Prof. dr. ir. Alfred Stein (1958) is professor emeritus in Spatial Statistics and Image Analysis. He received his MSc in mathematics and information science, with a specialization in applied statistics from Eindhoven University of Technology and his PhD at Wageningen University. He started his career at the soil science and geology department of Wageningen university, leading to a professorship at the chair of mathematical and statistical models in 2000. In 1995 he was appointed as a visiting professor at the - then - Institute of ITC where in 2002 he became professor at the new department of Earth Observation Science, which he has headed for more than 15 years. From 2008 until 2020 he has been a member of the faculty board alternating with the portfolios of research and education.
His research interests focus on statistical aspects of spatial and spatio-temporal data, e.g. monitoring data, in the widest sense. Optimal sampling, image analysis, spatial statistics, use of prior information, but also issues of data quality, fuzzy techniques, random sets, all in a Bayesian setting.
From 1998 onwards he has been working with more than 60 PhD students on a range of spatial (and temporal) statistical topics. At present, 2 PhD students are working under his supervision. From 2011 till 2026 he has been the editor-in-chief of Spatial Statistics, the leading platform in the domain of spatial statistics. Until 2012 he was the first editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Applied Geoinformation.
For more information about Prof. Alfred Stein see the UT's Featured Scientists page:
Expertise
Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Synthetic Aperture Radar
- Time Series
- Remote Sensing
- Satellite Image
- Remote Sensing Image
- China
- Land Use
Computer Science
- Deep Learning Method
Organisations
- Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
- Scientific Departments (ITC-SCI)
- ITC-TECH (ITC-SCI-TECH)
Publications
2026
2025
Research profiles
Address

University of Twente
Langezijds (building no. 19), room 1332
Hallenweg 8
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands
University of Twente
Langezijds 1332
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
Netherlands
Organisations
- Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
- Scientific Departments (ITC-SCI)
- ITC-TECH (ITC-SCI-TECH)
