managed the United Nations Environment
Programme's (UNEP) Global Resource Information Database (GRID) in Bangkok
for an additional two years. He worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration as a Principal Remote Sensing Scientist and Branch Chief
in support of NOAA's drought early warning research and training activities
in the Sahel of Africa and SE Asia while based in Columbia, MO.
Johnson worked for the not-for-profit Consortium for International Earth
Science Information Network (CIESIN) as Vice President and Manager of the
Information Resources and Technologies Division. He has also held research
and management positions with aerospace contractors Hughes and Lockheed
Martin in support of the US Geological Survey and NASA respectively. He
has held Adjunct Professor positions in Geography and Remote Sensing with
South Dakota State University and the University of Missouri.
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Andrei Kirilenko
andrei.kirilenko@und.nodak.edu
Associate Professor
Andrei joined ESSP in 2006 after working as a Research Associate with the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University. His research interests are concentrated around the environmental modeling and sustainability issues, especially the global and regional impacts of changing climate, simulation the land use change, GIS-integrated and web-based models. In addition to research and teaching, Andrei is also a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Report, 2nd working group, Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.
Previously Andrei was employed as a Senior Scientist with the Center for Forest Ecology and Production at the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow, Russia, held a Visiting Scientist position at the European Forest Institute in Joensuu, Finland, was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the US EPA research laboratory in Corvallis, OR, and worked as a Junior Scientist at the Russian Academy of Science' Computing Center in Moscow, Russia.
Andrei received his M.S. degree in the Applied Mathematics in 1984 from Moscow State University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Russian Academy of Science in 1990. More information on Andrei's research, teaching, and selected publications are available here.
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Soizik Laguette
laguette@umac.org
Assistant Professor
Team leader for the Team
Express project: Rapid Integration of
Remote Sensing Data into In-Field Management Decisions. Research activities
focus on the use of satellite data in crop modeling as well as on helping
end-users integrate remote sensing as a tool in land management practices.
Soizik Laguette joined UMAC in September 1999. Previously, she worked
for two years as a research fellow with the Numerical
Terradynamic Simulation Group at the University of Montana's School of Forestry. Soizik conducted
her Ph.D. research in Italy at the Joint
Research Centre, the European
Union's scientific and technical research laboratory. She earned her Ph.D.
in Agricultural Engineering from ENGREF, the French Institute of Forestry,
Agricultural and Environmental Engineering in Paris in 1997. For more
than 10 years, Soizik's research activities have focused on agronomy and
remote sensing and the use of spatial information as a tool in agricultural
and agronomy. Soizik has expertise in crop modeling and yield estimates,
drought effects on crop production, and sustainable land management. Her
research has highlighted the importance of research-partner relationships
with end-users, to ensure the transition from pure research to field practices.
Soizik has an M.S. in Land Reclamation and Rural Development from the
University Paul Valery, Montpellier, France, and a B.S. in Vegetal Biology
from the University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
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Rebecca Romsdahl
rebecca.romsdahl@und.nodak.edu
Assistant Professor
Rebecca Romsdahl joined ESSP in 2006 after completing an AAAS postdoctoral fellowship working with the
US EPA's Global Change Research Program and the US Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) in Washington,
DC. Her research interests focus on the human dimensions of global environmental change and government
interaction with stakeholders in developing environmental policies. Some of her recent research topics
include: decision support for climate adaptation planning, challenges for collaboration between
government agencies and stakeholders in public land management, public participation in environmental
policy-making, evaluating internet-based deliberation for environmental policy-making and challenges to
the use of social science research in environmental policy-making.
Romsdahl has worked with the US National Academies of Science, as a graduate research fellow for the
Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change and as a liaison between the Committee and the
CCSP. She has also worked seasonally with the US Forest Service headquarters in Washington DC, as a
researcher, and with the US National Park Service, as an Interpretive Ranger, at Isle Royale and
Shenandoah National Parks.
Romsdahl is a native of Minnesota, where she received her BA in Environmental Studies from Gustavus
Adolphus College. She completed her MS in Resource Development at Michigan State University and
received her PhD in Environmental Science & Public Policy from George Mason University.
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Bradley Rundquist
bradley_rundquist@und.nodak.edu
Associate Professor of Geography, Adjunct ESSP Faculty
Spatial and temporal variation in vegetation dynamics, environmental modeling with remote sensing, proximal remote sensing, vegetation response to climate change
Bradley Rundquist is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of North Dakota. His teaching and research interests include biogeography (terrestrial vegetation), remote sensing and GIS. Specifically, Dr. Rundquist's areas of research are: (1) remote detection of invasive plant species; (2) regional climate variability and its impact on land use and land cover dynamics in the Devil's Lake Basin; and (3) satellite bioclimatology and the investigation of broad-scale links between climate/climate change and vegetation distribution and conditions.
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George Seielstad
gseielst@aero.und.edu
Dr. George A. Seielstad is Associate Dean for Research and Innovative
Projects at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
of the University of North Dakota. In this position he develops
and promotes the Upper Midwest
Aerospace Consortium (UMAC), a major research initiative Seielstad
founded in 1994. Before coming to UND, Seielstad had an active
career as a radio astronomer,
first at the California Institute of Technology's Owens Valley
Radio Observatory, then at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
in Green Bank, West Virginia, where he was Site Director. He earned his undergraduate
degree summa cum laude from Dartmouth
College. His Ph.D. in Physics is from the California Institute
of Technology. Seielstad has been published widely:
he has authored more
than 60 refereed articles and three books, among them Cosmic
Ecology: The View from the Outside In, and At the Heart of the
Web: The Inevitable
Genesis of Intelligent Life.
Seielstad came to UND in 1993 as Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs in
The Odegard School and Professor in the Department of Space Studies. In
1994, he was named Associate Dean of the School, and Director of the Earth
System Science Institute, a multi-disciplinary research organization dedicated
to studying global environmental issues. In October 1997, Seielstad was
named The Oliver Benediktson Professor of Astrophysics.
Currently Seielstad is Chairman of the Executive Management Board
for NASA's Deep Space Network. He also served on a National Science
Foundation's Committee of Visitors for the Atmospheric Sciences.
He is a nominee for the U.S. Geological Survey's National Satellite
Land Remote Sensing Data Active Archive Advisory Committee.
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Xiaodong Zhang
zhang@umac.org
Associate Professor
Xiaodong Zhang joined UMAC in April 2002 after receiving a Ph.D. in Oceanography
from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, where he studied the optical
properties of microbubbles in the ocean and their effect on the hyperspectral
reflectance at surface. Xiaodong had been working for 7 years at Ocean Remote Sensing Institute,
Ocean University of China, studying satellite remote sensing and its application in oceanography.
He also holds a M.S.
degree in Oceanography from Dalhousie University, and a B.S. degree in
Computer Science from Nanjing University, China.
Xiaodong teaches the ESSP 502 Hydrologic Cycle block and ESSP 520 Earth System Modelling.
His general research interests include radiative transfer, applications of remote sensing, and
geographic information system.
Currently, his researches include 1) satellite remote sensing of evapotranspiration,
2) atmospheric correction for AgCam, which was built by the UND's students and faculty and will be
launched onto the International Space Station in September 2008, 3) a decision support system for
precision farming, and 4) ocean optics in China seas.
Xiaodong also leads the Digital Northern Great Plains Project, Digital-NGP,
an online database system providing
easy and intuitive access to end users with remote sensing images that are being
collected at UMAC.
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