I like to tell people that working here at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is the dream job I never knew enough to fantasize about. I started college at 15 as an early admittance student focusing on computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics and art. Years later I got interested in applied restoration ecology, and continue to work in areas that support ecological restoration efforts including hydrological modeling, remote sensing, spatial statistics and analysis, and occasional forays into the field.
John Lee David
(DATA SCIENTIST)
Org Code: 615
NASA/GSFCMail Code: 615
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: KBR
Research Interests
Ecosystems and Restoration Ecology
Earth Science: Ecosystem functionI have long been interested in restoring ecosystems functionality. To facilitate this I am a member of the IUCN's Commission on Ecosystem Management in support of the Bonn Challenge's goal of beginning the restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded land by 2020.
Algorithm Design
Earth Science: Theory & ModelingOne of my specialities is working with collaborators to develop, implement, and test new algorythms to address their needs.
Water Balance
Earth Science: Hydrology / Water CycleWater is an important limiting resource globally. I am interested in where our water comes from, its eventual fate, and how we can ultimately manage this limited resource.
Brief Bio
Current Projects
Sub-Saharan Sahel Tree Counting and Biomass Estimation
Classifying individual trees across the entire Sub-Saharan Sahel as part of a biomass estimation project. This work is partially funded through an Intel Challenge grant, and received the 2015 HPCwire Awards – Readers Choice Award for Best HPC Collaboration Between Government & Industry at SC15
The WAter BAlance Tool
Hydrology / Water Cycle
The The WAter BAlance Tool (WABAT) is being developed to provide a global course scale total water budget using remote sensed data products. We are working with the United Nations Statistical Division and several NASA partners to provide end users with easy and automated access to user specified queries.
Positions/Employment
Senior Programmer/Analyst
SSAI/NASA-GSFC - Greenbelt MD
December 2011 - May 2021
Working on near real-time flood and inundation modeling and remote sensing.
DEVELOP Intern
NASA-GSFC - Greenbelt MD
October 2011 - December 2011
Worked on near real-time flood and inundation modeling, calibration, and validation.
Student Intern
International Business Machines, Austin Research Labs - Austin TX
May 2011 - September 2011
Summer of Code Intern
Google - Mountain View CA
June 2010 - September 2010
Instrumentation Engineer (UCPEA-X)
University of Connecticut, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment - Storrs CT
June 2005 - June 2008
Wetlands Restoration Crew Supervisor (seasonal)
US Forest Service, Kamas Rangers District - Kamas UT
June 1996 - November 1998
Software Engineer
KBR - Greenbelt
May 2019 - October 2023
I helped maintain the GOES-R L2 products.
Data Scientist
KBR - Greenbelt
October 2023 - Present
Working on sea ice products for the ICESat-2 Mission.
Teaching Experience
Education
Arizona State University. MS, Plant Biology. 2002
University of New Mexico. BS, Computer Science (with distinction). 1996
Professional Societies
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Member of their Commission of Ecosystem Management and the Commission of Environmental, Economic and Social Policy.
2013 - Present
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Student Member
2010 - Present
Society for Conservation Biology (SCB)
Member
2013 - Present
Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)
Member. Please note that I have not kept a continuous membership.
1997 - 2014
Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS)
Member.
2008 - 2013
New Mexico Riparian Council
Board Member. Head of Volunteer Programs. President Elect (unfortunately I had to give that up to take the instrumentation engineer position at UConn)
2003 - 2005
Professional Service
I serve as a Member on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (IUNC-CEESP). October 2013 - Present. I work mainly with Specialist Group on Indigenous Peoples, Customary & Environmental Laws & Human Rights (SPICEH) to support native communities interests in economics, education and the environment.
Represented IUCN-CEM and participated on the United Nation Statistical Division's Expert Group Meeting on the Guidelines for the Compilation of Water Accounts and Statistics, 20-22 November 2013, New York, New York.
Represented IUCN-CEM and participated on the United Nation Statistical Division's Expert Group Meeting on Modelling Approaches and Tools for Testing the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting, 18-20 November 2013, New York, New YorkGrants
Creating Useful Products from Connecticut's 2000 LiDAR Dataset
Creating Useful Products from Connecticut's 2000 LiDAR Dataset - Connecticut Cooperative Highway Research Program - Awarded: 2007-01-01
Dates: 2007-01-01 - 2008-01-01
Coverage: 0.5
Amount 49,768
Other Professional Information
Publications
Refereed
Middleton, B. A., and J. L. David. 2022. Trends in vegetation and height of the topographic surface in a tidal freshwater swamp experiencing rooting zone saltwater intrusion Ecological Indicators 145 (109637): 11 [10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109637]
Skaskevych, A., J. Lee, H. C. Jung, et al. J. Bolten, J. L. David, F. S. Policelli, I. B. Goni, G. Favreau, S. San, and C. M. Ichoku. 2019. Application of GRACE to the estimation of groundwater storage change in a data poor region: a case study of Ngadda catchment in the Lake Chad Basin. Hydrological Processes hyp.13613 [10.1002/hyp.13613]
Brandt, M., K. Rasmussen, P. Hiernaux, et al. S. Herrmann, C. J. Tucker, X. Tong, F. Tian, O. Mertz, L. Kergoat, C. Mbow, J. L. David, K. A. Melocik, M. Dendoncker, C. Vincke, and R. Fensholt. 2018. Reduction of tree cover in West African woodlands and promotion in semi-arid farmlands Nature Geoscience [10.1038/s41561-018-0092-x]
Requa, M., G. Vaughan, J. David, and B. Cotton. 2016. Using cloud bursting to count trees and shrubs in Sub-Saharan Africa 2016 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) [10.1109/bigdata.2016.7840947]
Zou, Y., M. Jiang, X. Yu, et al. X. Lu, J. David, and H. Wu. 2011. Distribution and biological cycle of iron in freshwater peatlands of Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China Geoderma 164 (3) 238-248
Wu, J., G. D. Jenerette, and J. L. David. 2003. Linking land-use change with ecosystem processes: a hierarchical patch dynamic model
Wu, J., and J. L. David. 2002. A spatially explicit hierarchical approach to modeling complex ecological systems: theory and applications Ecological Modelling 153 (1) 7-26
Hargis, C. D., J. A. Bissonette, and J. L. David. 1998. The behavior of landscape metrics commonly used in the study of habitat fragmentation Landscape ecology 13 (3) 167-186
Hargis, C. D., J. A. Bissonette, and J. L. David. 1997. Understanding measures of landscape pattern Wildlife and Landscape Ecology 231-261
Milne, B. T., A. R. Johnson, T. H. Keitt, et al. C. A. Hatfield, J. L. David, and P. T. Hraber. 1996. Detection of Critical Densities Associated with Piñon-Juniper Woodland Ecotones Ecology 805-821
Selected Public Outreach
STEM, STEAM, and Science Fair Judge
2012 - Present