AI EARTH OBSERVATION SOLUTIONS FOR MONITORING Blue Carbon Ecosystems & plant Phenotyping 

Research Interests

• AI Solutions for monitoring Blue carbon ecosystems and Precision Agriculture using optical and SAR remote sensing data 

• AI Solutions for precision agriculture and estimating agricultural yield. 

• Forest ecology and land-use/land-cover (LULC) change analysis and spatial modeling

• Forest above-ground biomass and carbon stocks estimation using multi-sensor EO data 

• Spatial planning for sustainable resource management

• Ecosystem services valuation, sustainability, and REDD+.

Awards & Honors 

1. Macquarie Research Fellowship (MQRF 2022): Grant Award for outstanding fellow funded by Macquarie University (success rate ~5%).

2. Deakin University Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (DUPRF 2022): Declined  

3. Permanent Resident Grant: Distinguished Talent visa: from the Department of Home Affairs, Australian Government under the Global Talent Independent Program for internationally recognised record of outstanding achievement in Remote Sensing: Granted on 29 Sep 29 2020. 

4. President Award: Outstanding Research Award (Top 1%) at the Graduation Ceremony on 23 March 2018 at the University of Tsukuba - awarded by the President of the University of Tsukuba, Japan (12 winners / 4500 graduates).

President Award Winners at the Graduation Commencement Ceremony on 23 March 2018

2. Global Peer Review Awards 2018 & 2019: Top 1% Peer Reviewer in Geosciences 2018 & 2019; Top Ten Peer Reviewer for Remote Sensing in 2018 by Publons, Web of Science Group.

3. Best Poster Award: at the Tunisia-Japan Symposium on Science, Society, and Technology (TJASSST): 2/2015.

4.  Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship for a PhD course: 10/2014 ~ 3/2018.

5. Travel Grant Award: by the CTSPRS (Chinese Taipei Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) the 32nd Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, Taipei, Taiwan: 10/2011

6. Travel Grant Award: by the NAFOSTED (National Foundation for Science and Technology Development) at the SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing Symposium 2012 at Kyoto: 11/ 2012.      

7. Travel Grant Award: by the SEARCA (Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture): 11/2012.

8. Japanese for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS), JICA for an MSc course: 8/2010 ~ 7/2012.

Research grants

• CI: Monitoring Mangrove Ecosystems in Australia using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Approaches (MQRF 22)

Macquarie University Research Fellowship 2022 - 2025, funded by Macquarie University, Sydney Australia (Awarded amount AUD ~$430,000).

• PI: Monitoring Blue Carbon Ecosystems across the Australian Coastline using Multi-temporal ALOS Data and Machine Learning

Collaborative Research Agreement on the Earth Observation (EO-RA2) between Macquarie University (MQ) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan. Duration: 4/2022 – 3/2025 (Amount: Data granted equivalent to US $50,000). 

• Co-PI: Ecosystem-based adaptation in Temperate East Asia: Development of an indicator system for evaluating rural ecosystem restoration programs funded by the Asia-Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research 

- Duration: 10/2022 – 9/2024

- Amount: US $85,000

- Website: https://doi.org/10.30852/p.22117

• Co-PI: Integration and publication of the Australian Surface Elevation Table dataset funded by the Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment. Duration: 10/2022 - 12/2023 (Award amount AUD $34,500).

• PI: Monitoring forest communities in Australia using multi-temporal SAR remotely sensed data and advanced machine learning techniques

Collaborative Research Agreement on the Earth Observation (EO-RA2) between Macquarie University (MQ) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan. Duration: 7/2021 – 3/2022 (Amount: Data granted equivalent to US $50,000). 

• PI: Monitoring forest communities in the southern coastal Everglades following Hurricane using SAR remotely sensed data and advanced machine learning techniques.

Collaborative Research Agreement on the Earth Observation (EO-RA2) between Florida International University (FIU) and JAXA. Duration: 4/2020 – 12/2020 (Amount: Data granted equivalent to US $50,000). 

• PI: Monitoring mangrove carbon stocks using SAR data and machine learning techniques in Vietnam. 

Collaborative Research Agreement on the Earth Observation (EO-RA2) coordinated by JAXA, Japan. Duration: 4/2019 – 3/2020 (Amount: Data granted equivalent to US $50,000). 

• PI: Estimating Carbon Stocks of Mangrove Ecosystem on the Northern coast of Vietnam using Machine Learning Techniques Combined with Remote Sensing Data and Field Measurements.

Collaborative Research Agreement with Vietnam National University Hanoi and RIKEN. Duration: 10/2018 – 3/2019 (Amount: US $13,000). 

Editorial Activities 

• Associate Editor: New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research (IF = 1.7, Q2) since July 2025

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tnzm20/about-this-journal#editorial-board 

• Associate Editor: Tropical Forests section in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (IF = 3.2, Q1) since May 2022. 

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/sections/tropical-forests#editorial-board

• Editorial Board: Ecological Remote Sensing section in MDPI Remote Sensing (IF = 4.1, Q1) since June 2023.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/sectioneditors/ecological_remote_sensing

• Guest Editor: Special Issue on "Remote Sensing Big Data: Data Collections Driving the Advance of Earth System". GIScience and Remote Sensing (IF = 6.9, Q1), 2025.

https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/article_collections/remote-sensing-big-data-data-collections-driving-the-advance-of-earth-system-sciences/ 

• Guest Editor:  Special Issue on “Advances in Geospatial Technologies in Monitoring Blue Carbon Ecosystems using multiple source remote sensing and GIS data”. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (IF = 2.8, Q2), 2020 ~ 2021.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/blue_carbon_ecosys

• Guest Editor: Special Issue on “Advanced Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Forest Modeling, Prediction, Conservation, and Management”. Remote Sensing, 2019 ~ 2021. 

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/AI_forest

• Editor: Proceedings Volume 11372 of the Sixth International Symposium on LAPAN-IPB Satellite, published by the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), 2019. https://spie.org/Publications/Proceedings/Volume/11372 

MEMBERSHIP

• International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)

• American Geophysical Union (AGU)

• Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU)