4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 233-300
Liang Xu, also known as Alan, received the B.S. degree in Physics from Fudan University (China), and the Ph.D. degree in Geography from Boston University, Massachusetts (USA). Before joining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he also worked at UCLA focusing on biomass and carbon mapping of African tropical forests. His scientific research focuses on the spatial modeling of biomass retrieval using the fusion of active (lidar/radar) and optical remote sensing data. His research interests also include studies of vegetation dynamics and seasonality changes using time series analyses. Besides vegetation research in the statistical domain, he has experience in physical modeling of the radiative transfer in vegetation canopy, including the stochastic radiative transfer theory for both active and passive optical remote sensing, and the spectral invariants theory applicable to hyperspectral and multiangle remote sensing data.
Awarded NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (2010-2013)