Matthew Hanson

About Matthew Hanson

I am a geospatial engineering leader with 25+ years of experience buildingsystems, standards, and open-source software that make Earth observation datamore accessible, usable, and impactful.My work sits at the intersection of remote sensing science, cloud-nativearchitecture, and open ecosystems. I have led the design and implementation oflarge-scale processing pipelines for satellite imagery, helping transform howglobal datasets such as Landsat, Sentinel, and MODIS are discovered, processed,and used.I am a core contributor to the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC)specification and have been deeply involved in advancing open standards forgeospatial data. Through this work, I have helped enable a new generation ofcloud-native geospatial platforms that support scalable analysis, AI/MLworkflows, and real-time decision-making.As an OSGeo Charter Member and frequent speaker at FOSS4G and otherinternational conferences, I am committed to building open, collaborativecommunities that drive innovation and lower barriers to access for Earthobservation data.My experience spans:• Architecture of cloud-native geospatial systems (AWS, serverless, distributed processing)• Remote sensing and imaging science (optical, radar, lidar, hyperspectral)• Algorithm development (classification, detection, atmospheric correction, feature extraction)• Open-source software and standards development• Leading teams and delivering operational systems at scaleThroughout my career, I have focused on turning complex geospatial data intopractical tools and platforms that support science, sustainability, and globaldecision-making.I am particularly interested in roles and collaborations focused on:• Governance and open data ecosystems• Earth observation infrastructure and platforms• AI/ML applied to geospatial data• Community-driven, open-source innovation

Experience

1. Director of Geospatial Technology

   Element 84

   Feb 2026 — Present

Education

• Hampden Academy

  High School

  1987 — 1991

• Rochester Institute of Technology

  M.S., Imaging Science

  2001 — 2003

• Rochester Institute of Technology

  B.S., Imaging and Photographic Technology

  1991 — 1995

Skills

• Signal Processing
• Windows
• Java
• C++
• Html
• Open Source
• Sensors
• Integration
• Modeling
• Systems Engineering
• Research
• R
• Analysis
• Remote Sensing
• Envi
• Geospatial
• Idl
• Software Engineering
• Data Analysis
• Databases
• Geomatics
• Javascript
• Software Design
• Program Management
• System Architecture
• Optics
• Image Processing
• Computer Vision
• Software Development
• Python
• Linux
• Algorithms
• Gis
• C
• Programming
• Numerical Analysis
• Visual Studio
• Image Analysis
• R&D
• Digital Image Processing