Congrats to Ian and J on passing their defenses!

A big change is coming to the SEAL lab with the departure of Ian (now Dr. McGregor) and J (now Dr. Gao) as they successfully defended their dissertations this summer and will be moving on from their time at NCSU! Ian and J both joined the SEAL lab in the Fall of 2019 as members of the Center for Geospatial Analytics’ first cohort. Ian and J both went on to be awarded the prestigious NASA FINESST grant which funded their dissertation research, and both presented the findings of their work at AGU’s Annual Meeting multiple times. Ian’s research focused on the development of a novel near-real-time algorithm for monitoring deforestation highlighting an application in Myanmar. J’s work developed a novel land surface phenology product in addition to analyzing the effects of urban heat islands on spring phenology. For more information feel free to check out their posters and publications listed on the website!

We all have come to appreciate Ian and J not only as researchers and colleagues but as good friends! We will sorely miss Ian’s many spreadsheets (there’s one for everything) and weather updates and J’s willingness to introduce us to all the best hot pot restaurants in the triangle and even cook us hot pot on the beach (and in the rain). Though we wish Ian and J could stay with us forever, they both have exciting paths ahead of them! Ian will be moving on to a postdoc position with the Cary Institute assessing how lightning strikes impact tropical forest biodiversity and mortality patterns using a mix of satellite remote sensing and drone imagery for a single site in Panama and pantropically. While J will be taking on a postdoc position at Harvard Forest (Harvard University) where he will be studying how human-induced forest changes affect environmental processes such as disturbances and carbon balances. We wish them both the best of luck and highly advise they buy warmer jackets as they both move farther north!

We can’t wait to see what other great things they go on to accomplish - Congrats Dr. Ian McGregor and Dr. Xiaojie Gao!