Faculty and Staff
Dr. Santhosh K. Seelan
Department of Space Studies
John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
University of North Dakota
Phone: (701) 777-2355
Santhosh Seelan joined the Space Studies faculty in fall 2005. He was
the first Chair of UNDs newly formed Department of Earth System Science
and Policy before he came to the Space Studies Department. He has been
with UNDs Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium since 1998 where he helped
establish a sophisticated geospatial lab and lead a NASA sponsored
project on Crop and Range Alert System aimed at promoting geospatial
technologies among farmers and ranchers of the Upper Midwest. This
project involves near real time delivery of satellite data products and
services to end users, application development, and training. The
project had grown from ten participating end users in 1999 to over six
hundred by 2005. Before joining UND, Seelan worked as a Land Information
Consultant with Terralink, Wellington, a New Zealand government owned
enterprise, creating a nationwide land cover database using SPOT,
Landsat and IRS imagery. Prior to that, he worked with India's remote
sensing program for 17 years, initially in applications development, and
later as Head of India's satellite data distribution center and Project
Director, Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) data distribution. His
early work on researching the use of remote sensing for targeting
groundwater, and his later contributions to India's technology mission on
drinking water through practical use of the technology, earned him
nationwide recognition and a nomination for the National Mineral Award.
He has served on the IRS Mission Management Board, Remote Sensing
Applications Mission Council of India, and the Prime Ministers Task
Force on providing drinking water to the rural population of India.
Preceding his involvement with India's remote sensing program, he had
worked with a consultancy firm, providing natural resource management
solutions. Seelan has authored or co-authored over 150 articles,
conference papers, technical reports, book, book chapters and abstracts.
Having lived in five countries and four continents, Seelan brings a
wealth of international experience to the department and actively
pursues international collaborations. Seelan enjoys advising students
and was recognized as the Outstanding Student Organization Advisor at
the UND Memorial Union Leadership Awards Ceremony in 2009 for serving as
advisor to both Student Association of India, and International Student
Organization, and in helping to organize Feast of Nations an annual
cultural event.
Lectures on Remote Sensing for Precision Farming
Please note: the video lectures are copyright protected.
They are for viewing only.
