North Dakota NASA Space Grant Consortium

Meet the Staff

Dr. Santhosh Seelan
Director
Tel: (701) 777-2355
Email: Seelan@space.edu

 

 

Santhosh Seelan joined UND's Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium in 1998 where he helped establish a sophisticated geospatial lab and lead a NASA sponsored project on Crop and Range Alert System aimed at promoting geospatial technologies among farmers and ranchers of the Upper Midwest. This project involves near real time delivery of satellite data products and services to end users, application development, and training. The project had grown from ten participating end users in 1999 to over six hundred by 2005. Before joining UND, Seelan worked as a Land Information Consultant with Terralink, Wellington, a New Zealand government owned enterprise, creating a nationwide land cover database using SPOT, Landsat and IRS imagery. Prior to that, he worked with India's remote sensing program for 17 years, initially in applications development, and later as Head of India's satellite data distribution center and Project Director, Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) data distribution. His early work on researching the use of remote sensing for targeting groundwater, and his later contributions to India's technology mission on drinking water through practical use of the technology, earned him nationwide recognition and a nomination for the National Mineral Award. He has served on the IRS Mission Management Board, Remote Sensing Applications Mission Council of India, and the Prime Ministers Task Force on providing drinking water to the rural population of India. Preceding his involvement with India's remote sensing program, he had worked with a consultancy firm, providing natural resource management solutions. Seelan has authored or co-authored over 150 articles, conference papers, technical reports, book, book chapters and abstracts.

Suezette Bieri, M.A., M.S.
Deputy Director
Tel: (701) 777-4856
Email: bieri@space.edu

Suezette was born in 1947 in northwestern North Dakota and raised on a small ranch in that part of the state. Her home town had a population of 33 people; the number of residents of that town has decreased dramatically since that time. She graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1969 with a composite major in Sociology/Anthropology. She then received a M.A. in Counseling and Guidance from UND in 1970. After working for many years for state social service agencies and academic institutions, she returned to UND and earned a M.S. in Space Studies in 1989.

As deputy director of the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, she preaches the gospel of space science throughout North Dakota--to students, teachers and the general public.

She is married to Michael Jacobs who is publisher and editor of the Grand Forks Herald. They have four cats: Tess Mary McGregor McGahn aka Tender Toes; Marley Man Cat aka the Black Arctic Fox; Squirt aka Jessica Wilhelmina Coop; and Komodo Cat aka Modo Man.

They own the Bieri family ranch which has 200 cultivated acres and 800 acres of virgin prairie. The land is operated for beef production and for wildlife management. It is a place where the coyotes still howl. Literally.

Suezette collects vinyl albums and 45s of the Beatles, Eric Clapton, the Doors, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. She also collects stuffed bears and recipe books.

Following the flood in Grand Forks in 1997, she and Michael purchased 54 acres west of town and built a new home. They call their property Magpie Ridge. They are now 32 miles from and 240 feet above the Red River. They have devoted the last several years, and apparently the rest of their lives, to landscaping that acreage.

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