Rainer Ressl

Rainer A. Ressl was born in Schongau, Germany, in 1968. He studied geography with minors in planning and remote sensing at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich, Munich, Germany, and the Georgia State University, Atlanta, US. He received the Diplom (M.S.) degree in physical geography and the Ph.D. degree in physical geography and remote sensing from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich in 1994 and 1999, respectively, both in cooperation with the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Starting in 1999 he worked as a Senior Scientist with the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), Mexico City, Mexico in the area of remote sensing. From 2003 to 2005 he worked as team leader for automatization at the DFD-DLR in Neustrelitz, Germany. Since 2005 he has been the Director of the Geomatics department (GIS and Remote Sensing) of CONABIO. His main research interests include satellite remote sensing for ecosystem monitoring, development of operational monitoring systems based on remote sensing and GIS data, e.g., for forest fire, land cover, and ocean products, and GIS applications related to biodiversity.