From farm to forest, Songlin Fei has built a career and better life

That journey also led him to Purdue University, where his work over the last nine years led to the College of Agriculture naming him the Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing in August and now naming him the 2020 recipient of the Agricultural Research Award.

“Songlin’s research in digital forestry is a great example of how data science and related technologies are advancing our understanding of complex natural systems and facilitating sustainability of our natural resources at the same time,” said Bernie Engel, Purdue associate dean of agricultural research and graduate education. “His work has exemplified the type of impact research can have on a global level. We're proud to bestow upon Songlin this year's Agricultural Research Award."

INTO THE WOODS

Many of the people who grew up with Fei on that delta in China are still there today. But Fei’s forefathers, who had once been wealthy, knew that there was more — maybe not for them, but certainly for future generations.

“My grandfather would read to me by candlelight when I was little. He would tell me to study hard. ‘Others can take our wealth, but they cannot take away our wisdom and knowledge,’ he would say,” Fei said. “My dad sacrificed to put us through the school system. He farmed, had a small grocery store and ran a barber shop. He tried everything to support us.

“I feel so lucky,” Fei said. “Without these men, I would still be like those kids I grew up with. I wouldn’t be allowed to utilize my talents to service society.”

That’s the other value Fei’s parents and grandparents instilled in him. All they did wasn’t just to rebuild their lost wealth or improve their own stations in life. They believed these opportunities they were fighting for should be leveraged to make positive change in the world.

As a young boy, Fei became fascinated by science and technology, these “magical tools” that would equip him to make a difference. As one of the lucky young men in his generation, Fei started his scientific journey at Nankai University, where he studied environmental science and ecology. 

“I have been interested in numbers all my life,” Fei said. “My quantitative skills were always there, and this allowed me to pair statistics and modeling with my love for nature.”

Fei still hadn’t been in a pine forest, or any forest for that matter, until becoming a graduate student at Peking University in 1996. There, he finally felt the crunch of leaves and twigs under his feet as he stepped into the woods on a field assignment in a subtropical, mountainous virgin forest in southwest China.

“There is a sense of liberation and joy when in a forest. It was just jaw-dropping, so many big trees. You’re sort of on a different planet,” Fei said. “I take my own kids to Martell Forest here at Purdue all the time, and there is still a sense of energy. When you inhale, it makes you stronger, makes you better.”

COMING TO AMERICA

From China, Fei moved to the United States to earn a doctorate in ecology with a concurrent master’s degree in statistics under Kim Steiner, a professor of forest biology and director of the arboretum at Penn State University. A career devoted to the marriage of data and forestry was coming into focus.

Steiner has stayed connected to Fei and watched his career grow. He’s been excited to see how Fei has applied his strengths to come up with innovative methods for answering questions related to forest dynamics.

“Songlin has unusual capacity for imaginative insight into scientific problems, especially how to use existing data in novel ways to answer important questions,” Steiner said. “He’s very smart, and he’s a very hard worker. I’m proud of what he’s accomplished. Purdue is lucky, I think.”

After a stint at the University of Kentucky, Purdue lured Fei to West Lafayette. Since his arrival in 2011, Fei has made an international name for himself as a leader in digital forestry.

Fei is particularly known for mining existing data to reveal hidden nuggets of information. In 2017, he analyzed 30 years of U.S. Forest Service data on 86 tree species to show how they’re responding to climate change. The study noted not only the movement of some species northward in response to rising temperatures but westward movement of species such as oak and maple because of water stress, something not observed before. Discover Magazine named Fei’s work as one of the top 100 science stories of the year.