Raymond Hunt obtained the PhD from the University of Michigan specializing in plant physiological ecology. In 1986, he switched into the field of remote sensing and joined Jet Propulsion Laboratory to investigate the use of remote sensing to detect plant water stress. Work on NASA’s Earth Observing System started in 1989, so Raymond Hunt joined Steve Running’s laboratory at the University of Montana to develop MODIS data products on leaf area index and net primary production. In 1995, he was an assistant
professor in Botany at the University of Wyoming, and worked to establish an interdisciplinary program in Earth System Science. In 1999, he joined the USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory to develop applications of remote sensing to agriculture and protect America’s natural resources. He currently has 62 peer-reviewed journal articles and 101 total publications in various fields from plant physiology to global biogeochemical cycles.