Celebrating Faculty and Staff Achievements 2019–2020

Despite challenges, this past academic year was once again packed with impressive work by our exemplary faculty and staff at the Center for Geospatial Analytics. Below is a sampling of the achievements of the Center’s faculty fellows, director and associate directors, research associates, staff and postdoctoral scholars since last May. Congratulations to all for your accomplishments!

Awards

• Center Director Ross Meentemeyer was named the Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Geospatial Analytics.
• Facutly Fellow Perver Baran was accepted into the Fall 2019 I-Corps Cohort at NC State.
• Faculty Fellow Aaron Hipp was accepted into the newest cohort of Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.
• Faculty Fellow Ryan Emanuel was honored with the Steve Wing International Environmental Justice Award by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. He was also chosen to serve on the National Science Foundation’s Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering and won a National Humanities Center fellowship.
• Faculty Fellow Katie Martin won the Editor’s Choice Award for a paper she co-authored in Water Resources Research.
• Faculty Fellow Bethany Cutts was a finalist for NC State’s Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Award.
• Faculty Fellow Jelena Vukomanovic was named a 2020 TRELIS Fellow (Training and Retaining Emerging Leaders In STEM) by UCGIS.
• Faculty Fellows Chris Osburn and Robert Scheller were named University Faculty Scholars.
• Center Associate Director of Geovisualization Helena Mitasova received the UCGIS 2020 Research Award.
• Two professional track faculty received promotions: Perver Baran was promoted to Full Teaching Professor and Stacy Supak was promoted to Associate Teaching Professor.
• Faculty Fellow Stacy Nelson won the Center for Geospatial Analytics’ Creativity in Teaching Award.
• Research Software Engineers Vaclav Petras and Anna Petrasova won the Center’s Beacon Award.
• Research Technologist Makiko Shukunobe won the Center’s Gladys West Award.
• Research Scholar Chris Jones, Research Associate Shannon Jones, Research Software Engineers Anna Petrasova and Vaclav Petras and Director Ross Meentemeyer were on the research team that won the Center’s Collaboration & Innovation Award.
• University Program Associate Rachel Kasten was the 2020 SHRA winner of the CNR Award for Excellence in recognition for her dedication to making the Center an inclusive place to work and learn. Kasten also won the CNR Pride of the Wolfpack Award for 2020 and the Center’s Advocate Award.

Popular Press / Speaking Engagements

• Research published by Ph.D. student Devon Gaydos, Research Software Engineer Anna Petrasova and Center Director Ross Meentemeyer was covered by the National Science Foundation’s Research News, Science Daily, and Phys.org.
• Research published by Faculty Fellow Yu-Fai Leung was covered by Phys.org and BGR.
• Associate Director of Spatial Computing and Technology Raju Vatsavai was featured in articles by Inside HPC and ZDNet.
• Research published by Faculty Fellow Dan Obenour was covered by PBS NewsHour and The Weather Channel. Obenour also gave a public talk as part of the NC Museum of Sciences’ Lunchtime Discovery Series. Research he published with Ph.D. student Rohith Matli was covered by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.
• Research published by Faculty Fellow Paul Byrne was covered by NBC News. To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Byrne was interviewed by CBS 17 and gave a public talk at Chapel Hill Public Library. He also wrote an article about studying Venus for The Conversation. Byrne gave a public talk about icy moons at the Museum of Natural Sciences Astronomy Days.
• A research team co-led by Faculty Fellows Perver Baran and Laura Tateosian, along with Ph.D. student Vishnu Mahesh, was featured by StateTech Magazine.
• Faculty Fellow Ryan Emanuel gave a public talk at the NC Art Museum as part of an event sponsored by Science Friday and WUNC. Emanuel was also featured on the AGU Ecohydrology blog.
• Research associate Justyna Jeziorska spoke to the sixth grade robotics team about drones at the Triangle Math and Science Academy in Cary.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Josh Gray was covered by Phys.org and Express News (UK).
• Research published by Faculty Fellow Aaron Hipp was covered by Stanford Medicine News.
• Faculty Fellow Bill Rand was a panelist for the PNC Thought Leadership Series: How to Use Data for Decision Making.
• Work by Faculty Fellow Sandra Yuter and Ph.D. student Laura Tomkins supporting mission science and forecasting for NASA winter storm data collection was featured by the NASA Earth Expeditions blog.