Biography & Scholarship
My research focuses on Earth observation data science, with a core emphasis on the development of satellite-derived burned area products for regional to global applications. I have led and co-developed algorithms that underpin flagship NASA products from the MODIS and VIIRS missions, which are widely used in Earth system science, climate modeling, and international reporting. A major outcome of this work is the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which provides harmonized, policy-relevant fire information to scientists, agencies, and decision makers worldwide.
A central scientific contribution of my research is in validation theory and uncertainty assessment for Earth observation products. I develop statistically rigorous sampling designs, accuracy metrics, and intercomparison frameworks to quantify confidence and error in large-scale satellite datasets, particularly where reference data are sparse or heterogeneous.
More recently, my work has expanded toward GeoAI and advanced spatiotemporal modeling, integrating deep learning with physically and statistically grounded approaches to support scalable, transferable Earth observation data products.