Mark Friedl

Faculty Associate
Professor, Department of Earth & Environment
friedl@bu.edu

Education

B.Sc. McGill University; Ph.D. University of California at Santa Barbara

Biography

Mark Friedl is professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University. His research uses remote sensing to examine biogeophysical patterns and processes at the Earth’s surface, with a particular focus on how land cover and ecosystem properties affect surface climate, how land surface biophysics influence the Earth’s weather and climate system, and more generally, how human activities are shaping the planet and affecting the global biosphere. At Boston University, Friedl has served as chair of the Department of Geography and Environment, chair of the department of Earth Sciences, and most recently, as interim chair of Earth and Environment. He has extensive experience on NASA and USGS science teams including NASA’s MODIS Land Science Team, the Suomi VIIRS Land Science Team and the Multi-Source Land Imaging Team. He is currently an associate team member for the USGS’s Landsat Science Team, and for NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment. Outside of Boston University, Friedl has been appointed as a Bullard Fellow at Harvard University, as an Erasmus Mundus visiting scholar in Europe, and as a visiting scientist at the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. He also served as Co-Chair for the Land Process Validation Working Group Sub-Committee on Land Cover Validation Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, as an associate editor and member of the editorial board for Remote Sensing of Environment, as an associate editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research, Biogeosciences, and as an assigning editor and member of the editorial board for Ecological Applications. In addition, Friedl served for 5 years as a member of the User Working Group for the Oak Ridge National Lab DAAC for Biogeochemical Cycles, the last three years of which he served as the UWG Chair. Friedl received his B.Sc. from McGill University and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara.