Dr. Booker Ogutu is Lecturer in Remote Sensing at the University of Southampton, UK. His research focuses on the application of Earth Observation (EO) data to characterise terrestrial ecosystem processes (e.g., carbon sequestration) and their dynamics. He has contributed to various projects including Application of EO data to aid sustainable intensification of agriculture in China, Evaluating the potential of EO data in estimating wheat crop yield gaps in the North Central Plains of China, and Estimating terrestrial vegetation primary productivity from Sentinel mission data.

Dr. Zaib un Nisa is currently Research Fellow in Remote Sensing at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. She received her Ph.D. in Science, Technology, and Biotechnology for Sustainability from the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, Italy and earned fellowships from University of Molise, Italy. She actively participated in various European COST Action programs, including MARGISTAR, SENSECO, and ForestFirelinks and currently engaged with SUSTAIN and PANGOES. Dr. Nisa’s expertise lies in remote sensing of vegetation, process-based modelling, agrometeorology, sustainability, and the complex interplay between agriculture and water resources. She contributed to regional water budget analysis and evapotranspiration estimation and modelling under the auspices of FAO and ICARDA rainwater harvesting project. She is dedicated to address critical issues related to water resource management and sustainable agricultural practices across the world.

Prof. Victor Rodriguez Galiano is Associate Professor in Remote Sensing in the Physical Geography department at the Universidad de Sevilla, Spain. His research focuses on four tiers: remote sensing of the physical environment, predictive modelling with “machine learning” techniques, time series analysis of crop phenology and the impact of climate change and hyperspectral remote sensing for phenotyping of forested areas and croplands. He serves on various scientific committees and holds the esteemed role of co-chair for the CEOS LPV phenology focus area. Notably, he has secured substantial research funding, serving as a Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Investigator (Co-I) on various projects. His research contributions are evidenced by the publication of more than 70 scholarly papers, marking his significant impact in the field.

Prof. Roshanak Darvishzadeh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources (NRS), Faculty of Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC). She has a PhD in hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation from Wageningen University and ITC. Her research activities include analysis and exploration of various remote sensing data types at the ground, airborne and satellite platforms for assessing vegetation growth, health, disease, and stress with applications in natural as well as agricultural ecosystems. She has contributed to more than 150 scientific publications including journal articles, book chapters, technical reports. Besides research and coordination and implementation of international projects, she is involved in educational activities and supervision of MSc and PhD students.

Prof. Clement Atzberger  is Head of the Institute of Geomatics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). He received his Ph.D. degree on crop growth modelling and remote sensing data assimilation from Trier University, Germany. His main expertise is in time series analysis (including noise removal, retrieval of phenological markers, change detection), drought monitoring, radiative transfer modelling (forward and inverse) in agriculture and forestry, imaging spectroscopy, crop growth modelling and data assimilation, and machine learning for the mapping of continuous and categorical variables. He led and contributed to many national and international projects. He has published >100 SCI papers and served as Editor for several Special Issues in different journals.

Dr. Omid Ghorbanzadeh is a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Geomatics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). He received his Ph.D. in Applied Geoinformatics from the Doctoral College of GIScience at the University of Salzburg, Austria, in 2021. He has expertise in GIS and remote sensing with a strong background in research and development of machine/deep learning models to monitor land cover dynamics and natural hazards with >55 papers in international journals. He is an Associate Editor for Advances in Space Research and Remote Sensing Journals. He is the recipient of the best paper awards at the GISTAM 2019 Conf., and Journals of Mathematics 2020, Spatial Science 2021, Remote Sensing 2021, Big Earth Data 2022. Recognized among the “World’s Top 2% Scientists” in Stanford University’s 2023 ranking.

Prof. Aaron Berg is a professor in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Guelph, Canada. His expertise is in land surface hydrology and remote sensing using optical and microwave imagery. He received his PhD in Earth Systems Science at University of California Irvine and specialized in Hydrology and remote sensing with applications to agriculture, land-atmosphere interactions, and hydro-climatology. He has been active in research on earth observation at regional and local scales on hydrological stress to agricultural and natural ecosystems and has published over 200 articles in this field.

Dr. Catherine Champagne is an Environmental Scientist with the Science and Technology Branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and an adjunct professor in the University of Guelph. Her research is focussed on climate related impacts to vegetation in agricultural environments and earth observation. She leads an applied science team at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada providing science-based estimates of crop stress, drought severity and land use changes. She has published >60 articles focusing on earth observation from optical, thermal and microwave data and the application of this to agricultural monitoring. Her research interests lie in monitoring the environmental health of various ecosystems and applying remote sensing techniques in agricultural environments using both optical and microwave technology.

Prof. Andy Nelson is a full professor in Spatial Agriculture and Food Security at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente, the Netherlands, where he leads the Natural Resources Department. His academic pursuits focus on harnessing Earth observation and spatial data to enhance global food security. He is a member of the Steering Group for the 4TU Centre for Resilience Engineering (4TU RE) in the Netherlands, represents ITC in the CGIAR consortium for spatial information, and is co-chair for Capacity Development in the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. His work has been widely acclaimed, with appearances in The Economist, New Scientist, Nature, and Science as well as in flagship policy reports for the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).