Dr. Salehi, an assistant professor of remote sensing engineering at SUNY ESF and director of Salehi-Geolab, is widely recognized as a leading authority in remote sensing. Recently, he achieved the distinction of being ranked as the third-highest scholar in remote sensing in the United States by ScholarGPS™.
With over 20 years of experience in academia and industry spanning the U.S. and Canada, his expertise lies in multi-sensor data fusion. He merges SAR, optical, and lidar technologies with machines and deep learning for various environmental applications. These include estimating regional forest structure and biomass, classifying national wetlands, and monitoring water quality. Additionally, his lab is committed to advancing forest 3D modeling through UAV photogrammetry and lidar combined with deep learning methodologies.
Dr. Salehi has co-authored over 70 journal articles with graduate students and maintains a noteworthy Google Scholar h-index of 34 as of February 2024. He has also taught satellite and drone remote sensing and photogrammetry courses at multiple universities in the U.S. and Canada. Furthermore, he serves as the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Division Director for the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). Notably, he has chaired or co-chaired the annual STRATUS drone remote sensing conference from 2019 to 2024.
Dr. Salehi’s contributions have been honored with prestigious awards, including the 2019 Early Career Achievement Medal from the Canadian Remote Sensing Society for his outstanding contributions to remote sensing in Canada. Additionally, he received the 2024 Outstanding Service Award from ASPRS for his remarkable leadership in developing best practices and guidelines for mapping with UAS (drone) and photogrammetry.
