Professor Romano Trent Lottering holds the position of Associate Professor in Earth Observation and currently serves as the Academic Leader for Teaching and Learning in the School of Agricultural, Earth, and Environmental Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). He earned his PhD in Environmental Science, as well as a master's degree in Applied Environmental Science (Cum Laude), a Bachelor of Science Honours in Environmental Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science. Professor Lottering is an NRF-rated researcher and a professionally registered natural scientist in Geospatial Science with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP). In 2022, he was recognised among UKZN’s Top 10 Most Published Young Researchers. To date, he has successfully supervised over 30 postgraduate students and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in both local and international journals and conference proceedings. His research interests span forest health, invasive species mapping, classification, climate change, drought, image texture, and machine and deep learning.