Dr. Lorraine Tighe is a geoscientist and thought leader with over 20 years of experience advancing Earth science through innovative mapping technologies. As Director of Earth Sciences Solutions at Esri, she leads national initiatives that integrate geologic, topographic, and natural resource data using GIS and Earth observation tools. With a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences (Physics), an M.Sc. in Remote Sensing, and a B.Sc. in Physics and Geology, Dr. Tighe brings deep scientific expertise to her mission of promoting sustainability through geospatial thinking. She is internationally recognized for her expertise in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), 3D terrain modeling, and the application of GIS in open science. Dr. Tighe is co-editor of Addressing Earth’s Challenges: GIS for Earth Scientists and a contributing author to the ASPRS DEM User’s Manual. Her work empowers geologists, researchers, and policymakers to better understand and manage Earth’s dynamic systems through cutting-edge geospatial solutions.

Geophysics & Geochemistry

Dr. Lokoshchenko obtained his Diploma in 1989 and his PhD (Meteorology and Climatology) in 1994 from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography. He is leading scientific researcher and associate professor at MSU. His research focuses on the atmospheric boundary layer, including use of the acoustic remote sensing, meteorological conditions of the air pollution, climate changes, urban meteorology including the urban ‘heat island’ phenomena, aero-climatology, and historical climatology (analysis of the early meteorological data). He worked on several Russian and international scientific projects. Since 1993 Dr. Lokoshchenko gives lectures on Aerology, Atmospheric Chemistry, General and Dynamic Meteorology. He publishes about 140 scientific papers and several collective monographs (together with his colleagues). 

Dr. Xia obtained his MSc (Materials Science) from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and his PhD (Materials Physics and Chemistry) from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He previously conducted postdoctoral research at South China University of Technology and the University of Moncton (Canada). He is currently Professor, PhD Supervisor and Associate Dean at the School of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). His research focuses on lithium resource separation and extraction. He has published over 80 SCI papers and holds more than 20 patents, with several academic honors.

Dr. Szerlag obtained her BS (Environmental Science) and MS (Environmental Conservation) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA and her PhD (Plant and Soil Sciences) from the University of Delaware, USA. For her MS thesis, she chemically engineered biochar to adsorb phosphate. Her PhD research focused on novel methods to determine phosphorus (P) speciation in high legacy P agricultural soils. She is currently Assistant Professor of Soil and Water Chemistry at Texas A&M University, USA where she teaches Soil Fertility and Soil Chemistry in addition to research. Although she has many projects, her current research primarily focuses on soil P dynamics and speciation in coastal Texas soils subject to salt- and freshwater inundation due to extreme storm events.

Dr. Ikram Atabekov received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanics and Mathematics from Lomonosov Moscow University (USSR) in 1970 and his Candidate of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics) in Mechanics from Lomonosov Moscow University in 1976. From 1976 to 1992, he worked at the Institute of Cybernetics, Uzbekistan. From 1993 to 2007, he worked at the Oil and Gas Research Institute. He received his Doctor of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics) in 1995 from the Institute of Seismology in the field of numerical modeling of orogenesis. Since 2017, he has been working at the Institute of Seismology. His research interests include geodynamics, seismology, and numerical methods. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. John E. Ebel obtained his AB (Physics) from Harvard University and his PhD (Geophysics) from the California Institute of Technology. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College and a Senior Research Scientist at the Weston Observatory of Boston College. His research has focused on seismotectonics and seismic hazard in New England, California, Germany, and other parts of the world. He also has conducted research on earthquake statistics, forecasting and prediction, and he has published extensively on historical earthquakes.

Dr. Yongkang Xue obtained his BSc in Atmospheric Sciences from Peking University and his PhD in Meteorology from the University of Utah. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. His areas of interest include land surface modeling, land/atmosphere/ocean interactions, climate variability, anomalies, and change, regional climate downscaling, and remote sensing. He has been instrumental in the development of four generations of the "SSiB" land surface scheme and has conducted numerous sensitivity and prediction studies to investigate the impact of land-surface processes on regional and global climate variability and anomalies, with a special emphasis on monsoon systems and the mechanisms involved.  He has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Xinchang Zhang is a distinguished professor and PhD supervisor at Guangzhou University, with additional affiliations in Guangdong Province and Xinjiang University. His research focuses on Geographic Information Science and smart city theory and methods. He is an Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Engineering. Prof. Zhang has led more than 70 research projects, including 8 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has received two Second Prizes of China’s National Science and Technology Progress Award. He has published 315 academic papers and 17 books.

Abosede Rachel Oladimeji obtained her B.Sc. (Geology and Mineral Science) from the University of Ilorin. She has professional experience in various aspects of geoscience. She worked with ENL Consortium, where she was involved in hydrogeological investigations and multidisciplinary infrastructure projects in collaboration with civil engineering teams. She has also worked as a geospatial analyst. Currently, she works part-time as a consultant for Hamilton and Hill Oil & Gas Ltd., contributing to geological and petroleum-related operations while serving full-time as an energy engineer at GSP Multinational Ltd. Her professional interests include petroleum geology, petrophysics, computational geoscience, hydrogeology, energy development and sustainability. She is committed to advancing sustainable energy solutions and promoting innovation within the energy sector. Oladimeji has authored and co-authored scientific publications in geology and related fields.

Dr. Fowler completed his undergraduate study at the University of Southampton in the UK, earning his Master’s degree in Physics and Space Science. He earned his PhD in Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the USA, where he also worked as Post-Doctoral Scholar at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He then worked at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, for three years as an Assistant Research Physicist. He is now a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Viginia University, where his research group focuses on understanding how the solar wind interacts with bodies in the solar system, in particular those that do not possess their own dipole magnetic field.

Dr. C. Tolomei received a Bachelor's in Engineering, specializing in Remote Sensing, in 1998 at Sapienza University of Rome. Since 2000 he has been a researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia in Rome, as a member of the Remote Sensing Laboratory. His research interests mainly concern the production of ground deformation maps retrieved by SAR interferometry, both classical and multi-temporal techniques (e.g. Persistent Scatterers Interferometry and Small Baseline Subset, SBAS). Such products are applied for monitoring service purposes and as input for modeling many phenomena and hazard assessment and risk mitigation (i.e., causative faults, magma intrusion, subsidence, landslides, etc.). He has been involved in numerous national and international projects, he also participated in the scientific and technical training of young researchers. He published more than 70 scientific papers in ISI journals on various topics in geophysics and volcanology.