{Article from Kansas Alumni Magazine, No. 4, April 2000}

Brothers Turned Space-image Analysts are Experts in the Field

Lawrence, KS – April 2000 – It’s pretty rare to find a couple of bonafide farm boys at KU. Dietrich and Jude Kastens grew up on a Rawlins County farm, near the small town of Herndon, north of Atwood. Jude just finished a master’s in mathematics and has started on a PhD. Dietrich will soon complete a master’s in geography. Both work at Kansas Applied Remote Sensing (KARS), but they regularly return to Rawlins County, to the 8,500-acre farm where, together with their parents, an uncle and aunt, they raise winter wheat and corn, and run a cow/calf operation.

They’ve brought in-the-field knowledge of farming to the high-tech world of satellite images and mathematical models.

“To be a successful farmer, you’ve got to be a mechanic, a plumber, an economist, an electrician, a businessman, and know something about animals,” Dietrich says. “You develop a problem-solving ability and a confidence that’s helped us here.” 

The Kastens’ parents, Terry and Marilyn Franklin Kastens, both KU graduates, were big influences on their sons, who say they never really considered going to school anyplace but KU, even though their dad is a professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University. Jude and Dietrich profess to being right at home in Lawrence, although Dietrich plans to go back to the Rawlins County farm in the summer of 2001. 

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