Ph.D. Students
Ph.D. students in Geospatial Analytics are fully funded through graduate assistantships for up to four years and are mentored by advisors in our Faculty Fellows program. Their research spans diverse topics, from monitoring livestock disease outbreaks to predicting urban flooding. Visit our Student Success page to explore their first-author publications and dissertations.
Jenna Abrahamson
- Advisor: Josh Gray
- Research: Developing methods to map inundation changes in forested, coastal wetland ecosystems and assessing the impact of inundation events on biogeochemical processes related to methane emissions
- jnabraha@ncsu.edu
Adam Bloom
- Advisor: Zhen Qu
- Research: Leveraging atmospheric chemistry models, satellite observations, and machine learning to understand air pollutants and greenhouse gases
- abloom@ncsu.edu
Sara Boburka
- Advisor: Bethany Cutts
- Research: Designing tools for professionals within ecological conservation and environmental justice.
- seboburk@ncsu.edu
Randi Butler
- Advisor: Natalie Nelson
- Research: Analyzing satellite remote sensing data to better understand sweet potato production trends and bring in a rich perspective of on-the-ground challenges
- rbutler4@ncsu.edu
Grace Choi
- Advisor: Josh Gray
- Research: Phenology in drylands and the impact of precipitation variability on phenological patterns
- echoi4@ncsu.edu
Rebecca Composto
Rebecca Composto
- Advisor: Mirela Tulbure
- Research: Using satellite imagery and crowdsourced information to study urban flooding
- rcompos@ncsu.edu
Evan Dadson
- Advisor: Chris Jones and Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Modeling the population cycles of invasive species to biotic and abiotic factors using open-source geospatial tools and spatial-temporal statistics
- edadson@ncsu.edu
Jack Deppman
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: The individualized societal impact of climate change, particularly relating to homeownership and personal economics
- jhdeppma@ncsu.edu
Christopher Dunstan
- Co-advisors: Aaron Hipp and Laura Tateosian
- Research: A wide variety of fields, including sports science and AI ethics
- cdunsta@ncsu.edu
Mark Feinberg
- Co-advisors: Ross Meentemeyer and Chris Jones
- Research: Studying invasive plant pests and pathogen species, with an entrepreneurship focus
- mfeinbe@ncsu.edu
Christian Fleming
- Advisor: Gustavo Macahado
- Research: Enhancing livestock disease modeling and biosecurity with geospatial data and technology to support foreign animal disease preparedness and control
- coflemin@ncsu.edu
Louis Goodall
- Advisor: Robert Scheller
- Research: Disturbance ecology and forest management, and intersections between them
- lagoodal@ncsu.edu
Jillian Greene
- Advisor: Natalie Nelson
- Research: Using satellite remote sensing to examine aquatic systems on a large scale to better understand their role in global biogeochemical processes
- jgreene4@ncsu.edu
Caitlin Haedrich
- Advisor: Helena Mitasova
- Research: Developing geospatial tools using GRASS GIS, Tangible Landscape and Jupyter Notebooks to help stakeholders engage with scientific models and support participatory modeling
- chaedri@ncsu.edu
Eli Horner
- Advisor: Chris Jones and Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Using computational mathematics and computational statistics techniques and methods to improve spatial-temporal models, expanding tools within these models to improve their usefulness for stakeholders and accurately capture real-world behavior
- eahorner@ncsu.edu
Gwen Kirschke
- Advisor: Elsa Youngsteadt
- Research: Predicting the distribution of nectar resources across habitat matrices
- gkirsch@ncsu.edu
Brit Laginhas
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Harnessing big geospatial data and advanced modeling for deeper insights and effective solutions to major environmental problems, like the spread of invasive pests and pathogens
- blaginh@ncsu.edu
Rachel Layko
- Advisor: Jelena Vukomanovic
- Research: Examining the role of human-environment interactions in managing protected areas across spatial scales, especially in the context of climate change
- rblayko@ncsu.edu
Margaret Lawrimore
- Co-advisors: Ross Meentemeyer and Georgina Sanchez
- Research: Assessing the social and environmental impacts of land use change and planning
- malawrim@ncsu.edu
Bigyapti Nepal
- Advisor: Bethany Cutts
- Research: Specializing in algal modeling for cyanobacteria to enhance water quality and predict climate change impacts on coastal systems
- bnepal@ncsu.edu
Uchenna Osia
- Advisor: Bethany Cutts
- Research: Working to ensure people are seen as experts in the data they produce rather than digital products, how to put data equity into practice within the context of environmental justice and spatial data
- unosia@ncsu.edu
Christina Perella
- Co-advisors: Adam Terando and Jelena Vukomanovic
- Research: Social and ecological impacts of climate and land-use change, with a focus on understanding tradeoffs between community needs and ecosystem health, and the effectiveness of protected areas and wildlife corridors
- cdperell@ncsu.edu
John Polo
- Co-advisors: Chris Jones and Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: The spread of invasive species, conservation of native species and how movements, both local and long-distance, can contribute to species conservation
- japolo@ncsu.edu
Stacie Reckling
- Advisor: Helena Mitasova
- Research: Geospatial trends and patterns relevant to public health and environmental health
- skreckli@ncsu.edu
Pratikshya Regmi
- Advisor: Helena Mitasova
- Research: Studying impacts of dynamic soil properties on landscape processes using mapping from UAS and geospatial simulations; contributing to the Growing the GRASS GIS Open Source Ecosystem project by extending its educational materials and tutorials with data and applications from her home country of Nepal
- pregmi3@ncsu.edu
Shannon Ricci
- Advisor: Del Bohnenstiehl
- Research: Integrating existing datasets (imagery, acoustics, habitat information, etc.) and developing efficient workflows to improve monitoring and management capabilities for environmentally sensitive marine areas
- swbrown@ncsu.edu
Asumi Saito
- Advisor: Sankar Arumugam
- Research: Synthesizing the satellite data with hydrologic models based on ground observation data to enhance the prediction on water-related extreme events for data-scarce areas
- asaito2@ncsu.edu
Felipe Sanchez
- Advisor: Gustavo Machado
- Research: The intersection between animal, environmental and human health, specifically development of surveillance and monitoring tools and applications.
- fesanche@ncsu.edu
Andrew Shannon
- Advisor: Robert Scheller
- Research: Leveraging modeling and other statistical approaches to interpret ecological and Earth systems data and produce work that informs future-oriented management actions for forest and other natural resources, the impacts of drought and other long-term climate trends on the functions of terrestrial systems and natural lands
- ashanno@ncsu.edu
Owen Smith
- Advisor: Josh Gray
- Research: Researching methods of controllable spatiotemporal degradation, coupled with allowable uncertainty, to synthesize an archive of heterogeneous satellite imagery into an application-specific, lower-dimensional representation
- osmith2@ncsu.edu
Titilayo Tajudeen
- Advisor: Katie Martin
- Research: Examining dynamics in forest hydrologic systems and the impacts of climate on these changes to enhance environmental sustainability
- tttajude@ncsu.edu
Emma Vail
- Advisor: Mirela Tulbure
- Research: Utilizing remote sensing data and surface water modeling to enhance disaster management strategies, particularly for flood monitoring and mitigation across diverse environments
- edvail@ncsu.edu
Kelly van Woesik
- Advisor: Natalie Nelson
- Research: Impacts of tidal flooding from sea-level rise on coastal water quality
- kjvanwoe@ncsu.edu
Keyu Wan
- Advisor: Raju Vatsavai
- Research: Utilizing GeoAI methods to detect forest degradation, track transitions, and assess their impact
- kwan@ncsu.edu
Abby Wiese
- Advisor: Jelena Vukomanovic
- Research: Creating actionable science by using spatio-temporal methods to predict community-based climate change risks.
- awiese2@ncsu.edu
Alexander Yoshizumi
- Advisor: Jelena Vukomanovic
- Research: The intersection of energy, transportation and land use, systems modeling and resiliency planning
- ayoshiz@ncsu.edu
