I'm a remote sensing scientist based in Mountain View, California. My main research interest is monitoring sustainable development using satellites and machine learning.

I currently serve as Chief Technology Officer of Atlas AI, a small tech startup funded by the Rockefeller Foundation that generates actionable intelligence on agricultural and economic trends across the developing world.

Before joining Atlas AI, I was a research scientist at Stanford University, where I worked with David Lobell at the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE), the Department of Earth System Science, and the Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

In my 3+ years at Stanford, I worked on estimating crop yield, classifying crop type, and detecting management practices in several countries including USA, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and India. Along the way, I also had the privilege to train some incredibly talented students and postdocs on remote sensing science and geospatial analysis.

I got my Ph.D. with Mike Goulden, in the Department of Earth System Science at UC Irvine. My dissertation was on tracking post-fire recovery of vegetation from satellite, but I devoted a lot of my time on illumination corrections algorithms for optical imagery.

As a side research track, I explored the potential of gaming and photographic technology for field measurement with scientific standards.

One of my favorite aspects of my job is that I get to see some stunning satellite imagery every day (like the one above, a false-color image of Lake Urmia taken from Landsat 8). Every now and then, I spend some time editing my favorite ones and I post them here (what a great way to procrastinate!). If you're interested, you can check them out in the SATELLITE section of this website.   

When I'm not dealing with images from space, I like to take pictures of my own. I've always loved photography, and I practice it as much as I can (which is not much, to be frank). I currently shoot with a Sony Alpha 7II, although I used Canon DSLRs for a long time before switching. I do not have a specific genre, but I tend to prefer people to landscapes. Feel free to browse a selection of my photos in the PHOTOS section of this website.