Rate My Professor Chris Owers

Dr. Chris Owers is a Senior Lecturer in Spatial Information Science in the School of Science, College of Engineering, Science and Environment, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wollongong, Master of Science in Spatial Information Science from the University of Sydney, and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Environmental Studies from the University of Sydney. As a spatial scientist, Owers specializes in remote sensing to produce critical data on environmental change. His research interests include coastal science, biogeography, geomorphology, carbon storage, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. He applies a suite of remote sensing technologies—Earth observations, airborne imagery, LiDAR, TLS—and advanced methods like machine learning, deep learning, time-series analysis, and 3D modeling. Owers investigates spatio-temporal dynamics across scales from continental to local, emphasizing vegetation, water bodies, and coastal wetland interfaces through integrated remote sensing, data science, fieldwork, and laboratory efforts.

Prior appointments include CERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CSIRO Land and Water (February 2021–April 2022), Project Research Scientist at Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom (January 2019–December 2020), and CSIRO Visiting Research Scientist. His honors comprise the Big Earth Data Best and Outstanding Paper Award from Taylor and Francis Group (2021), Student of the Year at the NSW Coastal Conference (2018), Vice-Chancellor’s award for interdisciplinary research excellence at the University of Wollongong (2018), and Teaching Excellence award from the College of Engineering, Science and Environment at the University of Newcastle (2023). Notable publications are 'Operational continental-scale land cover mapping of Australia using the Open Data Cube' (2022), 'DEA Land Cover: 30+ years of continental-scale mapping for monitoring coastal ecosystems' (2023), 'Carbon Storage in the Coastal Swamp Oak Forest Wetlands of Australia' (2022), and 'Mapping blue carbon ecosystems from Earth observations at a continental scale' (2025). These works support national monitoring of landscapes and coastal blue carbon ecosystems.