Gregory P. Asner is the Director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science at Arizona State University. He is a Professor at ASU's School of Ocean Futures. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Colorado in 1991, followed by service in the U.S. Navy. He earned master's and doctorate degrees in geography and biology, respectively, from the University of Colorado in 1997. From 1998 to 1999, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. In 2001, he became a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, which was followed by his move in 2019 to start the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science. He has served in numerous national and international posts, including the NASA Senior Review Committee, the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Steering Group, the U.N. Diversitas Program, the NASA-Brazil LBA Steering Committee, and as a Senior Fellow for the U.S. State Department. He is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award, NASA Career and Group Achievement awards, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and Ecological Society of America, the Heinz Award for the Environment, and is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He focuses much of his research on the tropical forests and coral reefs of the world.
Nicholas R. Vaughn is the lead data scientist at ASU's Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science and the staff scientist for the Global Airborne Observatory. He received his Ph.D. in Forest Resources from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA in 2011; M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA in 2008; B.S. in Forest Management from Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA in 2001. He leads several research projects pushing the limits of imaging spectroscopy and LiDAR for mapping challenging environments from coral reefs to tropical forests. His interests lie in modelling and mapping of ecologically important landscapes to guide conservation and restoration efforts with novel methodologies and advanced remote sensing data.
