Dr Magdalena Smigaj

Magdalena Smigaj serves as a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University's Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, where she specializes in multi-modal remote sensing applications for environmental monitoring. After completing her PhD at Newcastle University focusing on forest disease detection using various remote sensing technologies, she has established herself as an expert in UAV-based sensing systems. Her research combines thermal imaging, hyperspectral sensing, and LiDAR technology to monitor vegetation health in both agricultural and forested environments. She actively contributes to interdisciplinary research addressing sustainable development goals, including projects tracking river sand mining activity in Vietnam and South Africa, and improving understanding of water resource availability to reduce food insecurity in South Africa and Ethiopia. Her work has garnered significant attention, with her publications on UAV-based thermal imaging for forest health monitoring and canopy temperature analysis being widely cited in the field. At Wageningen, she continues to advance the application of remote sensing techniques, particularly focusing on developing innovative approaches for vegetation monitoring using drone technology while participating in various international collaborative research projects addressing environmental challenges.