Executive

Dr. Shabnam Jabari is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick (UNB).

She has received her PhD from UNB, working on 3D Information Supported Urban Change Detection using Multi-Angle and Multi-Sensor Imagery in 2015, which resulted in a commercialized patented technology. She received her MSc and BSc in Civil-Surveying Engineering in 2009 and 2005, respectively, from the University of Tehran.

Dr. Jabari’s current research interests include 3D city models, 3D GIS, urban area change detection, multi-modal mapping. She focuses her research on the application of Geospatial Data for Disaster Management, especially for damage detection and flood mapping in urban areas.

Dr. Jabari’s research outcomes have been recognized by different organizations, including the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), as one of Canada’s top innovative projects in the innovation campaign of 2018, University of New Brunswick (UNB), as one of the seven novel projects of 2017 (UNB 2017 Annual Report), and NSERC.

Dr. Jabari is an active member of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS-SCT). She has served the CRSS-SCT as a secretary since 2020 and the chair of working group 3 since 2021. Dr. Jabari was a member of the ISPRS-2026 congress bid task force and the technical committee of ICAG-CSRS 2022 conference – Quebec. She is also a licensed member (PEng) of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB). Additionally, she is a member of Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG) and the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), IEEE and IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS).

For the list of publication, please see ResearchGate, and Google Scholar.

Derek Lichti is Professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, which he joined in 2008. He served as Head of the Department for the period 2013-2018. Prior to that, he was at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. He joined the CRSS-SCT Executive in September 2020 in the role of CNC-ISPRS Chair. Prior to this, he served the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) in several capacities. The first was two terms (2004-2008; 2008-2012) as Chair of the ISPRS Working Group on Terrestrial Laser Scanning. During this period he organized the ISPRS Laser Scanning 2011 Workshop in Calgary. From 2013 to 2020, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Dr. Ahmed Shaker is a Full Professor in Geomatics Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering, Ryerson University. Dr. Shaker has international work experience in Canada, Spain, Hong Kong, Egypt, and Kuwait. His research interests cover the fields of LiDAR data processing, satellite sensor modelling, image segmentation and classification, and 3-D modeling. Dr. Shaker has authored more than 120 publications in international journals and conferences.

He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship (2006), the Faculty Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award (2011), the Bronze Medal Award from the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (2011), and the Dean’s Teaching Award (2015). His students have received more than 20 best paper, poster, and presentation awards in various national and international events in recent years.

Dr. Shaker has been actively involved in CRSS-SCT since joining the society in 2006. He has served the society and other organizations in the following capacities:

• President, CRSS-SCT (2021 – 2025)

• Vice-President, CRSS-SCT (2018 – 2020)

• Chair, Toronto Chapter CRSS-SCT (2016 – 2020)

• Chair, ISPRS-CNC (Canadian National Committee) (2016 – 2020)

• Director, CRSS-SCT (2014 – 2018)

• Vice-President, Commission III, ISPRS (2016 – 2020)

• Co-Chair, WG VII/4 ISPRS (2012 – 2016)

Gordon Staples received the M.Sc. degree in ocean physics and the B.Sc. degree in honours physics and oceanography from the University of British Columbia. He joined MDA in 1993 and is currently Senior Staff Scientist and Project Manager in the Earth Observations Systems group. In this role he oversees the Richmond geospatial services group, manages projects, develops and delivers radar training, and provides scientific expertise for business development. He has extensive experience in radar polarimetry and the development of maritime and terrestrial radar applications. Gordon was the former President and is now Treasurer of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society. He is a member of the IEEE and the CRSS.

Dr. Yuhong He is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment (GGE) at the University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus (UTM). She received her Ph.D. in geography from the University of Saskatchewan (2008) and joined UTM in 2009. Her research employs remote sensing, machine learning, and ecosystem modelling to study changes in natural (grasslands, forests, wetlands) or managed (farmlands and urban) systems. Dr. He has received significant funding from internal and external sources to support her work. She has mobilized multidisciplinary researchers and collaborated with cross-sectoral practitioners for the common goals of understanding how human activities and global changes affect environments and discovering how to make our natural/built environments healthier, more resilient, and adaptable.

With over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, Dr. He and her team have made substantial contributions to the remote sensing field. Her former students have also successfully pursued remote sensing careers in academia, government, and industry. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Early Career Scholar Award from the Remote Sensing Specialty Group at the 2011 AAG annual conference, the Early Researcher Award of Ontario in 2015, the E. A. Robinson Teaching Excellence Award of UTM in 2017, and the Desmond Morton Research Excellence Award of UTM in 2022.

Dr. He has actively served in editorial roles, including being the Editor-in-Chief of Geomatica, Associate Editor for the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and Remote Sensing. Additionally, she was an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing from 2016 to 2019. Dr. He has been a member of the editorial advisory board for several journals, including the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Environment Management, and the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation.

Currently, Dr. He serves as the Secretary of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS). Her previous service includes roles as the Director and the Award Committee Chair of the CRSS, the Director of the Remote Sensing Specialty Group in AAG (2012-2014), Department Chair (2018-2023), Associate Chair, Academic (2017), and GIS program advisor in GGE at UTM.

Throughout her career, Dr. He has fostered extensive interdisciplinary research collaborations, working with partners from local conservation authorities (e.g., Credit Valley Conservation, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority), federal government organizations (e.g., Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Natural Resources Canada), and private companies (e.g., The Ontario Aggregate Resources Corporation, Hydro One).

Richard Fournier has been working in remote sensing since 1986. He has been a professor at the University of Sherbrooke since 2001 in the Department of Applied Geomatics. His area of expertise is remote sensing and mapping of natural terrestrial ecosystems, focusing on forests and wetlands. He develops mapping methods using lidar (light detection and ranging) and multispectral satellite images as primary data sources. His work with lidar includes terrestrial, mobile, and aerial systems. Recently, he has focused on mapping ecological services as a basis for land management, as a tool to guide conservation, and as a means of integrating sustainable development principles into land use. He is a member of the FRQNT Center for Forest Research (www.cef-cfr.ca) and the University of Sherbrooke’s Center for Applications and Research in Remote Sensing (cartel.recherche.usherbrooke.ca). He publishes (>80 peer-reviewed articles and one book since 2013, h-index: 39, cited over 5600 times) in remote sensing, forestry, and landscape ecology journals. Since 2001, he has supervised 6 postdocs, 53 graduate students who completed their program, and he currently supervises/co-supervises 7 graduate students. Since December 2024, he is co-editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing.

Dr. Songnian Li has been a faculty member (Full Professor) of Geomatics Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at Ryerson University since 2001. He holds a B. Eng. degree in Surveying Engineering from the Wuhan Technical University of Surveying & Mapping, China and a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Geodesy & Geomatics Engineering of the University of New Brunswick. He has published over 160 scientific papers in addition to journal/special issue editorships and supervised over 80 graduate students. Dr. Li is a Fellow of International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) since 2020, currently serves as the Deputy Chair of the UN-GGIM Academic Network and incoming Chair of ISPRS WG IV/3, and has served the geomatics profession in a number of capacities, e.g.:

• Council Member, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (2016-2022)

• Trustee and Chair of the Grant Evaluation Committee, ISPRS Foundation (2016-2022)

• President, ISPRS Technical Commission II (2012-2016)

• Canadian National Delegate at Commission 3 of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)

• Chair of ISPRS WG IV/5 of Technical Commission IV (2004-2008, 2008-2012)

• Council Member, Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG) and Chair of the Canadian National Committee for ISPRS (2009-2016)

• Special Examiner of the Canadian Board of Examiners for Professional Surveyors (CBEPS)

As a member of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society, Dr. Li has served the society as a Director of the Executive Committee (2018-2020) and a member of the Canadian National Committee for ISPRS of CRSS since June 2018. Over the last four years, he has been actively and closely working with other colleagues on the preparation of the Canadian bid for 2026 ISPRS Congress, to be held in Canada. If elected, Dr. Li will continue his services to the Society and will work with the Executive Committee and members to expand the Society’s scope and promote the Society in the international communities.

Dr. Heather McNairn is a senior research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) in Ottawa (Canada). Prior to joining AAFC in 2003, she was a research scientist with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. Dr. McNairn has 30 years of research experience in developing methods to monitor agriculture using multi-spectral, hyperspectral and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors. Given Canada’s SAR presence in space, she has published extensively on the exploitation of RADARSAT (1, 2 and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM)) for agriculture. Dr. McNairn has authored or co-authored more than 140 peer reviewed journal publications. Dr. McNairn graduated with a Ph.D. in Geography from Université Laval (1999), a M.Sc. in Soil Science from the University of Guelph (1992) and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies in Geography from the University of Waterloo (1987). She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University.

Dr. McNairn received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and a Research Fellowship from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2016. In 2023 she was thrilled to receive the Larry Morley Gold Medal from the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS). Dr. McNairn is a life-long champion for women in the field of remote sensing. She is a member of the Women in Stem (WiSTEM) community at AAFC and has been featured on the department’s Fields of Science webpage (agriculture.canada.ca/en/sector/fields-science) and poster celebrating women in science (“Celebrate Women in Science, Past and Present”). In 2018, she was invited as the Canadian representative to deliver a presentation to the European Parliament on “Women in Science”. Dr. McNairn currently co-chairs the committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Belonging (DEIAB) for the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), and was past lead for GRSS’ Women Mentoring Women (WMW) program.

Sasha Nasonova is a Remote Sensing Specialist with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, currently based in Victoria, B.C. Sasha holds an undergraduate degree in Earth and Ocean Science and Physical Geography (2015), as well as a master’s degree in Geography with a specialization in Remote Sensing (2018), both from the University of Victoria. She has worked for federal and provincial governments, as well as the private sector. Sasha’s work primarily revolves around operationalizing remote sensing for large-scale mapping projects, including sea ice classification, burn severity mapping, harvest monitoring for forestry, and measuring ground displacement. She has experience with a variety of remote sensing data including space-based multispectral imagery, polarimetric and interferometric synthetic aperture radar, as well as space-based and airborne lidar. Sasha has been a member of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society for the last 6 years, is deeply passionate about the field of remote sensing, and advocates for utilizing precise field observations to inform remote sensing-derived products.

Hamdy Elsayed is a Research Scientist in LiDAR Systems at Teledyne Geospatial and Ph.D. Candidate, Researcher, and Teaching Assistant, in Geomatics Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, formerly Ryerson University). Hamdy has been serving as a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society since 2020, where he led and chaired several vital initiatives related to student engagement with the industry and building the student and young professional capacity to meet the market job requirements. Also, he served as a TMU Academic Senate member and a Professional Career Mentor.

Academically, Hamdy has a Bachelor of Science (w/Honor) in Electrical Engineering (2006) from Alexandria University and a Master of Science (w/Distinction) in Information Technology Management (2015) from the British University in Dubai. Additionally, he is a certified PMI Project Management Professional and an Advanced-Operations Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Pilot.

Hamdy has over 16 years of international experience leading and managing geomatics, remote sensing, and geospatial engineering projects in governmental and private institutions in North America, Africa, and the Middle East. Hamdy’s expertise covers Sensor Integration, aerial photography, LiDAR scanning, Indoor mapping, digital imaging, GNSS and inertial navigations, and depth sensing technologies. Hamdy was also awarded Mitacs Accelerated fund in 2018 to work on a research project with Teledyne and the Canadian Space Agency to build a new generation of space LiDAR scanning system. Additionally, he was awarded Cansel Business Award in 2021 and the best research presentation in the Candian Symposium on remote sensing in 2020.

Dr. Saeid Homayouni is a full professor of environmental remote sensing and geomatics at the Centre for Water, Land, and Environment of the Institut de la Recherche Scientifique de Quebec (INRS-ETE). He holds a B.S. in Surveying and Geomatics Engineering, an M.Sc. in remote sensing and GIS, and a Ph.D. in signal and image (hyperspectral remote sensing) from TéléCom Paris, France.

He has been a postdoctoral research fellow with Agriculture and Agr-Food in Ottawa and an Assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Environmental Sciences, and Geomatcs at the U. of Ottawa.

Saeid Homayouni is leading the Group on Earth Observation Analytics by Artificial Intelligence (GEO-AI) at the INRS-ETE. Given his expertise in environmental remote sensing and geomatics, his research mainly focuses on analyzing Big Earth observations using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques for urban and agro-environmental applications.

Born in North River, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1967, Desmond Power earned both his Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, completing them in 1991 and 1994. He is currently Vice President of Remote Sensing at C-CORE in St. John’s, where he oversees a team of about 30 specialists working across geomatics, radar systems, and Earth observation.

Over the course of more than 26 years in the field, Mr. Power’s early career focused largely on high-frequency over-the-horizon radar. By 1998, his work expanded into microwave radar and satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which later led him into broader Earth observation research, including both electro-optical and SAR technologies, and applications in geomatics. His leadership has supported projects in areas such as iceberg and ship detection, SAR-based wind monitoring, EO-based water quality and river ice observation, ice charting and sea ice thickness assessment, as well as satellite and ground-based interferometric SAR for ground movement studies. His group has also advanced research in vehicle tracking, wetland observation, and oil spill detection.

Beyond his professional role, Mr. Power is also an IEEE member and is licensed as a Professional Engineer with Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mabel is currently pursuing her PhD in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Prof. Lincoln Xu. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Geomatics Engineering at the same institution in 2023, earning a Minor in Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development and graduating with Distinction.

Her doctoral research focuses on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in remote sensing. Specifically, she is designing deep learning approaches to map the Pan-Arctic sea ice environment through the integration of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Passive Microwave data. This work contributes to a range of vital applications, including climate change monitoring, the safe navigation of Arctic shipping routes, and supporting adaptation strategies for northern communities.