Luke joined the Department of Geography as Senior Lecturer in Earth Observation in January 2026, having previously worked as Lecturer in GIS & Remote Sensing at the University of Salford (2022-2025), where he also held a European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Fellowship (2023-2025).

Prior to this, he worked at the University of Southampton as Senior Research Fellow (2021-2022), Senior Research Assistant (2018-2021), and Research Technician (2017-2018), whilst completing a part-time PhD in Remote Sensing (2015-2021). He also holds an MSc in Applied Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing (2014-2015), and a BSc (Hons) in Geography (2011-2014), all awarded by the University of Southampton.

Luke has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and authored or co-authored successful proposals worth over £1,500,000 in combined research income, including projects funded by ESA and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Since 2023, Luke co-leads the Biophysical focus area of the Land Product Validation (LPV) sub-group of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV), and since 2026, he is a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Peer Review College. He holds honorary and visiting positions at the University of Salford and University of Southampton.

Research

• Biophysical and biochemical variable retrieval
• In situ sensing techniques
• Optical Earth observation
• Remote sensing of vegetation health and condition
• Satellite product calibration/validation
• Uncertainty evaluation

Luke’s research focuses on

1. the use of optical remote sensing to retrieve vegetation biophysical and biochemical properties (enabling vegetation health to be quantified from the air and from space), and
2. the validation of these retrievals using in situ measurement techniques (to ensure they can provide accurate inputs to models of crop yield, carbon exchange, and the weather and climate systems).

An important strand of his work involves environmental sensing, including the use of automated field instruments that can be deployed on a long-term basis to provide temporally continuous in situ data, as well as unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enable traditional in situ measurement approaches to be applied to wider and more difficult to reach areas. He has also developed methods to quantify the uncertainties associated with in situ reference measurements of biophysical and biochemical variables in a traceable, end-to-end manner.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• 4SSG1016 Geography in Action
• 5SSG2064 Global Environmental Issues: Science and Solutions

Postgraduate

• 7SSGN109 GIS and Spatial Data Science
• 7SSGN225 Research Design and Project Management

PhD supervision

Luke particularly welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in the areas of research listed above.

Further details

See Luke's research profile