Alumni Profile Fall 2009
Letter from Stuart Phinn, the First Graduate of the SDSU/UCSB Joint Doctoral Program
I was the first student to make it through the Joint Doctoral Program with UCSB, 1992-1997 (although I wasn’t the first to start). I’m currently a Professor of Geography at the University of Queensland in Australia, and I run a research centre with a focus on remote sensing, spatial analysis, and spatial ecology. I gained a huge amount from my time at SDSU and UCSB; it’s responsible for my career and my family (my wife, Amy Bortman, is a UCSB and SDSU graduate). I love what I do at work, and a lot of that has a basis in what I learned in the Joint Doctoral Program.
I’m currently the director of the Centre for Remote Sensing and Spatial
Information Science (CRSSIS – not the best name, but people remember it!), and the operating principles for
this job, sharing accumulated knowledge and skills, go back to what I learned while getting through the JDP and
working with other PhD and MA students. I did learn a huge amount about good science from my advisors Doug Stow
and Janet Franklin (both UCSB PhDs as well), as well as Leal Mertes, Joel Michaelsen, and other people I had
memorable classes with, such as Dar Roberts and David Siegel. I’ve continued to work in biophysical remote
sensing, as I love the combination of field work, technical mathematical and computer work, and providing
solutions for government agencies or private companies. Most of my group’s work is with government agencies at
all levels in Australia, ranging from local to state and national levels. We develop approaches for using
satellite image data and field data to monitor changes in various environmental properties. The approaches
developed then become part of operational/legislated activities used by governments to understand and manage
certain environments or extractive industries. At a local level this has included mapping individual trees, weed
locations, and urban energy exchanges for the Brisbane City Council, and, at state levels, we have helped to build
and validate programs for mapping various vegetation properties, using an annual mosaic of Landsat TM/ETM imagery,
and we are now using this approach to develop techniques for correcting and processing the full Landsat archive,
1972 – present, over individual scenes and all of Australia. Nationally, we have just finished Australia’s
first National Earth Observation Plan, and I am currently leading the implementation of TERN (Terrestrial
Ecosystem Network), a $55 million investment in building a program similar to the NSF’s LTER network and NCEAS.
Our other specialty areas are environmental monitoring applications for coral reefs and seagrasses in Australia
and the South West Pacific, object-based processing of high spatial resolution image data, and long-term time
series image analysis. All of our projects involve very close collaboration with scientists in other disciplines,
as well as resource managers and policy analysts – so good communication is a key!
Our research centre currently has five academic staff, six postdoctoral fellows, and 23 PhD students, spanning
remote sensing, spatial analysis, and landscape ecology. The centre works on the principle of shared and
accumulated knowledge and skills. This allows students and staff to work in an environment supportive of
research training, and it also enables us to operate a unique set of field equipment and processing facilities
and to access significant state and national image archives. Students are able to address higher level questions
and receive appropriate discipline-specific training, general scientific training, and direct links to their
professional groups using this approach. This is a bit different to what was (and still is, in some places) the
archaic Australian approach of being locked in a room for three years to do “research” and then
being expected to miraculously produce a PhD and know how to teach and do research at the end of it!
My SDSU/UCSB experience definitely shaped where I am now; I was fortunate to have a Fulbright scholarship to get into the program. If you are keen on coming to Australia (the exchange rate is still good!), this is a good option for students and staff. I did find what inspires me while doing my PhD studies that was great and getting a family and becoming (more) seriously addicted to surfing and paddle-boarding was an added bonus so it was definitely worth it.
Stuart Phinn (Professor)
Centre for Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science
School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 4072
Ph: 61-7-33656526, Mobile: 0401 012 996, Fax: 61-7-33656899
Email: s.phinn@uq.edu.au
Web-page: ww2.gpem.uq.edu.au/crssis.