Dr. Sulochana Shekhar is the Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at the Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India. Her research interests include urban geography and the application of remote sensing and geospatial techniques in urban environments. She has worked on cellular automata-based urban growth models and urban sprawl assessment using entropy for her doctoral research. Object-based image analysis was the main theme of her postdoctoral research at ITC, the Netherlands. She has previously worked on projects involving spatial decision support systems for slums (UCL, UK) and extraction of slums and urban green space using object-based image analysis (UTAS, Australia). She has completed major funded projects on housing the urban poor (HUDCO) and the environmental impact of urbanization (UGC Major) using geospatial techniques. She has collaborated with Cambridge University, UK and completed the UKIERI research project on the interactive spatial decision support system for managing public health.