Executive

Dr. Shabnam Jabari is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), where she also leads the Advanced Spatial Information Lab (ASIL). She holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Jabari earned her PhD from UNB in 2015, where her research on 3D information-supported urban change detection using multi-angle and multi-sensor imagery led to a patented technology. She also holds an MSc and BSc in Civil-Surveying Engineering, awarded in 2009 and 2005, respectively.

Her research lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Urban Digital Twins, and multi-modal geospatial mapping, with a strong focus on urban change detection. She is particularly passionate about leveraging AI and geospatial data to support climate change adaptation, including urban infrastructure damage assessment and flood mapping. Dr. Jabari has supervised over 30 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications.

Currently leading the CRSS-SCT as President, she has served the society as an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing and as Vice President, Secretary, and Chair of Working Group 3 of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS-SCT) in the past. She chaired the Technical Program Committee for the 2024 Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing in Halifax and is currently serving in the same role for the upcoming ISPRS Congress joint event in Toronto (2026).

A Professional Engineer registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick, Dr. Jabari is also a Senior Member of IEEE and a Counselor in the International Society for Digital Earth. She also has served as the Vice President of Canadian Institute of Geomatics.

Derek Lichti received his bachelor’s degree in Survey Engineering from Toronto Metropolitan University, in 1993 and MSc and PhD degrees in Geomatics Engineering from the University of Calgary in 1996 and 1999, respectively. He worked as an academic at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, from 1999 to 2007. He is currently Professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, which he joined in 2008, and served as Head of the Department from 2013 to 2018. He holds Adjunct Professor positions at the University of New Brunswick and at Curtin University.

He joined the CRSS-SCT executive in 2020 and currently serves as Vice President. He is also Congress Director, responsible for organization of the 2026 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Congress in Toronto, and a member of the ISPRS Council. Between 2013 and 2020, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

His research program focuses on imaging metrology, which is concerned with precision 3D reality capture from imaging sensors, principally terrestrial laser scanners and digital cameras. It touches a wide range of applications in support of his goal to enable non-experts to use geomatics technologies to solve real-world problems that require accurate 3D spatial models. Some of his research projects include documentation of at-risk cultural heritage sites, as-built modelling of electrical substations and industrial sites, wear and damage assessment in structures and industrial machinery and dimensional control.

Dr. Ahmed Shaker is a Full Professor of Geomatics Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan 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, sensor integration, satellite sensor modelling, image segmentation, and 3-D modeling. Dr. Shaker has authored more than 150 publications in international journals and conferences.

Dr. Shaker 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)
• Deputy Congress Director, ISPRS (2022-2026)
• Chair, ISPRS-CNC (Canadian National Committee) (2016 – 2022)
• Vice-President, Commission III, ISPRS (2016 – 2022)
• Vice-President, CRSS-SCT (2018 – 2020)
• Chair, Toronto Chapter CRSS-SCT (2016 – 2020)
• Director, CRSS-SCT (2014 – 2018)
• 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 (>85 peer-reviewed articles and one book, h-index: 41, cited over 6500 times) in remote sensing, forestry, and landscape ecology journals. Since 2001, he has supervised 6 postdocs, 57 graduate students who completed their program, and he will be retiring from his current position at the Université de Sherbrooke on Sept 1 2026.

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.

Saeid Homayouni is a Professor of environmental remote sensing and geomatics at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Quebec, Canada. His research focuses on remote sensing, Earth observation using satellite and UAV imagery, and the application of artificial intelligence for environmental monitoring and natural resource management. He has extensive experience in multispectral and radar data analysis, geospatial modeling, and field-based validation. He is actively involved in international research collaborations and graduate training in geospatial and environmental sciences.

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 over 40 specialists working across geomatics, radar systems, and Earth observation.

Over the course of more than 34 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.

Beyond his professional role, Mr. Power is chair of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics, Newfoundland Branch is also an IEEE member. He is licensed as a Professional Engineer with Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mabel Heffring is a PhD student in Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, where she also earned her B.Sc. in Geomatics Engineering with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development.

She brings over three years of industry experience in remote sensing and geospatial analytics from her roles as an Intern and Engineer-in-Training at Intermap Technologies. Mabel’s research explores the intersection of remote sensing, deep learning, and large-scale environmental monitoring. She is currently developing advanced, physics-informed deep learning techniques for daily Pan-Arctic sea ice mapping using SAR and passive microwave data.

As the CRSS-SCT Student Director, Mabel is excited to represent student voices, foster collaboration across Canada, and contribute to initiatives that strengthen the remote sensing and geomatics community.