Shashank Bhushan

Dr. Shashank Bhushan is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) and NASA Goddard's Biospheric Sciences Laboratory. His research focuses on advancing remote sensing techniques to study the Earth's cryosphere, biosphere, and mountain hazards.

Shashank’s journey in remote sensing began with mountain glaciology research during his undergraduate studies. In graduate school, he developed photogrammetry workflows to derive accurate geodetic products using electro-optical commercial satellite data (Planet Labs, Maxar). He leveraged these new observations to understand surface and climatic processes controlling the mass balance of debris-covered glaciers in High-Mountain Asia. During his postdoctoral training, he initiated the development of optical stereo and lidar fusion algorithms to produce high-resolution, decimeter accuracy geodetic measurements as part of the NASA DSI STV team.

At NASA Goddard, Shashank aims to continue leading new research in photogrammetry and glacier change measurement while expanding his expertise in applying satellite observations to study biosphere, ice sheets, hydrology and other Earth System processes. In addition to research, he is passionate about developing open-source data science tools, creating accessible tutorials, and fostering collaborative academic communities.

I have developed and delivered the following guest lectures:

• "Introduction to Photogrammetry" for undergraduate level CEE 347: GeoSurveying course at University of Washington, 2021
• "Photogrammetry from commercial satellite imagery and application to Earth Surveying" for graduate level CEN 612: Advanced Digital Image Processing course at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, 2022

I am currently developing open-source, interactive tutorials on photogrammetry and image processing using the GitHub code space platform

• Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2023
• MSc. (Tech.) in Applied Geology through the 5-Year Integrated course (equivalent to BS+MS), Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, 2018

• NASA ROSES proposal review panel, May 2025, February 2024
• Peer-reviewer for research manuscripts submitted to: Journal of Glaciology, Water Resource Research, Remote Sensing, Geophysical Research Letters, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Earth Surface Dynamics, Earth and Space Science, Earth System Science Data
• Co-organized a session on Mental Health in GeoScience at UW & NASA Earth Science Hackweek, 2024 
• Co-host of UW eScience Postdoc Lunch Seminar Series, academic year 2023-24.
• Served as Data Science Helper for the 2023 ICESat-2 Hackweek. Served as team lead and data science lead for multiple projects at University of Washington eScience Hackweeks
• Member of STV cryosphere, stereo, lidar, and data fusion working groups
• Member of the 2023 NorthWest Glaciologists Meeting organizing committee: developed the event website and assisted the scheduling and event logistics team

• University of Washington Data Science Postdoctoral Fellowship by the UW eScience Institute, 2023
• Grove Karl Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphological Research by American Association of Geographers. Recognition for Shugar et al. (2021) Science paper on Chamoli disaster, 2022
• NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology, 2019-2022
• UW Top 1% Merit-Graduate/Fee Exempt Waiver by the University of Washington Graduate School, 2019-2022
• AGU Student Travel Grant to attend the 2017 AGU Fall Meeting, AGU Student Endowment Fund, 2017
• SN Bose Fellowship by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum to conduct research internship at the University of Washington, Seattle, 2017.
• AAPG L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant, 2016 and 2017
• Travel Grant to attend the 78th EAGE Conference and Exhibition, EAGE Student Fund, 2016
• IAS SRFP Summer Research Fellowship, Indian Academy of Sciences, 2015
• Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE)-INSPIRE from DST, Govt. of India, 2013-2018

Selected Open-source Code

• lidar_tools: Tools to process airborne and satellite LiDAR point clouds
• asp_tutorials: Interactive tutorials for the NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline
• skysat_stereo: Tools and libraries for processing Planet SkySat imagery, including camera model refinement, stereo reconstruction, and orthomosaic production
• debris_cover_smb: Tools and notebooks for computing surface mass balance over debris-covered glaciers from remote sensing products
• fetch_dem: Command line tool to request, download and process Global DEMs
• GLAFT: GLAcier Feature Tracking testkit (GLAFT): evaluating glacier velocity products derived from feature tracking. (Lead author: Dr. Whyzay Zheng)
• declass_stereo: Scripts and documentation for processing declassified spy satellite images from Corona and Hexagon with the Ames Stereo Pipeline

Selected Open Data

• Bhushan, S., Shean, D., Hu, J. M., Guillet, G. & Rounce, D. (2024). High Mountain Asia 2 m DEM, Surface Velocity, and Lagrangian Surface Mass Balance for Select Debris Covered Glaciers. (HMA2_DCG_SMB, Version 1). [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/DARPX4AR2OYO
• Shean, D., Bhushan, S., Berthier, E., Deschamps-Berger C., Gascoin, S., & Knuth, F. (2021). Chamoli Disaster Post-event 2-m DEM Composite (February 10-11, 2021) and Difference Map (1.0) [Data Set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558692
• Bhushan, S. & Shean, D. (2021). Chamoli Pre-event 2-m DEM Composite: September 2015 (1.0) [Data Set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4554647