At the Living Planet Conference 2025

ABF student Mohammed Hajaldaw did attend ESA’s Living Planet Symposium 2025. The symposium – sometimes called the Glastonburry festival of the remote sensing- was held in Vienna in June from 23 to 27. On Tuesday, Mohammed went into several sessions related to agricultural monitoring alongside colleagues from Wageningen University. He also met in person the researcher from Jülich Research Center in Germany who had provided the datasets for his thesis work. This researcher gave a presentation on using Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) to estimate plant evapotranspiration, which was directly relevant to Mohammed’s interest. Later, during the poster session, he unexpectedly met a colleague from his home country, Sudan, who was presenting a poster about using digital twins to simulate NH₃ deposition.

Wednesday was Mohammed’s main day: he presented his poster, received valuable feedback, and met many researchers in the field. For example, he was introduced by one of his thesis supervisors to a researcher from Max Planck Institute who showed strong interest in his work and proposed potential collaboration. He also met the other researchers from Germany and Australia who had supported his thesis work. The next day, he focused on the upcoming FLEX mission, the first satellite designed to monitor photosynthesis from space using SIF, attended two sessions on calibrating and validating FLEX products and was able to meet several authors whose papers had been key references in his thesis research. On Friday, he attended a session on using remote sensing in archaeology where he met a researcher from Sudan who presented a new tool for monitoring natural heritage sites in many countries in the middle east. It was rewarding to connect with people from my home country and see how remote sensing contributes across disciplines.

Overall, his presence at the Living Planet Symposium was more than just an opportunity to present his work. It allowed him to build meaningful connections, gain insightful feedback, and deepen his passion for vegetation monitoring. This experience was a significant step forward in his career.