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Biography
Alistair Smith joined
the Department of Forest Resources in 2003 as a postdoctoral research fellow
funded by the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC) to organize and
coordinate regional extension of forestry-remote sensing research. As part of
this hire, Alistair serves as the
National Coordinator for
ForestPARC
which since 2003 has, working with partners in the USFS has organized three
national stakeholder orientated workshops. In 2007 he was appointed Assistant
Professor of Forest Measurements at the University of Idaho, where he currently
heads the Forest and Rangeland Measurements Lab. Alistair holds a BSc in Physics
(Physics -
University of Edinburgh), an MSc
with Distinction in Imaging and Digital Image Processing (Physics -
King's College London, University of London),
and a PhD in Remote Sensing (Geography - King's College London,
University of London), which
focused on quantifying nitrogen and carbon emission from southern African
savannah fires through a novel remote sensing analysis approach. Throughout his
PhD, Alistair worked in Africa conducting prescribed fires and through his
postdoctoral experience at the University of Idaho, continues to analyze fire
behavior and fire effects. These days,
Alistair’s research can be broadly described at trying to improve the physical
linkages between remote sensing and ground measurements to reduce uncertainties
in various biogeoscience cycles; such as the biogeochemical cycles and radiative
transfer budgets. His current research themes include, (1) improving ground and
remote measurements of fire-effects to better quantity carbon and water cycles,
(2) using optical and thermal imagery to improve
regional assessment of the impact on fires on smoke and regional air quality;
and (3) developing approaches to characterize vegetation structure with LiDAR
and aerial photography to improve our understanding of carbon, water, and energy
budgets.
The link at left provides further details
of these and other research topics. Those interested in possible postgraduate
study of research fellowships are welcome to enquire by email.
Alistair Smith has
published in excess of 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals, frequently reviews
proposals for the Joint Fire Sciences Program, and sits on the organizing
committee for the Biogeosciences section of the Fall American Geophysical Union
meeting. He is the a member of the IEEE and in 2005 was voted by fellow to be a
member of the Institute of Physics.
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