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.