Robert Washington-Allen from the University of Nevada, Reno joins us to kick off 2026 with an extra-length episode where we talk about Robert’s time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, the Curlew National Grassland, time-series imagery analysis, kudzu bug distribution, the REDD program, applications of Terrestrial Laser Scanner technology around the world, the dynamics of the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique, Robert’s work with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), an agricultural and natural resources atlas of Nevada, GRACE_FO applications for groundwater, below-ground biomass, and so much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Jeong Chang “JC” Seong from University of West Georgia joins us to talk about staying up all night to beat Tetris, the power of a PhD degree, working for Erdas with Landsat 7 data, being a faculty member at Northern Michigan University, a database for managing AmericaView’s activities, the state of Georgia atlas project, GeorgiaView mini-grants and collaborations, the Geographical Bulletin online journal, the AmericaView Journal of Earth Observation and Geospatial Applications, traffic congestion modeling, fisheries and food security, and more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Pablo Viramontes from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture joins us to talk about his time as an ROTC cadet, GIS in the intelligence field, an internship with the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico, gathering data at the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, geospatial work with the TRIO Upward Bound program, K-12 geography education, visiting the White House, the National Space Council, the El Paso Science Festival, the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District, agriculture applications, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Paige Brochu from University of Vermont joins us to talk about the influence of Jurassic Park, archeology in the Caribbean, mapping Lake Champlain shipwrecks, Benedict Arnold’s gunboat, the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) at UVM, interning with the Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island, a spatial connection via Strava that ended up in a Postdoc position, planetary health, meeting with policy makers on Capitol Hill, VermontView and Jarlath O’Neill-Dunne, drone imagery and the resources of the SAL used for disaster response in Vermont, GIS and remote sensing for addressing public health issues, spatial analysis related to drinking water, analysis of greenspace and green infrastructure, training the next generation of geospatial experts, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Tyler Erickson from VorGeo joins us to talk about foldable paper maps, working with remotely sensed data at a technology non-profit, the founding of MichiganView, open Landsat data, Google Earth Engine, Tyler’s time working at Google on the Earth Engine project, the founding of VorGeo and the work being done there, CTrees and above-ground biomass measurement, OpenET and water data, SAR data, SatCamp, advanced machine learning techniques, foundation models and embeddings, geospatial applications of large language modules, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Nancy French from the Michigan Tech Research Institute at Michigan Technological University joins us to talk about the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM), SAR applications, field data in conjunction with radar remote sensing to analyze fire effects, the Bettles fire in Alaska, MichiganView, wildfires and remote sensing, wildfire smoke and health, estimating fuel consumption, fuel moisture monitoring, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

JB Sharma from the University of North Georgia joins us to talk about JB’s transition from a physics background to geospatial technologies, grassroots STEM literacy, how to get students interested in remote sensing, JB’s work with AmericaView, AI-based techniques for handling the volume of remote sensing data, deep learning, GEOBIA for classifying UAS data, learning communities in online learning, ASPRS, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Joseph Kerski from Joseph Kerski LLC, University of Denver and Auburn University joins us to talk about growing up in a motel in western Colorado, making maps as a kid that included address ranges, working at USGS, being part of the Esri Education team, Joseph’s passion for teaching geography, spatial thinking concepts, multidisciplinary teaching, mathematics and spatial thinking, teaching with geospatial and developing a general public course, new education projects, and much, much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com