Center Scholars Win Three of Four Prizes in Research Poster Competition

On Friday, February 2, the College of Natural Resources hosted its first annual Graduate Research Symposium, showcasing and celebrating the outstanding research and scholarship of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty advisors affiliated with the college. The event included a research poster competition, with prizes awarded to support travel to conferences and other research meetings. Three of the top four awards were presented to scholars from the Center for Geospatial Analytics.

Kunwar (Krishna) Singh, a postdoctoral researcher working with center faculty fellow Josh Gray (Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources), won the grand prize with his research examining water use and agricultural production in California. Krishna uses in his work the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, or SWAT, a model about which he will lead a special two-day Geospatial Studio in March.

Third place went to Georgina Sanchez, a doctoral student in Forestry and Environmental Resources advised by center director Ross Meentemeyer. Georgina is also treasurer of the Geospatial Graduate Student Organization, which supports students across NC State in their study of geospatial science and analytics. Georgina’s research focuses on water demand in urban areas and leverages FUTURES, an urban growth model developed by center researchers.

Honorable Mention was awarded to Nicholas Kruskamp, a doctoral student in Geospatial Analytics co-advised by Ross Meentemeyer and Josh Gray, for his work combining remote sensing and machine learning to improve maps of tree species distributions. Nick is president of the Geospatial Graduate Student Organization and is one of the first students accepted into the center’s new cutting-edge doctoral program in Geospatial Analytics.

Congratulations to all our successful geospatial scholars!