Celebrating Faculty and Staff Achievements 2021–2022

This past academic year was once again packed with impressive work by our 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 and scholars, staff and postdoctoral scholars since last July. Congratulations to all for your accomplishments!

Awards/Honors

• Science Communicator Megan Skrip won Second Place in the Institutional Division of the SCONC (Science Communicators of North Carolina) Science Communication Contest.
• Faculty Fellow Jennifer Richmond-Bryant was appointed to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Air Pollution and Health (GAPH) Technical Advisory Group (TAG).
• Faculty Fellow Adam Terando was named Federal Coordinating Lead of the Earth System Processes Chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
• Assistant Teaching Professor Vaishnavi Thakar received a DELTA Course Design Grant for GIS 550: Geospatial Data Structures and Web Services.
• Research Associate Justyna Jeziorska was named a finalist of the Women and Drones 2021 Women to Watch in UAS Global Awards
• Associate Director Eric Money won the Center’s Advocate Award.
• Research Associate Georgina Sanchez and Research Scholar Chelsey Walden-Shreiner each won the Center’s Beacon Award.
• Faculty Fellow Josh Gray led the team that won the Center’s Collaboration & Innovation Award. He was also promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
• Faculty Fellow Perver Baran won the Center’s Creativity in Teaching Award.
• Assistant Director Zac Arcaro won the Center’s Gladys West Award.

Popular Press

• Research by Research Associate Lindsey Smart, Faculty Fellow Jelena Vukomanovic, postdoctoral scholar Kunwar Singh, Associate Director of Earth and Environmental Sciences Applications Helena Mitasova and Director Ross Meentemeyer was covered by Coastal Review Online.
• An article co-authored by Associate Director of Social and Behavioral Science Applications Aaron Hipp appeared on The Conversation. Upcoming research by Hipp was also featured in a KABOOM! press release, and his published research was covered by Planetizen, Medical Xpress, and WRAL TechWire.
• Faculty Fellow Jennifer Richmond-Bryant was quoted by The Washington Post about air quality affected by summer wildfires.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Bill Rand was featured in NC State Alumni Magazine.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Chris Osburn was covered by Coastal Review Online.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Emily Berglund was covered by The Charlotte Observer.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Natalie Nelson was covered by National Hog Farmer.
• Research by Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student Elyssa Collins, Research Associate Georgina Sanchez, Faculty Fellow Adam Terando, Associate Director Helena Mitasova, and Director Ross Meentemeyer was covered by The News & Observer, WUNC Public Radio, WNCT (CBS 9 Greenvile, NC), CBS 17 (Raleigh, NC), Mirage News, Futurity, OBX Today, Law 360 and the Association of Flood Plain Mappers.
• Research by Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student Katie McQuillan, Faculty Fellow Mirela Tulbure, and Faculty Fellow Katie Martin was covered by Verve Times, Science Daily, Futurity, and Nature World News.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Gustavo Machado was covered by National Hog Farmer.
• Research by Faculty Fellow Katie Martin was covered by WHQR Public Media (Wilmington, NC).
• Research by Research Scholar Chris Jones, Science Communicator Megan Skrip, Postdoctoral Scholar Ben Seliger, Research Associate Shannon Jones, Software Engineers Vaclav Petras and Anna Petrasova and Director Ross Meentemeyer was covered by NBC News, WRAL, Futurity, Yahoo News, The Hill, CNET, Patch.com, The Sacramento Bee, Nature World News and USA Today.