James M. Ellis

James has implemented remote sensing and GIS for environmental and geological applications around the globe. Much of his work establishes environmental baselines for proposed and ongoing development, generates land use maps, and monitors change with satellite and airborne images. Recent projects include image processing, interpretation, and GIS database development in Afghanistan, Tanzania, Nigeria, Angola, China, Haiti, and Turkey. A multiyear project that analyzed modern carbonate environments resulted in many publications and educational DVD sets that include extensive GIS databases and visualizations. He conducted airborne radar surveys in Papua New Guinea, Colombia, and Congo and helped coordinate and process data from the first airborne hyperspectral surveys of Mongolia and Edwards Air Force Base. He realized the potential of remote sensing as a US Navy officer in the 1970s while tracking submarine movements with classified satellite images and ship- and seafloor-based sonar. James has a BA from the University of Rochester and a PhD in Geology from University at Buffalo. He was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and visiting Assistant Professor at Rice University. He has focused on remote sensing and GIS with Gulf Oil and Chevron (15 years), The MapFactory (5 years), and his consulting firm Ellis GeoSpatial (18 years). From 2005 to 2015 he taught remote sensing and GIS cartography lecture/lab courses in Diablo Valley College’s GIS/GPS certificate program in California. In 2017 he taught Environmental Remote Sensing at the Department of Geology, University at Buffalo. He is a State of California Professional Geologist (Certificate No. 7391) and a recently certified FAA Remote Pilot (drone-flyer). Links to publications are available at www.ellis-geospatial.com.