Len Kne

Len Kne is a Researcher at the University of Minnesota, serving as Research Computing Director at U-Spatial. He has taught graduate-level GIS courses since 2012 including:

• GIS 8501: GIS Project Management & Professional Development (2012-2019)
• PubH 7253: GIS in Public Health (2015-2018)
• PubH 6719: Humanitarian Crisis Simulation (2018-2019)
• GIS 5577: Spatial Databases (2012-2017)

Research Interests: Geographic Information Science, Spatial Computing, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Thinking. His work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals through geospatial analysis applications.

Notable Projects:

• Lead PI for USDA-funded crop evaluation ML modeling (2024-2026)
• Co-PI on winter stress mitigation for northern turfgrasses (2021-2026)
• Minnesota Department of Health infrastructure transparency tool (2021-2026)
• USDA Forest Service floodplain analysis projects (2023-2024)

Datasets: Contributed to multiple open datasets including historical surface waters mapping, digital surface models, and ecological suitability studies for Twin Cities.