Rate My Professor Kelly Gragg

Kelly Gragg serves as a Senior Professional Practice Fellow at the University of Otago's School of Surveying, a position he has held since February 2016. He obtained his BSc in Geology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1997 and his MSc in Geology from the University of Georgia in 2003, with research centered on using shallow geophysics to identify subsurface ancient Roman era archaeological features. Before joining Otago, Gragg accumulated diverse professional experience in geospatial technologies. He worked for three years at an environmental consulting firm in Virginia, performing investigative fieldwork at sites across the United States. He then contributed to a small R&D company developing LIDAR mobile mapping systems and later managed a LIDAR data processing team at a large engineering defense contractor. In 2013, he relocated to New Zealand, taking up the role of geospatial data manager for the New Zealand Defense Force in Auckland.

Gragg's research specializations include investigating the vulnerability of the Ross Ice Shelf in a warming climate through the NZARI interdisciplinary programme, LIDAR data collection and point cloud processing, management of the geospatial data lifecycle, metadata standards, methodology for data collection, and light board development. He plays a key role in teaching and demonstration for multiple surveying courses, such as SURV120 Surveying and Spatial Science, SURV130 People, Place and the Built Environment, SURV220 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, SURV322 Hydrographic Surveying, SURV452 Hydrographic Surveying 2, and others, while also overseeing the survey software laboratory and offering support in GIS, CAD, LIDAR, point cloud processing, and data management to students and staff. A member of Survey and Spatial New Zealand since 2016, he currently serves on its Spatial Stream Committee. Gragg was part of the team awarded the 2022 University of Otago Staff Award for Health, Safety and Wellbeing. His notable publications feature "Basal reflectance and melt rates across the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, from grounding line to ice shelf front" (Price et al., Journal of Glaciology, 2025), along with conference contributions on phase-sensitive radar measurements and basal ice investigations on the Ross Ice Shelf (2019–2021).