Peter Potapov is a Researcher at the Food, Forests and Water program. Peter supports WRI international initiatives that provide improved data and information about the world’s land cover and forests, such as the Global Forest Watch. Peter also supports the Global Restoration Initiative that focuses on ecosystem restoration for the benefit of communities, climate, and nature.

Before joining WRI, Peter served as a Research Professor for the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. During his career in academia, he supported numerous research activities that resulted in highly cited publications and well-known public datasets, including Landsat Analysis-Ready Data, Global Tree Cover Loss, Global Tree Canopy Height, Intact Forest Landscapes, and Global Cropland Extent and Change. His research interests focus on the integration of lidar and radar data with optical observations to map vegetation structure variables like canopy cover, height, age, and biomass.

Peter holds a M.S. in Botany and Plant Ecology and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Natural Resources.