Jim Merchant, Ph.D.

James W. Merchant is Professor in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Lincoln, Nebraska. He is Associate Director of UNL's Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT). In addition, he serves as Research Coordinator for the UNL School of Natural Resource Sciences. Dr. Merchant holds faculty appointments in, respectively, UNL's School of Natural Resource Sciences, the Department of Geography, and the Department of Agronomy. Dr. Merchant received a B.A. in Geography from Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland and both the M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Kansas. He has been engaged in basic and applied research in remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) since 1971. His research is currently focused upon (1) development of strategies for large-area land cover characterization using digital multispectral satellite data, (2) spatial and contextual analysis of digital images, and (3) the design of spatial models that can be employed in geographic information systems to aid in management of natural resources.

Dr. Merchant was recipient of the 1999 Outstanding Contributions Award presented by the Nebraska GIS/LIS Association and the 1998 Outstanding Achievements Award conferred by the Remote Sensing Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. In 1997 he was honored with the John Wesley Powell Award that recognizes significant achievements in contributing to the research of the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1990 he received the Alan Gordon Memorial Award presented by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) to recognize career achievements in remote sensing and GIS. Dr. Merchant serves as Editor of the ASPRS journal, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, and in 1996 was elected a Fellow of the Society. He is Past Chairman, and a member of the Executive Committee, of the MidAmerica GIS Consortium. Before he joined the University of Nebraska in June 1989, Dr. Merchant was affiliated with the University of Kansas (KU) Applied Remote Sensing Program for more than fifteen years, and was a faculty member in the Department of Geography at KU for three years.