We are pleased to welcome Professor Alan Murray to the Department of Geography. He previously held academic appointments at Drexel University, Arizona State University and Ohio State University. He is an editor of International Regional Science Review, and is associate editor for Socio-Economic Planning Sciences and Annals of the Association of American Geographers. His research and teaching interests include: geographic information science; land use planning; urban, regional, and natural resource planning and development; quantitative methods; infrastructure and transportation systems; spatial optimization; location modeling; databases and data structures; spatial representation; and techniques to support interactive planning and decision making. He is the author of two books and over 200 research articles, book chapters and proceedings papers.
Alan received his PhD in geography, MS in statistics and applied probability, and BS in mathematics, all from UCSB. After twenty years away, Alan is happy to be back in Santa Barbara, along with his wife, Patty, and children Ryan and Natalie. More on Patty below. Ryan is a sophomore at Arizona State University. Natalie is in 4th grade at Hope Elementary. Outside of work, Alan enjoys working out, skiing, and coaching his kids’ youth sports teams, including lacrosse, football, baseball and basketball.
We also welcome Patty Murray to our Department of Geography Staff.
She is the Student Programs Assistant, and provides assistance with coordination of both graduate and undergraduate student programs for the department, as well as provides administrative and editing support as needed.
Patty earned her BA from UC Santa Barbara in Sociology. She is happy to be back on the UCSB campus, along with her husband Alan, and children, Ryan and Natalie. Originally from Glendale, CA, Patty is embracing the west coast lifestyle and climate once again. She enjoys cooking, baking, reading, and not shoveling snow! She is currently training for a bicycle tour through Tuscany this fall.
