Faculty and Staff
Dr. Santhosh K. Seelan
Professor and Chair, Department of Space Studies,
Director, North Dakota Space Grant Consortium &
Director North Dakota NASA EPSCoR
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.
