Graduate Students
Graduate students funded by assistantships through the Center for Geospatial Analytics enjoy office space in the center and contribute invaluably to its cutting-edge research programs.
Current Students
Jenna Abrahamson
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Randi Butler
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Josh Gray
- Research: Phenology in drylands and the impact of precipitation variability on phenological patterns
- echoi4@ncsu.edu
Rebecca Composto
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Mirela Tulbure
- Research: Using satellite imagery and crowdsourced information to study urban flooding
- rcompos@ncsu.edu
Evan Dadson
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: The individualized societal impact of climate change, particularly relating to homeownership and personal economics
- jhdeppma@ncsu.edu
Christopher Dunstan
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Co-advisors: Aaron Hipp and Laura Tateosian
- Research: A wide variety of fields, including sports science and AI ethics
- cdunsta@ncsu.edu
Mark Feinberg
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer & Chris Jones
- Research: Studying invasive plant pests and pathogen species, with an entrepreneurship focus
- mfeinbe@ncsu.edu
Christian Fleming
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Robert Scheller
- Research: Disturbance ecology and forest management, and intersections between them
- lagoodal@ncsu.edu
Isabel Gutierrez
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Aaron Hipp
- Research: Evaluating the sustainability of golf courses and greenspaces
- igutier2@ncsu.edu
Caitlin Haedrich
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Jamie Huerta
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Chris Osburn
- Research: Estuarine biogeochemical processes and how they relate to climate change, anthropocentric pollution and spatiotemporal trends
- jhuerta@ncsu.edu
Gwen Kirschke
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Elsa Youngsteadt
- Research: Predicting the distribution of nectar resources across habitat matrices
- gkirsch@ncsu.edu
Brit Laginhas
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Assessing the social and environmental impacts of land use change and planning
- malawrim@ncsu.edu
Martine Mathieu
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Jennifer Richmond-Bryant
- Research: Spatial statistics, spatial and temporal modeling approaches, sociotechnical systems, and applying these tools to assess air pollution exposure, extreme weather events and health effects estimation
- mmathie@ncsu.edu
Bigyapti Nepal
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Dan Obenour and Bethany Cutts
- Research: Specializing in algal modeling for cyanobacteria to enhance water quality and predict climate change impacts on coastal systems
- bnepal@ncsu.edu
Erin O’Connell
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Co-advisors: Chris Jones and Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Modeling high-risk areas for biological invasions and training machine-learning algorithms to look for host vegetation species
- eoconne@ncsu.edu
Uchenna Osia
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Deja Perkins
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Caren Cooper
- Research: Identifying spatial patterns in citizen science participation to engage underserved communities in environmental monitoring
- djperkin@ncsu.edu
John Polo
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Helena Mitasova
- Research: Geospatial trends and patterns relevant to public health and environmental health
- skreckli@ncsu.edu
Pratikshya Regmi
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Ariel Saffer
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Understanding and forecasting the global spread of plant pests and pathogens
- asaffer@ncsu.edu
Asumi Saito
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Varun Tiwari
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Mirela Tulbure
- Research: Quantifying methane emissions for paddy rice fields using machine learning methods
- vtiwari@ncsu.edu
Emma Vail
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- 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
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Natalie Nelson
- Research: Impacts of tidal flooding from sea-level rise on coastal water quality
- kjvanwoe@ncsu.edu
Keyu Wan
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Raju Vatsavai
- Research: Utilizing GeoAI methods to detect forest degradation, track transitions, and assess their impact
- kwan@ncsu.edu
Thom Worm
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Ross Meentemeyer
- Research: Examining human-driven changes in landscapes and forecasting ecological change in a growing world
- tworm@ncsu.edu
Alexander Yoshizumi
Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student
- Advisor: Jelena Vukomanovic
- Research: The intersection of energy, transportation and land use, systems modeling and resiliency planning
- ayoshiz@ncsu.edu
