LiDAR Research and Education Subcommittee: Member Info
LiDAR Research and Education Subcommittee
members are working to design and promote best practices with LiDAR data, LiDAR-derived
products and LiDAR training statewide. The subcommittee is part of the Minnesota Digital Elevation
Committee.
This webpage provides contact information followed by a brief biography for
each member.
Subcommittee Member Contact Information
Member Bios
- Pete Cooper is a Hydraulic Engineer with the USDA-Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has been
with the NRCS since 1981 and has worked in Michigan, Oregon, and Minnesota. As a member of the Minnesota NRCS Water Resources and Engineering Staffs, he
works on a variety of watershed planning projects and evaluations ranging
from flood control to water quality. Much of Pete’s work involves the use of LiDAR in hydraulic, hydrologic, and water quality applications. Current work
emphasis is on upland storage retention potential in the Red River of the
North Basin. Pete is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of
Minnesota. He has a B.S.E. in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State
University and an M.S.E. in Environmental Engineering from the University of
Michigan.
- Les Everett is an agronomist at the University of Minnesota Water
Resources Center. He works with UM Extension and state and federal
agencies to design, fund, and manage education and on-farm research projects
addressing water quality in agricultural areas. As a member of the
State Digital Elevation Committee he presented the need for statewide LiDAR
coverage to the State Legislature and currently manages a training project
for local conservation staff on conservation applications of LiDAR. His B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, from Iowa State, Cornell, and the
University of Minnesota, are in farm management and agronomy.
- Charles (Chuck) Fritz has served as Director of the International
Water Institute since 2000. He works with an international board of
directors and local state and federal entities to develop and implement
applied watershed research and Institute-sponsored watershed education
initiatives in the Red River Basin. He is responsible for coordinating and
implementing the $5.0-million Red River Basin Mapping Initiative to acquire
Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) data across the U.S. portion of the Red
River Basin. His primary professional interest is to develop decision
support tools to aid local, regional, state, and national decision-making
and empower watershed managers to implement sound, defendable, natural
resource management solutions. Chuck holds a Master’s of Science Degree in
Natural Resources Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife and
Fisheries from North Dakota State University.
- Tom Hollenhorst is an ecologist with the U.S. EPA Office of
Research and Development, Mid Continent Ecology Division, in Duluth. He has
been applying GIS and remote sensing technologies to ecologic research since
1991. He’s particularly interested in utilizing high resolution elevation
data for improved watershed delineations, better hydrologic models, and
improved ecosystem assessments.
- Dave Kirkpatrick has been a GIS Specialist for Houston
Engineering Inc. in Fargo, ND for the past 5 years. Dave works with GIS, LiDAR and LiDAR-derived products to assist engineers with water and water
related issues. Development of FEMA floodplain mapping, flood protection,
and evaluation of storage retention locations are among his tasks. He uses LiDAR data in terrain processing and SPI and RUSLE analysis for assisting in
implementing TMDL models on a watershed scale. Prior to working at Houston
Engineering, Dave worked at North Dakota State University for 5 years in the
Agricultural Engineering Department. Research was focused on soil and water
relationships for agricultural production and water quality.
- Steve Kloiber is the wetland monitoring coordinator for the
Minnesota DNR, where he oversees the update of the National Wetland
Inventory for Minnesota as well as the wetland status and trends monitoring
program. He has twenty years of experience in the water resources field with
a special focus on geospatial analysis and environmental informatics. He
received his masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota
in environmental engineering and water resource science and his bachelors
degree in chemistry and computer science from St. Olaf College.
- Tim Loesch is the GIS Section Manager at the Minnesota DNR that
provides data, custom software, training and assistance to over 2,000 staff.
A geographer by training, Tim received dual B.S. degrees in Geography and
Geology from Bemidji State University in 1985 and an M.A. degree in Geography
from the University of Oklahoma in 1988 with an emphasis on the use of
Remote Sensing and GIS technology for hydrologic modeling. Tim’s work
experience includes the Minnesota Land Management Information Center (now MnGeo), a
private municipal engineering firm and the Minnesota DNR since 1994. Tim is
the current co-chair of the Minnesota Digital Elevation Committee and the
Project Manager for the State LiDAR Mapping project. He has been working
with LiDAR-based elevation data since 2006.
- Grit May is a project specialist at the International Water
Institute in Fargo, ND. She is involved in the Red River Basin elevation
mapping project where she processed LiDAR data to generate contour lines. Grit uses LiDAR data in spatial analysis, primarily for hydrologic and water
quality applications. She also administers the mapping project website
and recently co-organized two LiDAR data application workshops for resource
management professionals. Grit holds an M.S. degree in Environmental Sciences
and an M.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Schiller-University in Jena,
Germany.
- Joel Nelson is a GIS Specialist at the University of Minnesota,
and manages activities in the Soil & Landscape Analysis Laboratory (SLAL) in
the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate. Working with the SLAL and its
director, Dr. Jay Bell, Joel has extensive experience in high resolution DEM
applications, especially regarding the instruction and practical utilization
of LiDAR derived elevation data. Joel has been a member of the State Digital
Elevation Committee for several years and hopes to provide useful guidance
in developing training and education strategies regarding LiDAR and allied
technologies.
- Thomas Pearson is a Research Analyst and GIS Specialist in the
Watershed Division at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul. He
has been with the MPCA since 2007 and works primarily on the development of
TMDLs (total maximum daily load) and WRAPS (watershed restoration and
protection strategy) for watersheds across Minnesota, and uses LiDAR data to
support water quality improvement projects. He has 15 years of experience
working with geospatial analysis and environmental science, and received a
bachelor’s degree in economics from Denison University and a master’s degree
in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Nancy Rader has been a GIS Data Coordinator at MnGeo since 1996. She helps maintain the Minnesota Geographic Data Clearinghouse, is a member
of the Digital Elevation and Standards Committees, and chairs the
Metadata Workgroup. She maintains MnGeo's webpages about Minnesota's
elevation data, including metadata records and examples of how LiDAR data is
being used. Her B.A. and M.A. degrees, from Dartmouth College and the
University of Washington, are in geography.
- Nels Rasmussen is a GIS Specialist with the Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency (MPCA) in Rochester, MN. He serves as the Watershed Division
GIS professional in the southern regions of Minnesota. His primary
responsibilities are to use and develop geospatial tools in the watershed
TMDL studies across the state. These duties include the use of LiDAR-derived
datasets in targeting priority land areas, incorporating mobile GIS
applications and collection methods, and developing custom models for water
quality analysis. Nels has been working with LiDAR data for close to 7 years
in Iowa and Minnesota for state and federal water quality projects. He holds
a B.S. in Geosciences from Winona State University and a Graduate
Certificate in Geographic Information Sciences from Saint Mary’s University
of Minnesota.
- Mark Reineke is a geographer at WSN Engineering (formerly JOR
Engineering). He has worked with LiDAR data for building hydrologic models
within the Red River Valley, generating contours, XYZ files for preliminary
surveys/project evaluations, field/drainage studies for private landowners
and cartographic enhancements (utilizing ArcInfo (with Spatial and 3D), ArcHydro, Geo-HMS, Geo-RAS, LP360 and AutoCAD). In anticipation for proper
processing of LiDAR, Mark started a culvert inventory for a client using
survey quality GPS equipment over 4 years ago. He has a B.S. in Geography
from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
- Chris Sanocki is a Geographer and District GIS Specialist with
USGS. He has authored or co-authored reports relating to watershed
characteristics, flood frequency, groundwater, and surface water. Chris has
presented locally and nationally on GIS Data and Application Management, Web-based Watershed and Flood Frequency Applications, Watershed Storage,
Groundwater, Stream Slope, and USGS StreamStats. Current work involves the
production of LIDAR-based flood inundation maps.
- Gerry Sjerven recently moved to a GIS position at Minnesota
Power. He was a GIS Specialist at the Natural Resources
Research Institute at the University of Minnesota - Duluth from 1996-2012.
Prior to joining NRRI, Gerry worked
with the Land Management Information Center (now MnGeo) for six years. He has
served on the MnGeo Standards Committee for a number of years. He has
been involved with the MN GIS/LIS Consortium since 1997, including serving
as the conference chair in 2001. Recently, Gerry has worked to help coordinate the local efforts for the LiDAR acquisition in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota.
- Aaron Spence is a GIS Specialist with the Minnesota Board of
Water and Soil Resources. In 2000, he received a degree in Environmental
Studies from the University of Minnesota, with an emphasis in Soil and Water
Conservation. Aaron worked for 5 years at the University of Minnesota
managing a GIS production office that specialized in digitizing paper soil
survey maps into orthorectified GIS products. Aaron joined the central BWSR
office in 2006 where he provides the agency with map products, web services,
and web map applications, and manages and maintains BWSR’s geospatial data.
In addition to these duties Aaron also provides LiDAR support to BWSR staff
and has utilized LiDAR to assist in a comprehensive wetland management plan
for the City of International Falls.
- Sean Vaughn is a GIS Hydrologist with the Minnesota DNR, Division
of Ecological and Water Resources. Sean has been with the Minnesota DNR
since 1989. For the last twelve years, he has been the lead GIS Specialist
and project manager for the DNR Watershed Delineation Project. Sean has many
years of experience working with raster data, developing statewide GIS
datasets, and creating hydrologically conditioned Digital Elevation Models
for Minnesota. He is particularly interested in the development of statewide LiDAR-derived products for utilization in watershed delineation, hydrography
identification, and hydrologic analysis.
- Barbara Weisman is a Conservation Policy Specialist with the
Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has
been at MDA since 1994 and recently has managed several Clean Water Fund
projects related to agricultural water quality. One of these was a Precision
Conservation Outreach Initiative to share recent advances in LiDAR-based
terrain analysis with GIS users involved in locally led clean water
restoration and protection efforts. Barbara has a B.A. in Cartography from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.A. in Geography from the
University of Minnesota.
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