Mr. Abraham was the Senior Research Geophysicist with Exploration Resources International (XRI) and the EM and Potential Field Team Manager from 2013- 2015. Mr. Abraham was a Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey for 16 years. Prior to the USGS he was a geophysicist with the Department of Energy contractor at the Grand Junction Project Office. Before entering public service, he was with Denver based Northern Geophysical, Inc. Over the past 35 years, his research has focused on the application of geophysical techniques for mapping water, energy, and mineral resources as well as engineering and environmental problems.

His research interests include the use of airborne geophysical survey techniques to construct 3D geological and hydrological framework models. He has worked extensively throughout the world on geophysical surveys including Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Central Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and South America. He has served as a technical expert for many government agencies and the World Bank. Mr. Abraham received his Master in Science in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines in 1999. He received his Baccalaureate in Science in Geology from Mesa State College in 1994 after concluding a research internship with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute. Mr. Abraham holds Professional Geologist licenses in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Utah, Texas, and Wyoming. Jared also holds a Professional Geophysicist license with the State of California.

Mr. Bell is a globally recognized advocate for the application of airborne robots, aka “drones”, to collect geophysical and remote sensing data, primarily to explore for earth resources and environmental site characterization. He began his career as a mineral exploration geophysicist where he collected, processed, visualized, and interpreted ground, borehole, and airborne geophysical data for base and precious metal exploration. His has worked on resource exploration projects in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Far East Russia. In addition, he has performed numerous geophysical surveys for environmental and engineering subsurface site characterization. In 1986 to 1991, he helped found and served as the marketing specialist for a geophysical software company. From 1991 through 2006, he focused on ground and airborne geophysics ( i.e. magnetic and EM) applied to mineral, hydrocarbon, and groundwater exploration. From 2006 through 2009, he worked for hydroGEOPHYSICS, Inc. to build the market for a novel electrical technology for monitoring fluid flow within geologic materials. In 2009, he returned to geophysical services and consulting. In 2016, Mr. Bell conducted a number of drone magnetic surveys map subsurface geology and precisely locate oil and gas infrastructure using the prototype of the MagArrow, an innovative drone magnetometer. In 2022, he deployed the EM61Lite, drone drone-enabled deep-looking EM metal detector to map buried pipelines and locate metallic objects. Also in 2022, he did his first survey using the GEM2 UAV, a drone enabled EMI conductivity meter to map shallow soil and rock. In 2024, he formed Drone Geoscience, LLC, a geophysical and remote sensing service provider located in the Denver, CO area with office in Houston, TX. Mr. Bell holds a BSc in Applied Physics from Michigan Technological University in 1976. In the early 80’s, he completed non-degree geologic course work at the University of Colorado Denver.

Mr. Detwiler has been in the surveying and geospatial field for 23 years, with the majority of those years specializing in aerial mapping, lidar, and photogrammetry. His work experience has taken him to 31 states and 12 countries, with projects ranging from transmission power line lidar mapping, multi-oblique cityscape photogrammetry, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) mapping at mines. Mr. Detwiler is skilled in the capture, processing, and analysis of accurate geospatial data, helping lead the industry in UAS applications in mining and exploration and many other uses which this technology lends itself to. He is the owner of Great Basin Geomatics, LLC. Based in Reno, NV., Providing innovative aerial mapping and remote sensing solutions. Michael is a Certified Photogrammetrist, Certified Mapping Scientist, a Licensed Land Surveyor, and an FAA certified Remote UAS pilot.

Dr. Laefer is a full professor with NYU Tandon School of Engineering. With degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (MS, Ph.D.), NYU (MEng), and Columbia University (BS, BA), Prof. Debra Laefer has a wide-ranging background spanning from geotechnical and structural engineering to art history and historic preservation. Not surprisingly, Prof. Laefer’s work often stands at the cross-roads of technology creation and community values such as devising technical solutions for protecting architecturally significant buildings from sub-surface construction.

As the density of her aerial remote sensing datasets continues to grow exponentially with time, Prof. Laefer and her Urban Modeling Group must help pioneer computationally efficient storage, querying, and visualization strategies that both harness distributed computing-based solutions and bridge the gap between data availability and its usability for the engineering community. In her decade and a half as a faculty member in both the US and Europe, Prof. Laefer has served as the principal investigator for grants from a wide range of sponsors including the National Science Foundation, the US Federal Highway Administration, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Science Foundation Ireland, and the European Research Council (including a €1.5 million single investigator award from the flagship ERC program for which she is the only civil engineer to have been funded in Ireland in the program’s 11 year history).

Prof. Laefer has authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications, been awarded 4 patents, and has supervised 15 doctoral and 20 Masters theses. Among many honors from IEEE, ISPRS, and other professional societies, the most notable is perhaps the 2016 commissioning and hanging of her portrait by the Royal Irish Academy as one of eight researchers selected for the Women on Walls project to celebrate Irish women in science and engineering. She currently helps form national research programs and policies in her governmental appointment to the Irish Research Council (2016-2020).

Mr. Rempel is the Geospatial Division Manager for ESP and Associates, an engineering, surveying, and planning company with over 750 full time employees and 33 locations across the United States. He oversees the UAS/manned flight, mobile lidar, and pavement mapping groups within ESP’s Headquarter Region out of Fort Mill, SC. Mr. Rempel began his career as an intelligence analyst in the United States Marine Corps working with multiple, remote sensing technologies on national and tactical platforms. He was trained in remote sensing, terrain analysis and photogrammetry at the Defense Mapping Agency and various Department of Defense schools during his service. After transitioning to the private sector in 1997, Mr. Rempel began his civilian career in photogrammetry and by 2007 was managing large-scale lidar and photogrammetry projects across the nation for EarthData (Fugro). He was instrumental in the assessment and selection of the first softcopy photogrammetry systems utilized at EarthData, helping navigate the transition from film to digital mediums. Mr. Rempel co-authored FEMA‘s “Procedure Memorandum 61-Standards for Lidar and other High Quality Digital Topography“ and currently serves as Secretary on the ASPRS Board of Directors. He has worked at ESP and Associates since 2013, managing geospatial services and ESP’s work on USGS lidar projects and the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program. Most recently Mr. Rempel has guided the development of photogrammetric workflows for the UAS program at ESP. He is licensed as a Surveyor Photogrammetrist in Virginia, a Professional Photogrammetrist in Oregon, and is an ASPRS Certified Photogrammetrist and Certified Mapping Scientist-Lidar.