Areas of Research

The department offers research graduate training leading to the Ph.D. degree in the following areas of research specialization:

Earth System Science (ESS)

Measurements, analysis, and modeling of hydrologic, atmospheric, cryospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial systems, as well as the interactions between systems.

Human Geography (HG)

Measurements, analysis, and modeling of human activity, culture, and society, including human spatial behavior and cognition; spatial decision-making and decision support; urban and regional modeling, planning, and policy; human movement and transportation systems; resource and environmental management; population; human-environment relations; and health geography.

Modeling, Measurement, and Computation (MMS)

Techniques, including analysis, statistics, and computation that are particularly well-suited to the modeling of the complex geographic phenomena. Important sub-areas include numerical modeling, spatial statistics, remote sensing, computational modeling and database systems (including geographic information systems), and cartography and visualization.