Dr. Krishna Vadrevu

Krishna Vadrevu is the Deputy Program Manager for the Land Cover/Land Use Change (LCLUC) Program at the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Dr. Vadrevu received his Ph.D. in 2000 while working at the National Remote Sensing Center, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). His Ph.D. focused on characterizing land use and forest-cover dynamics using remote sensing techniques and ecosystem modeling. Between 2001 and 2003, he held a Post-Doctoral research position, and from 2003 to 2009, he served as a Research Scientist at the Agroecosystem Management Program of The Ohio State University (OSU). During this time, his work focused on agriculture and ecosystem sustainability projects, utilizing remote sensing technology. In 2010, Dr. Vadrevu joined the University of Maryland, College Park, as an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences. In this capacity, he concentrated on the remote sensing of land use/cover changes, fires, biomass burning emissions, and sustainability.

In 2016, Dr. Vadrevu joined NASA as a Remote Sensing Scientist, a civil servant position at the Earth Science Office, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, where he is currently located. Dr. Vadrevu has served as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator (Co-I) on various projects funded by NASA, USDA, and NSF, with a focus on LCLUC, fires, biomass burning/greenhouse gas emissions, land-atmospheric interactions, and ecosystem sustainability. He has more than a hundred publications in peer-reviewed journals and books. Additionally, he has five different books published as the main Editor, including "Land Atmospheric Interactions" by Springer in 2018, a two-volume series on "Biomass Burning" by the CRC Press in 2021, "Remote Sensing of Agriculture in South/Southeast Asia" in 2022 by Springer, and "Vegetation Fires and Pollution in Asia" in 2023 by Springer. Two additional books are pending publication, one on Land Use/Cover Changes and another on Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Emissions. Dr. Vadrevu has also spearheaded 15 distinct Special issues in international peer-reviewed journals, involving over two hundred authors from various countries and institutions. Furthermore, he voluntarily serves seven different peer-reviewed scientific journals in Editorial roles.

Dr. Vadrevu has been contributing to and leading the South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI) at NASA. As the SARI Lead, he fosters innovative regional research, education, and capacity building activities. He has successfully brought together US, international, and regional scientists from academia, space agencies, the private sector, government, and non-government to tackle outstanding land-use/cover changes related to science questions and capacity building efforts. He served as the Fire Implementation Team Lead of the Global Observations of Forests and Land-use Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) program (2010-2016) and is currently serving as a regional network coordinator on international coordination (2016 to date). He is additionally a member of the NASA HARVEST team. As the LCLUC Deputy Program Manager, Dr. Vadrevu extends the LCLUC program's global reach and oversees the program's logistical and scientific aspects, leveraging his extensive connections in both academic and non-academic worlds.

Phone: 256-321-9492

Email: krishna.p.vadrevu@nasa.gov