Dr. James A. Smith


Dr. James A. Smith is a Co-I on the project with responsibility for optical and thermal scene modeling and canopy energetics modeling He is a Staff Scientist in the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County where he teaches courses in modeling and simulation and neural networks. Previously, he was Associate Chief, Science Information Systems Center, and Head of the Biospheric Sciences Branch at GSFC. Prior to coming to Goddard he was a Professor in the College of Forestry and Natural Resources at Colorado State University where he developed a research program in remote sensing and was the major professor for 30 M.S. and Ph.D. students.

Dr. Smith has served as both an Associate Editor for Visible and Infrared Remote Sensing and, most recently, as the Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Geosciences and Remote Sensing. He was the Technical Program Chairman for the 1990 IEEE IGARSS Symposium as well as the Chair for the 1990 SPIE conference on Remote Sensing of the Biosphere, the Co-Chair of the 1991 SPIE conference on Earth and Atmospheric Remote Sensing and the Co-Chair of the 1994 SPIE conference on Multispectral Sensing of Forestry and Natural Resources.

He is the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in recognition of his contributions to the establishment and development of the land processes and biospheric physics program. Dr. Smith was elected a Fellow of the IEEE for development of optical and thermal canopy signature models, basic terrain feature measurements, and application to remote sensing.

Return to FED Project Personnel