The Valley Of The Khans Project

Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin, Ph.D. - CISA3, UCSD Principal Investigator
As a Powell Lee Fellow, Albert Yu-Min Lin’s doctoral work at the University of California, at San Diego in Materials Science has been featured in publications including; The New York Times, Modern Marvels (History Channel), and Chasing Nature (Animal Planet). His expertise in materials characterization resulted in 11 journal publications over a period of 4 years, including one review paper which was recognized as one of the top 10 most important articles in materials science for over 3 months. Yet his pursuits of exploration within the scientific realm are paralleled if not daunted by his anthropological and exploratory ambitions.

After having spent the last eight summers solo trekking to the far reaches of the world, to places such as Mongolia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and northern and western edges China and Tibet, Albert felt compelled to dedicate his life to the efforts of the developing world and the preservation of cultural heritage. His connections to Mongolia are deep, having been adopted into a Mongolian family in 2006 he has repeatedly returned to be engulfed in the rich traditions of Mongolian life.

Dr. Fredrik Hiebert - National Geographic Society, Co-Principal Investigator
Archaeologist and explorer Dr. Fredrik Hiebert has searched for human history in some of the world’s most remote and romantic places. An expert on the ancient Silk Road, he has excavated sites along this millennia-old link between Europe and East Asia from Egypt to Mongolia. Following this most famous of trade routes led him to Afghanistan, where in 2004 he identified the Bactrian gold—a trove of Silk Road-era artifacts lost during Afghanistan’s decades of upheaval—and has played a key role in recovering that country’s endangered cultural heritage, most recently by curating a traveling exhibition of treasures from the National Museum in Kabul. Hiebert is also a pioneer of underwater archaeology, having searched for evidence of ancient settlements in the Black Sea (with Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard), and in South America’s Lake Titicaca. As National Geographic’s archaeology fellow, he extends his infectious enthusiasm for archaeology to the public through speaking engagements, film, and other media.

Prof. Shagdaryn Bira - Mongolian Academy of Science, Co-Principal Investigator
Prof. Shagdaryn Bira, Secretary General of the International Association for Mongol Studies, Labor hero of Mongolia,and Laureate of the State prize of Mongolia for his scholarly work on the history of Mongolia is a historian who has won international acclaim for his multifaceted research that examines the history, culture, religion, and languages of the Mongols. This research covers a wide cultural area, including India and Tibet. He also has made noteworthy contributions to the organization and spread of Mongol research on an international level.

Prof. Maurizio Seracini - CISA3, UCSD Investigator
CISA3 Director Maurizio Seracini is a pioneer in the use of multispectral imaging and other diagnostic as well as analytical technologies as applied to works of art and structures. He has studied more than 2,500 works of art and historic buildings, ranging from Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” and Botticelli’s “Allegory of Spring”, to Da Vinci’s “Adoration of the Magi”. In 1983, he investigated 19 paintings by Raphael on the 500th anniversary of the artist’s birth, and in 1991 he analyzed 19 paintings by Caravaggio in his role as scientific director of an exhibition in Florence and Rome.
He holds adjunct professorships at the University of Florence in its School of Engineering, School of Architecture, and School of Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences as well as the University of Calabria (Cosenza), in the School of Engineering and School of Arts and Humanities. He has also lectured at the International University of Art in Florence and the University of Ca’Foscari (Venice).

Prof. Falko Kuester - CISA3, UCSD Visualization Specialist
Dr. Kuester’s research efforts are aimed at creating intuitive, high-resolution virtual environments, providing engineers and scientists with a means to intuitively explore and analyze massive and complex, higher-dimensional datasets. In this context, his focus is on developing new methods for the acquisition, compression, streaming, synchronization and visualization of data. He applies these techniques to research challenges posed by distributed collaborative workspaces and virtual environments and their application to earth system science, earthquake engineering, biomedical engineering, medicine and cultural heritage diagnostics and preservation. Dr. Kuester has been active in visualization and virtual reality research for two decades and the stringent real-time requirements have served as important performance criteria for his large-scale distributed data analysis and visualization projects. Other application areas of his research include simulation-based design, rapid prototyping, computational fluid dynamics, command and control and forensic analysis.

Prof. William G. Tong, Ph.D. - SDSU Spectroscopy Specialist
Prof. Tong, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at San Diego State University, was named the 2003 Distinguished Scientist (San Diego Region) by the American Chemical Society. He received the Albert Johnson University Research Award, SDSU’s top research award, in 2005, and the 2005 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Sigma Xi Research Society. He also received the 2008 SDSU President Leadership Award and has been awarded Outstanding SDSU Faculty Awards in 1990, 1991 and 2000, with a SDSU Technology Innovation Award in 2002.
Prof. Tong’s novel laser methods for chemical analysis with zeptomole-level (10-21 mole) or sub-parts-per-quadrillion-level detection sensitivity have applications for earlier detection of diseases, better design of cleaner drugs, more sensitive detection of pollutants and chemicals both in the human body and in the environment, geochemistry, archaeology and even authentication of works of art.

Bayarsihan Baljinnayam - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Local Media and Political Consultant/Liaison
Byarsihan Baljinnayam has worked as a Mongolian Supreme Court media liaison, Mongolian presidential media liaison, and is currently president of the Eagle TV network based out of Ulaanbaatar. She will help expedite the acquirement of necessary permits for the expedition and will act as the political liaison between the expedition team and the local government agencies. She is also a critical component in the international fund raising process.

Amaraa Baljinnayam - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Interpretor, Expedition coordinator, Guide
Amaraa Baljinnayam received the Mongolian National Medal for Art in 2007 for his work in Mongolian media. He is also the co-owner of Brainbrand PR a local media studio in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He has an extensive knowledge of the Mongolian landscape and provides a critical link to the local resources needed to perform an extended expedition. He is fluent in both English and Mongolian.

Nathan Ricklin - Calit2, UCSD Field Systems Engineer
Ph.D. Candidate Nathan Ricklin will provide the critical field support necessary to maintain fluid operational status of all field instrumentation, including data collection, analysis and interface design. While working at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, MD he gained expertise in MatLab and the instrument control toolbox to interface with lab instruments for automation and data collection. Later work at the Research Institute for Optronics and Pattern Recognition in Ettlingen, Germany resulted in the novel application of distortion correction methods in image sequences. Nathan has expert-level experience with computer hardware, MatLab, C, Linux and open source software.

Shay Har-Noy – Calit2, UCSD Computer Vision Engineer
Ph.D. Candidate Shay Har-Noy graduated Summa Cum Laude with the Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Rice University, Houston, TX, in 2004 and the M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, San Diego, in 2006. He has extensive experience in the field of image/video processing and computer vision and holds patents and publications in the field. Shay has held positions at Qualcomm, Thomson, Broadcom and National Instruments. While at Broadcom he designed and implemented algorithms to improve the perceptual quality within the H.264 video codec which required him to leverage models of the human visual system. Mr. Har-Noys expertise in computer vision and image/video processing will be essential to the development of novel digital interfaces during the remote sensing phase of the project.

Charles Ince – Independent Engineering Geologist
Mr. Ince’s field experience with the large variety of geophysical tools required in this search is a critical asset. His early work at Subsurface Surveys as a geophysical technician and at Pacific Soils Engineering as a Senior Engineering Geologist has given him valuable experience in project over site. He is licensed as a Professional Geologist and a Certified Engineering Geologist in the State of California. He has managed a variety of projects involving landslide and seismic hazards, groundwater, settlement, slope stability and mine abandonment. Mr. Ince is also capable of performing rigging operations for cliff-side mapping and hazardous slope evaluations.  His experience performing surface mapping, remote imagery analysis and soil dating will also be essential.