Two tenure trackers with an AI focus to join the Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing

Marc Rußwurm

My research is focused on the intersection of machine learning and remote sensing. Here, I develop state-of-the-art methods for timely and relevant applications, such as the classification of vegetation from satellite time series or the detection of marine debris and ocean plastics. My Ph.D. research at TU Munich focused on deep learning models for satellite time series classification and crop type mapping. In my PostDoc at EPFL, I deployed general deep learning models on globally distributed datasets which requires tackling distribution shifts with transfer learning across different Earth observation applications. Before joining Wageningen, I worked in Germany and Switzerland and built a large international network with research stays in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. I work towards building adaptive machine learning models that require fewer training images and can be used interactively with domain experts to address the problems of our times.

I am very excited to join Wageningen University as Assistant Professor. The domain expertise in agriculture, geography, remote sensing, and food technology in Wageningen is impressive and well-known internationally. Wageningen is the place to develop new machine learning models specifically crafted towards Earth observation data to tackle important societal and environmental problems at a large scale. Building machine learning models for these problems that can directly interact and support domain experts in the field is key to gaining new insights and having measurable real-world impact on our Planet.

Jascha Grübel

I am an interdisciplinary researcher at the intersection of Computer Science, CognitiveScience and Spatial Sciences. I am a strongadvocate of Open Research Data (ORD) practices and I am the lead architect on the Open Digital Twin Platform (ODTP), which I am looking forward to bring to use at WUR. In my PhD in Computer Science at ETHZurich, I have focused ondesigning and implementing automation systems for experiments including Digital Twins. In mypostdoctoral research at the Center forSustainable Future Mobility at ETHZurich, I have attained third-party funding to develop the ODTP together with the Swiss Data Science Center. I am currently invested in developing Digital Twins of Mobility Systems but the underlying ODTP is a general design that allows for the implementation of practical digital twinsacross all scales from humans, over buildings, agricultural plots to whole countries. I am currently reaching out to interested parties to develop Digital Twins for applications inresearch, industry & governance and if you are interested please contact me. I am also engaged in building up an international communityaround Digital Twins and their application and I am co-organising several Digital Twin related workshops and activities such as the Pervasive Digital Twin Workshop at PerCom and the IEEE Digital Twin Conference.

Wageningen University offers a fantastic environment togrowas an Assistant Professor for Digital Twining. Theworld-renownexpertise in Wageningen for life sciences andall related aspects provide a fertileground for Digital Twining applications. Together with the Wageningen Data Competence Center (WDCC) I am looking forward to spread and engrain Open Research Data (ORD)practices across WUR and beyond. ORD practices are important to unfold the full potential of the societal and environmental impact of research. This can be practically achieved through Digital Twins and I am looking forward tocross-fertilisedifferent research application areas, industrialapplications and governance within the outstanding network of WUR.