KNOW US
IT’S TIME TO GET TO
OPENING UP SCIENCE
The academic world can be quite isolated - often obsessed with the details, but lacking knowledge of how exciting, transformative science can be applied in the real world, to solve real problems. Tom and Josh realised that there is a huge lag time between scientific discovery and applying revolutionary techniques to help industry, government and organisations manage the natural and built environments better. This lag could hinder efforts to minimise environmental and ecological impacts of human activities, and so they decided to apply their knowledge to preserve our environment for future generations. They founded Spectral Ecology, leveraging drones (UAV), satellites, cutting-edge coupled modelling and traditional survey techniques to push forward ecological surveying into the 21st century.
Dr Tom Fairchild
With over a decade of experience mapping and understanding ecological systems, Tom is at the forefront of ecological research. From species identification and mapping across different ecosystems, understanding how environmental drivers affect the health and species distributions, to mapping, to modelling ecosystem functions and services (including pollution and nutrient regulation, cultural aesthetic and wellbeing, and flood resilience), his breadth of expertise has made him an invaluable asset. He has been a leading figure on multi-million pound research and monitoring projects, while having a strong track record of producing world-class journal articles in prestigious journals, and contributing to multiple national environmental policies.
Most recently, he has been developing new techniques to map species and habitats at large spatial scales, and in unprecedented detail, using state-of-the-art UAVs and sophisticated multi-modelling frameworks which outperform current mapping platforms or techniques.
In addition to science, Tom is an experienced photographer and videographer, and has previously covered government events, weddings and bespoke photographic commissions.
Joshua Mutter
Joshua is an experienced ecology and remote sensing expert, with 8 years of research experience. He has a Degree in Biology, and a research Masters Degree in ecological remote sensing, and has worked on a number of high-profile research projects, including the Ecostructure Project, Intertraits and BEF-Scale.
He has expertise designing and constructing machine learning models for image segmentation and classification of plants and algae, and extensive experience managing large databases for academic and commercial projects. Furthermore he is an experienced aquatic taxonomist, with in-depth knowledge on coastal marine and freshwater algal and animal species.
To bring access to cutting-edge environmental and ecological science to a wider range of users, and to begin to break down the cost barriers to smaller organisations and individuals. We want high quality scientific tools to be accessible to all, providing cost-effective services while maintaining the academic rigour and objectivity of research institutions. We are innovators, and we will keep on innovating - bringing and developing new tools to improve and better manage our ecosystems.
ETHOS
For the Past Decade, we’ve been obsessed with pushing the boundaries of ecology and mapping, and with Spectral Ecology we are finally opening up cutting-edge science to a wide gamut of users. Talk to us today to see how we can revolutionise your ecological and mapping needs.
