Sam graduated in 2012 as a Master in Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven, Belgium (major land and forest management, minor earth observation) and defended his PhD-research ‘Regional soil organic carbon stocks: Enhancing the usability of soil databases’ in 2017. He is a licensed UAV pilot (EASA OPEN A1-A2-A3 and SPECIFIC) and uses this technology to map a variety of ecosystems, ranging from individual trees to orchards and forests.