Background

I am originally from Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I completed my Master’s thesis at the Saint Petersburg Forest Technical Academy, graduating in 2006. That same year, I moved to Finland for personal reasons and later became a Finnish citizen. During my studies, I worked for the Russian National Forest Inventory (NFI) for four years. In Finland, I spent about a year working with the Finnish NFI before being admitted to doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki.

I earned my PhD with distinction in 2015. Professor Timothy G. Gregoire, of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, U.S.A., served as the opponent, and Professor Bo Dahlin as the main supervisor. The dissertation was published in the series Dissertationes Forestales 201. The following year, my dissertation was awarded the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Forest Sciences by the Finnish Society of Forest Sciences under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. In 2018, I was awarded the honorary Title of Docent in Forest Biometrics by the Chancellor of the University of Helsinki — the highest academic title in Finland, which ranks above the doctoral degree.

My research focuses on the development of statistical methods for forest resource assessment using remotely sensed (RS) data. After my PhD, I briefly worked for the Norwegian NFI at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) in 2016, after which I moved to Sweden for personal reasons. There, I worked closely with the Swedish NFI at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Since 2021, I have been based in Norway, working at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

While in Sweden, I began collaborating with NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) team via the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). From 2018 to 2024 (inclusive), the university that employed me held a contract with the USDA Forest Service, which funded up to 75% of my time and expertise. The focus of this collaboration was the development of statistical methods for uncertainty assessment for NASA’s GEDI gridded biomass product, L4B.