Lillesand, Thomas (1946–)

Thomas M. Lillesand has long been a major figure in the development of remote sensing techniques, applications, and policies. He is a professor emeritus of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the department of forest ecology and management, and the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (UW).

Lillesand grew up in Wisconsin and obtained degrees in civil engineering from the UW (BS, 1969; MS, 1970; PhD, 1973). He began his career as a remote sensing educator in 1973, as a faculty member at the State University of New York (SUNY), Syracuse, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. From 1978 to 1982, he taught at the University of Minnesota and directed that university's Remote Sensing Laboratory. He joined the faculty at UW in 1982 and was the director of Wisconsin's Environmental Remote Sensing Center (ERSC). For many years he also chaired UW's Environmental Monitoring graduate program.

Lillesand taught numerous courses in photogrammetry, visual image interpretation, photographic and electro-optical remote sensing systems, digital image processing, environmental monitoring, and graduate research methods. He advised a total of 76 MS and PhD students over the course of his academic career. Many of these have become leaders in key positions in academia, government, and the private sector. The scope of Tom's highly interdisciplinary research activity has ranged from statewide and regional land cover classification and change detection to applications of remote sensing in forestry and agriculture, civil engineering, long-term ecosystem science, climate change, and water resources management. Sponsors of his research have included the National Atmospheric and Space Administration (NASA), the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), among others. He has also been active in U.S. remote sensing policy issues.

Lillesand has authored or coauthored more than 200 professional publications. He is the senior author, along with Ralph Kiefer and Jonathan Chipman, of Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, published in 1979 and now in its sixth edition. This book has been translated into several languages, making it one of the most used remote sensing texts and references in the world.

Over the years, Lillesand has provided frequent service as a consultant and scientific advisor to numerous governmental agencies, as an expert witness, and as a leader in professional organizations. For example, he served on the Science Advisory Panel for the Earth Observing System (EOS) Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. He was appointed by Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldridge to represent the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) on the Land Remote Sensing Satellite Advisory Committee and has provided both U.S.

House and Senate subcommittee testimony on four occasions dealing with the policy and management of the U.S. Landsat satellite program and defining the basic research requirements underpinning U.S. commercial opportunities in geospatial science and technology. Lillesand has also chaired and served on numerous key committees for ASPRS. He has served as an officer within three ASPRS Regions and as director of the Remote Sensing Applications Division. He served as the national president of ASPRS from 1998 to 1999. He has received several national awards for his professional accomplishments, including the Alan Gordon Memorial Award for Scientific Achievements in Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, the Talbert Abrams Award for excellence in Authorship and Recording of Scientific Development in Photogrammetry, the Earle J. Fennell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education in the Mapping Sciences, and the SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award. He is a fellow in ASPRS, a certified photogrammetrist, and a certified mapping scientist in the area of remote sensing.

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