Our Team
Dr James Ball
Founder & CEO
James’ research integrates remote sensing, tropical ecology, and artificial intelligence to map, monitor and forecast biodiversity in some of the world’s most complex forest landscapes. Alongside deep technical expertise in machine learning and geospatial analysis, he brings extensive on-the-ground experience from field campaigns across Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa. His work bridges cutting-edge science with real-world conservation challenges, helping organisations develop AI-driven solutions to protect forests and respond to the climate crisis.
Christopher Kotthoff
Christopher is a computer scientist specialising in applying modern computer vision to aerial forest imagery, with a focus on automated tree mapping and ecological monitoring. He completed his MSc in Computer Science at ETH Zürich, carrying out his thesis at Cambridge, where he developed deep-learning methods for tree detection and contributed to the Detectree2 open-source project. Alongside his academic work, he’s led software efforts in high-performance engineering teams and AI start-ups. At Forestmap.ai, he supports our advanced modelling pipeline and brings cutting-edge computer vision expertise to large-scale forest analysis.
Associates
Senior Computer Vision Consultant
Jerry Liu
Geospatial Engineering Consultant
Jerry works across our drone-imaging, AI, and geospatial workflows, drawing on experience in robotics, remote sensing, and computational engineering. He has built computer-vision models, autonomous systems, and practical remote sensing tools, and applies that engineering skillset to our forest-mapping and analysis projects. Alongside the technical work, Jerry also contributes to high-level reviews of our processes and operations, helping ensure the business runs efficiently as it grows.
