1. Tell us about yourself.

I am a postdoctoral researcher working in Dr. Sandra Durán’s Traits and Ecosystems Lab. My Ph.D. is in Imaging Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology. My current research lies at the intersection of remote sensing, biodiversity, and ecosystem fluxes. I am interested in using data collected from drones, aircraft, and satellites to understand plant traits and ecosystem functions.

2. When did you know that you wanted to become a scientist? What do you like most about your research field?

Very early on, I was always a curious person, that part hasn’t really changed. But I wouldn’t say I always knew I wanted to be a scientist. Like most people, that idea evolved over time. After high school, I wanted to be an engineer, and I studied electrical engineering during my undergrad and even worked in industry back in Bangladesh. At the same time, I was fortunate enough to travel quite a bit growing up, and that gave me a strong appreciation for nature. When I decided to pursue higher studies, I didn’t even realize there was a field that combined technology and environmental science. That changed during my PhD when I met Dr. Jan van Aardt, who was working on using drones in agriculture. It was a unique opportunity to apply my math and physics skills to learn about biological systems, so I hopped on that train. What kept me there was realizing how much uncharted territory exists at that intersection—questions nobody has answered yet. That’s what still drives me today.

And that curiosity connects directly to what I love most about the field—its multidisciplinary nature. On a given project, I might be working with hyperspectral imagery to pick up subtle chemical signals from plants, while also thinking about how light interacts with leaf pigments and structure. Then the challenge becomes linking those signals to something meaningful, like plant traits or even ecosystem-level processes such as carbon fluxes.

What I find especially exciting is that jump across scales—connecting what’s happening at the leaf level to what we observe across entire landscapes using drones or airborne systems. It’s not always straightforward, but when those pieces start to come together, it feels like you’re uncovering a hidden layer of how ecosystems actually function.

3. How would you explain your research to someone who is not a scientist? 

I study how we can understand the “health and wealth” of plants from above. Instead of using a regular camera, I work with imaging systems that capture chemical and structural details invisible to the naked eye. From that, we can learn a lot about how plants are functioning and responding to their environment. This matters because plants and forests are a key part of our ecosystems, they regulate carbon, support biodiversity, and respond quickly to environmental change. By studying them at large scales, we can better understand what’s changing and why. Ultimately, the goal is to use that knowledge to make ecosystems more resilient.

4. What are your hobbies and preferred activities when you are not doing science?

I really enjoy being outdoors, so hiking and skiing are big ones for me. During my PhD, I also got into triathlons, which I’ve stuck with. I think I like it for the same reason I enjoy my research, it’s not just one thing. You’re switching between swimming, biking, and running, which keeps it interesting and challenging in a different way.

5. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your research?

On the research side, one of the biggest challenges in my field is that we never have enough data. Collecting reliable ground-truth measurements in real ecosystems is slow, expensive, and logistically difficult, especially at the scales we care about. That gap between what we can sense remotely and what we can verify on the ground is something I spend a lot of time thinking about. But honestly, those constraints have pushed me toward some of my most interesting work, because they force you to be creative about experimental design and methodology. At a broader level, like most researchers, I also navigate the challenge of prioritizing—there are always more ideas than time, so learning to focus has been its own kind of discipline.

6. What are some of the challenges you face as an international scholar/student?

One of the main challenges is access; certain positions, funding sources, and opportunities are simply not available to international scholars, and that’s something you have to navigate constantly. It’s a real limitation, but I’ve come to see it as a forcing function: it pushes me to be more intentional about the opportunities I do have and prevents me from becoming complacent.

7. Can you describe a city or place in your country that everyone should visit, and what would you recommend doing there?

I’ll actually answer this a bit differently; I think timing matters more than the specific place. The best time to experience Bangladesh, in my opinion, is just after the monsoon season, around August to October. If you travel just outside Dhaka, the capital, you’ll find what are called beels—shallow wetland depressions that fill every monsoon season as part of the landscape’s natural rhythm. They transform the countryside into a mosaic of still water and lush green, where islands of vegetation emerge between water channels. I’d recommend taking a slow boat ride through those channels and just letting it all wash over you.

To know more about Mohammoa you can go here: https://saif8091.github.io/saif.github.io/