Dr. Cong (Vega) Xu is a lecturer in geospatial technologies at the New Zealand School of Forestry, University of Canterbury. She also serves as the co-director of the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis (RSGA) lab at the University. Her research primarily focuses on remote sensing and GIS applications in forestry and the natural environment, particularly on describing small-scale plantation forests (e.g. woodlots) in New Zealand using remote sensing approaches. This includes activities such as mapping, classifying tree species, and estimating forest age and stand variables.

Dr. Kalev Sepp is a Professor of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation at Estonian University of Life Sciences. He lectures on nature conservation, landscape ecology, ecosystem goods and services, ecological restorations and environmental management. His research and publications focus on evaluating the human impact to agricultural landscapes, mapping ecosystem services, management of protected areas, methodological approaches for landscape and biodiversity monitoring, forest monitoring. He is a head of PhD studies at the University on environmental science a, and the head of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Kalev Sepp is a member of several nature conservation expert committees. He was a Vice-President an elected Councillor (2004−2012) of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN). He is a member of the EU Horizon Europe Programme Committee for Environment (including climate change).

Prof. Dr hab. Eng. Krzysztof Stereńczak, Professor at the Research Institute of Forestry (IBL), Deputy Director for Research and Science, Head of the Geomatic Department of the Research Institute of Forestry and Leader of the Precision Forestry Team at IDEAS NCBR. He received his professor title in 2024, his habilitated doctorate at the Forestry Research Institute in 2018, his doctorate at the Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) in 2011 and his master’s degrees at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (forestry), the University of Salzburg (UNIGIS) and the Warsaw School of Economics (Executive MBA). Supervisor of 6 completed doctoral theses, and supervisor of 5 postgraduate students. Co-author of 160 scientific papers, participant in over 30 research projects. His scientific interests focus on topics such as monitoring and inventory of forests using remote sensing data, precision forestry and forest management.

Emily Skelly is a Senior Research Analyst in the Forestry Insights Directorate at Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Forest Service. Her back ground is in ancient DNA analysis, however since joining TUR, Dr Skelly has been a research lead in a large joint government agency programme -"Maximising Forest Carbon". This programme is delivering research outcomes directly into the policy teams responsible for regulating our domestic forest carbon market. Dr Skelly will also be presenting on behalf of the TUR Spatial intelligence team, also in the Forestry Insights Directorate, on their response to the extreme weather events of 2023.

Dr Jolene Fisher is a Senior Lecturer at the Wits University, South Africa. She is a geospatial ecologist integrating remote sensing and GIS with socio-ecological data collected in the field. She is developing the ecological understanding of Afrotemperate forest systems, an important resource for biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Dr. Corrao has experience throughout the U.S. serving multiple Tribal Nations, State, Federal, and private industrial managers on forestlands affording him a unique perspective in natural resource services and research. Mark has more than 20 years’ experience in natural resource field data collection, academic research, environmental policy, and leadership. As adjunct faculty, Mark serves as a mentor for graduate students in the College of Natural Resources within the University of Idaho. He position as CTO and owner focuses on working with ALS and TLS data-supported tools within the ForestView® software platform to support tactical and operational uses of Lidar for resource management and fire risk purposes. Mark holds a B.S. in Forest Ecosystem Management, M.S. in Watershed Hydrology, and a multi-disciplinary Ph.D. in Soils Physics and Environmental Law.