Executive

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 more than 120 publications in international journals and conferences.

Dr. Shaker is the recipient of number of national and international awards including Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship, 2006; 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. Dr. Shaker’s students have received more than 20 best paper, poster, and presentation awards in different national and international events during the last couple of years.

Dr. Shaker is also heavily involved in the CRSS-SCT activities since he joined the society in 2006. Dr. Shaker has served the society and other societies in the following positions:

– 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;

Professor Hopkinson is a Research Chair and Director of the ARTeMiS Laboratory for Ecosystem Change at the University of Lethbridge. The ARTeMiS lab specialises in the fusion of field, airborne lidar remote sensing and laboratory analyses for multi-dimensional ecosystem change monitoring across a latitudinal gradient of sensitive mountain, wetland and forest ecotones from the Alberta / BC ‘Crown of the Continent’ through the Boreal to the Arctic coastline in the NWT. Since 1999, he has planned and executed 100s of local, trans-continental and international lidar research missions, and is currently building a time series archive of high resolution 4D change data across Canadian landscapes that are impacted by climate change or episodic disturbance and recovery transformations.”

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. Shabnam Jabari is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, UNB. She started her position in Jan 2019 and ever since she has supervised over 15 postdoc, undergraduate, and graduate students and secured over $500K cash and in-kind research funding. Le Dr Shabnam Jabari est professeure adjointe au Département de géodésie et de génie géomatique de l’Université du Nouveau-Brunswick (UNB). Elle a été engagée en janvier 2019 et depuis, elle a supervisé plus de 15 étudiants postdoctoraux, de premier cycle et des cycles supérieurs et obtenu plus de 500000 $ de subventions de recherche en argent et en nature.
She has received her PhD from the University of New Brunswick working on 3D Information Supported Urban Change Detection using Multi-Angle and Multi-Sensor Imagery in 2015, which resulted in patented technology. She received her MSc and BSc degrees from the department of Civil-Surveying Engineering, the University of Tehran in 2009 and 2005, respectively.

Dr. Jabari’s current research interests include 3D city models, 3D GIS, urban area change detection, and producing, colorizing, and processing point clouds. 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, the University of New Brunswick (UNB), as one of the seven novel projects of 2017 (see UNB 2017 Annual Report), and NSERC.

Dr. Jabari has taught different courses in GIS (GGE 3342, GGE 4423, GGE 6410/5410), Remote Sensing (GGE 3342) and Photogrammetry (GGE4313). She also has taught different courses as a co-instructor/mentor (GGE1001, GGE6322/5322, GGE4700). She is a licensed member of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (PEng), the executive secretary of
Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS-SCT), a member of American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG), IEEE.

For more info, please see UNB page, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar of Dr. Jabari

Monique Bernier graduated in Physical Geography (B.Sc., M.Sc.) from the University of Sherbrooke. In 1981, she began her career as an Environmental Scientist at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. In 1991, she earned a Ph.D. from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS). Since 1993, she has been a professor at INRS, Québec City, where her research is mainly oriented towards the development of applications for SAR sensors in hydrology and northern environments monitoring.

Prof. Bernier is an active member of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS), serving on the Board of Directors in the 1980s and from 2002 to 2016. She served as the CRSS President from 2009 to 2014 and was nominated the Editor in Chief of CJRS-JCT in early 2018. In the 1990s, she served as President of the Québec Association of Remote Sensing (AQT). She was awarded the 2011 Ferdinand-Bonn Prize by AQT for her career achievements in the development of EO applications and the training of high qualified persons.

She hosted, as General Chair, the joint IGARSS 2014 / 35th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing in Québec City. She was an Associate Editor (2008-2015) for the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. She is a member of the GRSS Publications Awards Committee (2015-2019). Since 2016, she is a member of the Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO) for the ESA Earth Observation Programmes. She was honored to be awarded the 2019 CRSS Larry Morley Gold Medal.

Hamdy Elsayed is a Ph.D. Candidate and Teaching Assistant, in Geomatics Engineering at Ryerson University. In addition to his role as a Student Director at CRSS, he currently serves as a member of Ryerson U.’s Academic Senate, a Professional Career Mentor, and a Technical Research Specialist at Teledyne Optech. Hamdy has over 14 years of international experience managing remote sensing and geospatial engineering projects in governmental and private institutions in North America, Africa, and the Middle East.

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

Hamdy is currently working on different research topics, including Indoor Mapping and Positioning (Aerial photography, LiDAR data acquisition, processing, and production), Sensors and Data Integration including LiDARs, Digital Cameras, Time-of-Flight Imagers, and GNSS/INS. Hamdy has been awarded Mitacs Accelerated research funding in late 2018 for a 16-month research project with Teledyne Optech focused on the design and implementation of a new generation of LiDAR scanning system.

Desmond Power is Vice President, Remote Sensing at C-CORE and is based in St. John’s. He is a graduate of Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (1991) and has Master of Engineering (electrical – 1994) in radar systems. Desmond has experience with synthetic aperture radar, optical remote sensing, deformation mapping with interferometry, high frequency (HF), ultra-high frequency (UHF) and microwave radar design, radar performance measurement, and radio frequency design. He has experience in the application of radar polarimetry and electromagnetic backscatter at microwave frequencies. In addition to his membership with CRSS, Desmond is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador (PEGNL), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Canadian Institute of Geomatics.

Raymond Jahncke received a B.Sc. degree in Geography from Lakehead University in 1993, an Advanced Diploma in GIS from the Nova Scotia College of Geographic Sciences in 1999, and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Dalhousie University in 2016. He is currently a Forestry Inventory Data Analyst Intern at the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry, where he is working on creating an enhanced forest inventory with lidar for Nova Scotia. He has worked on various remote sensing applications including land cover/land use classification, wetland modeling, habitat classification, coastal erosion vulnerability, and bio-resource potential mapping. To do this, he has used various software and machine learning algorithms for data processing.

Tom Lukowski holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Engineering Physics from McMaster University and an M.S. from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. He was at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing beginning in the RADARSAT Project Technical Office and specializing in satellite systems and operations and in microwave remote sensing, then at Defence Research and Development Canada in radar imaging. Active in both the national and international remote sensing communities, he has served on technical program / scientific and organizational committees for a number of symposia and workshops. Tom was a Technical Program Co-chair of the 2002 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) / 24th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing (CSRS) and IGARSS 2004, and served on the Local Organizing Committee for IGARSS 2014 / 35th CSRS. He chaired the Ottawa Chapter of CRSS-SCT (1997-2004), was a member (2001-2011) of the Council of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute which included CRSS-SCT as a constituent society, and the Ontario Representative on the Executive of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (2000-2005).  He was previously a Director of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (2014 to 2018).  Tom continues to share his expertise in remote sensing and is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 

Kevin Jones has worked in the Canadian Earth Observation for over 20 years within the private sector. He has a background in remote sensing applications and has focused on multi-sensor application and service development throughout his career. He has managed several projects for the Canadian and European Space Agencies and has worked for Canadian companies that span the value chain. In his current role as VP, Product and Marketing at PCI Geomatics, he provides overall direction on new product development in response to the rapid changes in the industry. Kevin became a member of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society while attending university, and is a strong proponent of the Canadian geospatial sector. He is the host and creator of the NorthernView podcast (http://www.northernview.space/), a thought leadership podcast that shines a light on earth observation leaders in Canada.

Dr. Li’s sustained research is devoted to geospatial mapping and urban remote sensing using earth observation images and LiDAR point clouds with significant impact in geomatics industry. He has supervised over 100 theses, one of which received the CRSS-SCT best master’s thesis award in 2010. Dr. Li has co-authored over 230 research papers published in prestigious IEEE, ISPRS, Elsevier journals in remote sensing with higher Google Scholar citations and ResearchGate citations.

He joined both Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG), Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS-SCT), American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), and IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) in 2001 and has been serving on Canada’s National Committee for ISPRS since 2002. He is Founding Chair of the CRSS-SCT Waterloo Region Chapter and is elected Director of the CRSS Executive Board in 2020 CRSS-AGM. He currently serving on CRSS Working Groups 1 and 3. In addition, he has been serving ISPRS Working Group chair/co-chair since 2004 and ICA Commission chair/vice chair since 2008. He has been one of the key organizers of the two biennial international conference series, including Mobile Mapping Technology (MMT, since 2003) and Earth Observations for Environmental Changes (EOEC, since 2009).

Dr. Li has been serving as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, and Geomatica as well as the editorial board of the International Journal of Cartography.

Dr. Li is recipient of over 20 prestigious awards from the international and national organizations in Canada, USA, China, and UK, including the Outstanding Achievement in Mobile Mapping Technology Awards in 2019 for his pioneering contributions in developing and promoting mobile LiDAR mapping technology and the ISPRS Samuel Gamble Award in 2020 for his significant contributions to the development, organization or professional activities of the photogrammetry, remote sensing, and spatial information sciences at national or international level.

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. Yuhong He is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Geography, Geomatics, and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She received her Ph.D. in Physical Geography from the University of Saskatchewan in 2008. Her research focuses on understanding changes in natural and managed ecosystems using remote sensing, machine learning, and ecosystem modeling. Dr. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and presented over 80 conference papers. She received the Early Researcher Award of Ontario in 2015 and the Early Career Scholar Award from the AAG Remote Sensing Specialty Group in 2011. She served as an associate editor for the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing and is serving as an editorial board member of the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and the Environment Management. She also served as the Director of the AAG Remote Sensing Specialty Group from 2012 to 2014.

Dr. Andrea Scott is an associate professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She holds degrees (PhD, MASc and BASc) in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Waterloo and McMaster University.  As a student she worked in the aerospace and space systems industry. She has been working in the area of remote sensing since her postdoctoral position at Environment and Climate Change Canada, which was from 2008-2011. She started her faculty position at the University of Waterloo in 2012. Her research is mainly on sea ice remote sensing, deep learning and data assimilation. She has recently begun working on ice-covered lakes in collaboration with members of the UW Geography department, and the UW department of Applied Mathematics. She was an associate editor (2016-2021) for the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. She is currently on the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation.

Dr. Randall Scharien is an associate professor in Geography at the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C., Canada. He graduated with M.Sc (2004) and Ph.D. (2010) degrees from the University of Calgary, with specializations in remote sensing and sea ice geophysics. Prior to joining University of Victoria he held a Changing Earth Science Network Investigator fellowship with the European Space Agency and a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Centre for Earth Observation Science at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Scharien’s research broadly encompasses understanding the causes and consequences of rapid environmental change in the Arctic. His current research is aimed at developing and implementing remote sensing tools for monitoring key sea-ice associated Arctic marine ecosystem parameters at critical spatiotemporal scales, with a focus on synthetic aperture radar. He is Delegate Junior for Canada in the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences, and resides on the Science Advisory Team for the development of the Terrestrial Snow Mass Mission, a satellite development project by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Space Agency for monitoring the Earth’s cryosphere and managing Canada’s natural resources.