Dr. Santhosh K. Seelan

Department of Space Studies
John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
University of North Dakota
Phone: (701) 777-2355

Dr. Santhosh K. Seelan joined the Space Studies faculty in Fall 2005. He was an Associate Professor and Chair of UND's newly formed Department of Earth System Science and Policy before he came to the Space Studies Department. He has been with UND's Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium since 1998 where he helped establish a sophisticated geospatial lab and lead a NASA sponsore 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 has 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 the applications development area 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, Applications Mission Council of India, and on the Prime Minister's 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.

Having lived in five countries and four continents, Seelan brings a wealth of international experience to the Department. His wife Sharlette, a finance professional, also works for UND. They have two grown up children - Shelley, a software professional, and Julian, a finance executive.The Seelans enjoy traveling, watching and playing tennis.

Seelan has contributed to over 60 technical reports and has over 50 papers in journals and conference proceedings, and is a co-author of the IRS-1C handbook.

Lectures on Remote Sensing for Precision Farming

Please note: the video lectures are copyright protected.
They are for viewing only.

Back to People