Prof. de Beurs was born in Netherlands but lived and worked in the United States of America since 2002.

During her Master of Science in Agricultural System Science at Wageningen University, Prof. de Beurs became interested in studying land cover and land use change using satellite images. After graduating she moved to the United States to further her interest in Remote Sensing, and to pursue a PhD in Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Nebraska. Before joining WUR, Kirsten climbed the academic ranks to full Professor in the department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma and from 2015 to 2020 she chaired the Department. 

Prof. de Beurs’ research is centred around the analysis of earth observation data related to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. She works at the intersection of remote sensing and environmental sustainability, finding answers to large-scale problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and emerging infectious diseases. She has experience working with large-scale datasets which are increasingly important within environmental research, especially to scale from field measurements to global ecosystems.