Dr. Young's Professional Biography
Dr.
Stephen Young is a professor of remote sensing and environmental sustainability
in the Geography Department at
Salem State University in Salem Massachusetts,
USA. His
recent research work has centered on climate and environmental change in NE North America
and nature conservation in China. In
addition to his environmental research, he bridges the arts and sciences through
art gallery exhibitions which expose the public to science and geography.
Concerning
his climate change related work, his recent publication in the Journal Climate, Overall
Warming with Reduced Seasonality: Temperature Change in New England, USA,
1900–2020 is
one of the most viewed articles in the Journal over the past 12 months. He also
has
a number of publications focusing on the use of drones for climate adaptations (Monitoring
the erosion and accretion of a human-built living shoreline with drone
technology and Comparing
drone-derived elevation data with air-borne LiDAR to analyze coastal sea level
rise at the local level). Concerning his
work in environmental change, he has co-edited two books (Global
Environmental Change and Sustainability, 2013 and International
Perspectives on Global Environmental Change, 2012 (over 70,000 downloads)), co-edited a special edition of the journal Northeastern
Geographer (Environmental Change in
Northeastern North America, 2012),
co-wrote a paper: “Analysis of Land Surface Temperature Change for
Northeastern North America using MODIS Thermal data, 2001 to 2011” (Northeastern
Geographer, 2012), and wrote
a technical chapter “Geoinformatics and the
Mapping of Lands Vulnerable to Sea Level Rise” in the book Geoinformatics
for Climate Change Studies, 2011.
Concerning his work on nature conservation in China, he has recently published: Integrating habitat availability into restoration efforts for biodiversity conservation: Evaluating effectiveness and setting priorities (2021) and Conservation priorities of forest ecosystems with evaluations of connectivity and future threats: Implications in the Eastern Himalaya of China (2016) in Biological Conservation and "Effectiveness of China's national forest protection program and nature reserves" (2015) in the Journal Conservation Biology. These papers were based on the analysis of satellite imagery while working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Yunnan province at the Ecology, Conservation, & Environment Center (ECEC).
Concerning his art gallery
work, his exhibition, The Earth Exposed,
has been displayed in over a dozen galleries including the headquarters of the
National Science Foundation as well as being displayed in Australia and Tunisia.
His most recent exhibition, Climate
Change: Taking action with modern mapping techniques explores future impacts
of climate change on coastal Massachusetts, USA. Another recent exhibition is Macro or
Micro? a joint project with Dr. Paul Kelly of Salem State University. In
2013 the exhibition was displayed at the Winfisky Gallery in Salem,
Massachusetts and at the Traina
Center for the Visual and
Performing Arts, Clark
University in Worcester, MA. In 2015-2016 it was exhibited at the Museum of Science in Boston for 10 months as well as at the Sazmanab center
for Contemporary Art in Tehran, Iran, Tehran University and at Yale University. It has recently been written up in a blog by the Smithsonian
Dr.
Young’s research has appeared in journals such as: Biological Conservation,
Biotropica, Forest Ecology & Management, International Journal of
Remote Sensing,
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, International
Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, Mountain Research and
Development, Sextant, and Vegetatio.Dr. Young primarily teaches courses in climate change, global environmental issues, remote sensing and digital image processing. Dr. Young received his Ph. D. in Geography from Clark University, a
Masters of Environmental Science from Yale University and a B.A. in
Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont. He is
also a former chair of the Department of Geography at Salem State University.