Summary
Etienne Laliberté is a Full Professor at Université de Montréal, Canada Research Chair in Plant Functional Biodiversity, and leader of the Canadian Airborne Biodiversity Observatory (CABO) who bridges ecology, remote sensing, and applied AI. He co-founded Rubisco AI and led the team that won the XPRIZE Rainforest canopy tree mapping challenge, demonstrating an uncommon ability to translate academic research into prize-winning commercial solutions. His work develops high-resolution drone and computer-vision methods to monitor plant biodiversity and carbon, with a focus on rapid, scalable impact for conservation and climate mitigation. With a PhD in Forestry and additional training in geomatics, he combines field ecology expertise with technical mastery of spatial data and machine learning. Based in Montreal, he has built a decade-plus track record of academia-to-industry translation across continents, including research and faculty roles in Australia and Canada.
11 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Ph.D. Forestry, Ph.D. Forestry at University of Canterbury
Microprogram in Geomatics Geomatics, Microprogram in Geomatics Geomatics at Université de Sherbrooke
M.Sc. Biological siences (Forest ecology), M.Sc. Biological siences (Forest ecology) at Université de Montréal
BSc. Agr. Sc. Botanical sciences, BSc. Agr. Sc. Botanical sciences at McGill University - Macdonald Campus