Willem J.D. van Leeuwen received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Soil Science from the Wageningen University for Life Sciences, the Netherlands in 1985 and 1987 respectively, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson in 1995. Dr. van Leeuwen is a Professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE) & the School of Geography, Development and Environment (SGDE) at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is the director of the Arizona Remote Sensing Center at the University of Arizona. His research interests include snowpack and land surface phenology change in response to climate and environmental factors, land use and land cover change, wildlife habitat characterization, remote sensing and geospatial science.  He was on sabbatical  (August-December, 2019). Since Sept, 2020 he is the Interim Director of SNRE.