Mark Friedl, Principal Investigator
William Goodwin Aurelio Professor in Mathematics & Science
friedl at bu.edu
Research Statement: My research uses remote sensing to examine biogeophysical patterns and processes at the Earth’s surface. I am particularly interested in how land cover and ecosystem properties affect surface climate, how land surface biophysics influence the Earth’s weather and climate system, and how human activities are impacting the global biosphere.

Chishan Zhang, Post-Doc
chishan at bu.edu
Research Statement: My research uses deep learning and remote sensing to monitor agricultural and vegetation dynamics at large scales. By integrating satellite time series and leveraging high-performance computing, I quantify how foreign investments drive land cover change like deforestation and impact the resulting carbon balance and biodiversity.

Annabelle Gao, Ph.D Student
agao525 at bu.edu
Research Statement: My research interests include Earth system modeling, environmental health, and better understanding the current and future impacts of climate change. Specifically, I hope to apply remote sensing techniques and machine learning to better inform environmental and climate policy, urban development, and natural disaster relief. 

Kai-Ting Hu, Ph.D. Student
kthu at bu.edu
Research Statement: I am interested in the mechanisms underlying long-term forest ecosystem dynamics and how forests are responding to the changing climate. I am particularly interested in understanding the impacts of disturbances on forest ecosystems.

Tristan Green, Ph.D. Student
twgreen at bu.edu
Research Statement: I am interested in using remote sensing to study how vegetation phenology and boundary layer dynamics are responding to a changing climate. I am especially interested in understanding how extreme events and seasonality alter land surface/boundary layer characteristics. Tristan’s CV

Seamore Zhu, Ph.D. Student
seamorez at bu.edu
Research Statement: I am interested in how climate change and human impacts drive shifts in terrestrial vegetation, particularly across Arctic regions and ecotones. To study these interactions, I apply remote sensing, field data, and modeling to investigate how ecosystem dynamics respond to perturbations across space and time. Seamore’s CV

Dan Cunha, Ph.D. Student in Statistics
dcunha at bu.edu
Research Statement: I’m a statistics phd student at Boston University, working with Luis Carvalho and Mark Friedl. I help develop bespoke statistical models for a variety of scientific disciplines with a focus on methodologies for efficient inference. I am interested in using rich dependence structures and latent variable dynamics to achieve marginal distributional alignment with data generating processes.