Imaging science graduate student honored

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Javier Concha was named Student of the Year by the Central New York Region of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Rochester Institute of Technology graduate student Javier Concha was named Student of the Year by the Central New York Region of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

The society selected Concha, a Ph.D. student in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, from applicants in upstate New York, Vermont and north central Pennsylvania. He was awarded a one-year society membership, a certificate and $250 at the annual meeting in Rochester on April 15.

“This award highlights my perseverance and passion for the field,” Concha said. “It is awesome to be recognized by my peers and scholars. It not only reinforces the importance of doing research but also the benefit of being a part of professional societies in your area of specialty. It opens doors for our future. I strongly encourage students to become members and participate actively of these organizations.”

Concha is also a member of RIT’s SPIE/OSA Student Chapter and will serve as its secretary next year.

Concha, originally from Concepción, Chile, came to RIT on a Fulbright scholarship to work on his master’s degree in the Center for Imaging Science. He earned his MS in 2012 and expects to finish his Ph.D. in spring 2015.

His thesis research explores the use of NASA’s Landsat 8 Earth-imaging satellite for monitoring fresh and coastal waters. Concha works closely with his adviser, RIT research professor John Schott, whose history with the Landsat program dates to the mid 1980s.

Concha shared his current research at the SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics) annual conference in Baltimore May 5–9, where he presented his paper titled, “A model-based ELM for atmospheric correction over Case 2 water with Landsat 8.”