Simis, Stefan (19..-....)

Stefan is a phytoplankton ecologist using bio-optics to study biogenous matter in coastal and inland waters. His scientific contributions include remote sensing algorithm development, in situ sensor development and automation (mainly reflectance and fluorescence systems), citizen science solutions and bio-optical modelling based on laboratory experiments and field campaigns.  

Having joined PML in 2014, Stefan developed a growing portfolio of inland water quality remote sensing projects, participating in NERC GloboLakes, Copernicus INFORM, FP7 EartH2Observe, BONUS FerryScope, H2020-TAPAS and H2020-EOMORES. Stefan coordinates the €5M H2020-MONOCLE project and is science co-lead of the ESA Climate Change Initiative project on Lakes.  

Stefan graduated for his MSc in Biology (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics) at the University of Amsterdam in 2002 and obtained his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam when he completed his thesis (‘Blue-Green Catastrophe: remote sensing of mass viral lysis of cyanobacteria’) at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, in 2006. He was a post-doc at the Laboratoire d’Oceanography (Villefranche-sur-Mer) in 2007 and held postdoctoral research grants (Marie Curie IEF and Academy of Finland) on phytoplankton primary production at the Finnish Marine Institute and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). Before joining PML in 2014 he acted as PI on FP7-PROTOOL and FP7-WaterS, AlgaLume, and as Co-I in FP7-CoBiOS, FP7-DEVOTES, FP7-Jerico and ESA-BalMon as senior scientist at SYKE. Stefan is adjunct professor in Aquatic Sciences at the University of Helsinki (since 2014) and honorary Associate Professor at the University of Stirling department of Natural Sciences (since 2020).

Key projects

• Copernicus Land Monitoring Service - Lake water quality
• EartH2Observe
• EOMORES H2020
• FP7-SPACE INFORM
• Multiscale Observation Networks for Optical monitoring of Coastal waters, Lakes and Estuaries (MONOCLE)
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Selected publications

• Palmer SCJ, Gernez PM, Thomas Y, Simis S, Miller PI, Glize P, et al. Remote Sensing-Driven Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) Growth Modeling to Inform Offshore Aquaculture Site Selection. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2020;6(802).   
• Papathanasopoulou E, Simis S, Alikas K, Ansper A, Anttila S, Attila J, et al. Satellite-assisted monitoring of water quality to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Zenodo. 2019.  
• Simis SGH, Ylöstalo P, Kallio KY, Spilling K, Kutser T. Contrasting seasonality in optical-biogeochemical properties of the Baltic Sea. PloS one. 2017;12(4):e0173357.   
• Groetsch PMM, Simis SGH, Eleveld MA, Peters SWM. Spring blooms in the Baltic Sea have weakened but lengthened from 2000 to 2014. Biogeosciences. 2016;13(17):4959-73.   
• Simis SGH, Peters SWM, Gons HJ. Remote sensing of the cyanobacterial pigment phycocyanin in turbid inland water. Limnol Oceanogr. 2005;50(1):237-45.   
• Simis, S. G. H.. Blue-green catastrophe: remote sensing of mass viral lysis of cyanobacteria. 2006. PhD Thesis.

Recent publications

• De Keukelaere, L; Moelans, R; Knaeps, E; Sterckx, S; Reusen, I; De Munck, D; Simis, SGH; Constantinescu, AM; Scrieciu, A; Katsouras, G; Mertens, W; Hunter, PD; Spyrakos, E; Tyler, A; 2023. Airborne Drones for Water Quality Mapping in Inland, Transitional and Coastal Waters—MapEO Water Data Processing and Validation. Remote Sensing.
• Lehmann, MK; Gurlin, D; Pahlevan, N; Alikas, K; Anstee, J; Balasubramanian, SV; Barbosa, CCF; Binding, CE; Bracher, A; Bresciani, M; Burtner, A; Cao, Z; Dekker, AG; Di Vittorio, C; Drayson, N; Errera, RM; Fernandez, V; Ficek, D; Fichot, CG; Gege, P; Giardino, C; Gitelson, AA; Greb, SR.; Henderson, H; Higa, H; Rahaghi, AI; Jamet, C; Jiang, D; Jordan, TM; Kangro, K; Kravitz, JA; Kristoffersen, AS; Kudela, R; Li, L; Ligi, M; Loisel, H; Lohrenz, S; Ma, R; Maciel, DA; Malthus, TJ; Matsushita, B; Matthews, MW; Minaudo, C; Mishra, DR; Mishra, S; Moore, T; Moses, WJ; Nguyễn, H; Novo, EMLM; Novoa, S; Odermatt, D; O’Donnell, DM; Olmanson, LG; Ondrusek, M; Oppelt, N; Ouillon, S; Pereira Filho, W; Plattner, S; Verdu, AR; Salem, SI; Schalles, JF; Simis, SGH; Siswanto, E; Smith, B; Somlai-Schweiger, I; Soppa, MA; Spyrakos, E; Tessin, E; Van der Woerd, HJ; Vander Woude, A; Vandermeulen, RA; Vantrepotte, V; Wernand, M; Werther, M; Young, K; Yue, L; 2023. GLORIA - A globally representative hyperspectral in situ dataset for optical sensing of water quality. Scientific Data.
• Jiang, D; Scholze, J; Liu, X; Simis, SGH; Stelzer, K; Müller, D; Hunter, P; Tyler, A; Spyrakos, E; 2023. A data-driven approach to flag land-affected signals in satellite derived water quality from small lakes. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation.
• Carrea, L; Cretaux, J-F; Liu, X; Wu, Y; Calmettes, B; Duguay, CR; Merchant, CJ; Selmes, N; Simis, SGH; Warren, M; Yesou, H; Müller, D; Jiang, D; Embury, O; Bergé-Nguyen, M; Albergel, C; 2023. Satellite-derived multivariate world-wide lake physical variable timeseries for climate studies. Scientific Data.
• Courtecuisse, E; Marchetti, E; Oxborough, K; Hunter, PD; Spyrakos, E; Tilstone, GH; Simis, SGH; 2023. Optimising Multispectral Active Fluorescence to Distinguish the Photosynthetic Variability of Cyanobacteria and Algae. Sensors.