Professor Ackert conducts research in the areas of population geography, immigration, health geography, and urban geography using quantitative social science research methods.
My position will be making scientific and scholarly contributions to CHC’s research efforts, including the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), while helping to expand recognition of the Center’s achievements, data sets, and services within the professional and scientific community.
My research interests lie at the intersection of Urban-Human Mobility Analytics, Transportation Geography, Movement Analysis and Modeling and Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI)
My research focuses on utilizing remote sensing techniques to identify ecohydrological stress indicators across water-stressed dryland landscapes. I am interested in understanding how climate change induced stress regimes affect plant adaptability and species composition change in these ecosystems.
As a biogeomorphologist, Dr. Baxter is interested in understanding how plants and animals help shape landforms and landscapes. Dr. Baxter's previous research has explored biophysical processes on natural rock and artificial structures (including heritage assets) in coastal environments as well as the socio-cultural implications of these interactions and feedbacks. Currently, Dr. Baxter is working on a project led by Dr. Ian Walker (Geography, UCSB) and co-PI's Jenny Dugan (Marine Science Institute, UCSB), and Laura Engeman (UCSD, SIO) to study how coastal dune restoration could be used as a nature-based solution to enhance the resilience of California’s beaches to climate change.
My research is centered on the application of remote sensing techniques to investigate the effects of drought on different tree species within both natural and urban forest environments.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
My research will focus on the spatial distributions and residential decisions of queer parents and how they create a sense of place in new environments.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
My research focus is susceptibility to landslides triggered by rainfall in wildfire settings. Interested in climate change, landslide susceptibility and hazard, data analysis, remote sensing
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
4807 Ellison Hall
Research interests include pedology, soil geomorphology, soil geochemistry, quaternary geology, organic and mineral fluxes during soil, atmosphere, water and vegetation interaction.
I enjoy investigating social practical issues through spatial data. Additionally, I am interested in exploring geographical information gathering, especially in developing regions, and spatial approaches to analyze impacts on residential areas.
Currently, his interests are in China's role in shaping the global green economy and the spread of Chinese planning expertise through its international development activities.
My research interests lie in sustainable urban system with a special focus on active transportation. Currently I am working with multiple bikeability score and bike safety datasets, trying to understand how we can contribute to a safer and more equitable urban biking environment by leveraging big data.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
5804 Ellison Hall
I specialize in the analysis of problems defined over space and time, including logistics and transportation, location theory, water resource systems, and urban and environmental systems using and developing new techniques in Operations Research, GIS, Decision Theory, and Heuristics.
Professor Emeritus Research Professor (GEOG & ENST)
My current research focus is evaluating the potential for diet change and local food systems for solving the health, environmental/climate, and equity crises.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
I'm interested in coastal science, focusing on how beaches, dunes, and marine life interact. I explore how processes like erosion and accretion shape these environments and examine the impact of rising sea levels on coastal changes and ecosystem adaptation.
Diyang Cui is a postdoc working with Dr. Amy Frazier. She is involved in the NSF-funded project BioFI: Biodiversity Forecasting Initiative to Understand Population, Community and Ecosystem Function under Climate Change. She is interested in global change biology, conservation biogeography, and remote sensing. Her research involves using climate and species data and integrating geospatial analyses and modeling tools, to understand and predict biodiversity patterns and inform conservation under climate change.
Barnali works with satellite-derived biophysical parameters like Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) for crop yield prediction in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her work also encompasses how these biophysical variables can predict crop disease and pest-like locusts' impact on crop yield.
In my research in the Trugman Lab at UCSB's Geography Department, I seek to explore the ways in which changing climatic baselines, evolving land use patterns, and altered disturbance regimes affect landscape resilience in complex coupled human-natural systems.
The Ocean Circulation and Biogeochemistry lab works to understand the physical, chemical, and biological processes controlling the Earth's climate through the exchange of heat and carbon between the ocean and atmosphere.
Interdisciplinary ocean research topics have included: bio-optics, biogeochemistry, hurricanes, ocean eddies, and monsoons plus medical research concerning the use of scent detection dogs for COVID-19 screening.
My research focuses on developing data analytics, knowledge discovery, modeling, simulation, and visualization techniques to study movement and spatiotemporal processes.
Spatial modeling, geocomputation, and big data integration as applied to human dynamics and social equity issues including healthy food access and disease vulnerability.
Help Desk Manager Windows Systems Administrator
1709 Ellison Hall
Helps administer department Windows servers and manages all the instructional spaces. Also manages the desktop support for the staff, faculty, and graduate students in the department.
Tuo (Tony) Feng is a postdoc scholar advised by Prof. Dar Roberts. He is broadly interested in integrating multi-sourced remote sensing dataset to analyze spatial-temporal patterns of forest ecosystem under the changing climate and disturbance regimes. He is currently involved in the Wildfire Resilience Initiative project, and working on multi-decadal fire risk assessments over the Southern California.
Infectious Diseases Physician/Adjunct Assistant Professor
5813 Ellison Hall
Clinical and public health aspects of Infectious Diseases, with a particular interest in HIV medicine, STDs and SARS-CoV2, as well as many non-infectious but affiliated clinical conditions affecting vulnerable populations including substance use disorders.
My research sits at the nexus of landscape ecology, remote sensing, and GIScience to develop the data and methods needed to advance conservation science and decision-making.
Purchasing, Travel & Student Programs Assistant
1837 Ellison Hall
Oversees the following items: miscellaneous reimbursements, travel reimbursements, purchasing, textbooks, newsletters, spatial minor advising, student workshops, social media.
I am an analytic cartographer, with special interests in gazetteers, topographical and geological maps. What is the first thing people recognize on a map? Text. What kind of map downplays text the most? Geological.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
Corbin Hodges is broadly interested in researching the causes of poverty and ways in which to sustainably improve human well-being and conducts his research in two distinct populations.
Time-geography of cities, the role of space-adjusting technologies in structuring new patterns of social and economic organization, and locational conflict analysis.
Research interests are in precipitation variability, extreme events, weather forecasts, predictability studies, regional modeling, monsoon systems, climate change and wildfires in California.
Academic Personnel & Space Management Analyst
1836 Ellison Hall
Responsible for all faculty appointments (including affiliated, adjunct, and emeriti), research merit cases, Department safety representative (DSR), and office and lab space coordinator.
Research interests include large scale atmosphere - ocean interaction, polar climate variability, ocean heat content, and its interaction with biosphere.
My research focuses on the impact of human interference and land-use change on the movement behavior of tigers and leopards in Thailand, assisted with spatial data science and spatiotemporal modelling.
Livia studies how policies like sanctions and regulations impact deforestation and people in tropical forests. She explores their broader effects on supply chains, trade, and smallholder farmers using mixed methods.
Cognitive & behavioral geography, firefighter navigation, fire service culture & training practices, the cultural landscape, health geography, geographic education.
I study the atmospheric systems and climatic modes on the variability of climate extremes. Research interests are climate extremes, precipitation, land-atmosphere feedbacks, hydrologic processes and geostatistical analysis.
I am a political scientist with research in political geography, local politics, and the politics of housing and transportation. My latest work examines how people understand the economic effects of housing construction in their neighborhoods and metropolitan areas.
Professor Department Chair Jack and Laura Dangermond Chair of Geography
4803 Ellison Hall
As a researcher, Dr. Nelson and her team develop and apply spatial and spatial-temporal analyses to address applied questions in a wide range of fields from ecology to health.
I am particularly interested in understanding the behavior of extreme weather and climate conditions such as flood and drought, as they influence food production in Tropics and Mediterranean region.
I'm interested in different conceptions of the environment, specifically the tensions between environmental policy and Indigenous geographies. I also research how social movements assert land rights and environmental justice.
My training is in Remote Sensing, applied to fire science in chaparral. I've also looked at oil spills, thermal IR data, and currently I'm studying crop area of subsistence farms in Sub-Saharan Africa.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
Multi-scale wildfire risk mitigation planning and implementation; holistic, community-driven disaster risk resiliency planning; GIS; fire engineering; spatial statistics and optimization;
performance of structures and critical infrastructure to extreme fire loads
Responsible for financial administration for departmental, gift, and extramural awards; monthly reconciliation and statement production; interdepartmental and intercampus recharges; transfer of funds, subcontracts and PSA payments.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
I work in the field of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) for stormwater management (operations and practices) that protect, restore, or mimic the natural water cycle.
Hyperspectral and LiDAR remote sensing applications for fire ecology to investigate the impact of heterogeneous fire fuel characterizations on consumption and source emissions estimates.
I study of the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
Shrad is a large-scale hydrologist with expertise in drought monitoring, and seasonal scale climate and drought forecasting. His research focuses on improving drought monitoring and early warning capabilities.
Physical and optical oceanography, physical/ecological coupling, ocean biogeochemistry, and spatial ecology via ship and remote observations and numerical modeling.
Coastal Wetland Ecology, Wetland Soil Salinity and Biogeochemistry, Landscape Response to Environmental Change, Wetland Restoration and Monitoring, Equitable Data Use, Reproducible Data Science
I study segregation in school systems. I am interested in the processes of residential and school segregation and how these dynamics feed into each other. My research is about the use of spatial data analytics to investigate how segregation impacts students and cities.
Remote sensing-based flux measurements of terrestrial materials in the inner shelf. Method development to infer water movement throughout the water column using low-altitude aerial vehicles.
Problems associated with poverty and interregional differences in development trajectories. These interests are manifest in, and interact with, aspects of demography (fertility, family formation, migration), health (morbidity), livelihood (especially agriculturists), and gender.
I look at how plants, water, climate, and people interact - from the scale of a tree to watersheds. I do this by combining multiple sources of data with earth system models - that my group designs and applies. Eco-hydrology meets Eco-Informatics.
I am interested in Applied GIS, Remote Sensing, Drone Mapping, Social-Ecological Systems, Spatial Analysis and Modelling, Cartography and Geovisualization
My doctoral research focuses on investigating the impacts of extreme weather events on agriculture, and human and economic development in India using spatial data science, machine learning and econometrics.
Will works with the UCSB Climate Hazards Center to study the impact of weather and climate on food security in developing countries. He specializes in the production and enhancement of remotely sensed products for use in famine early warning systems.
My research focuses on understanding movement behaviors of animals and humans, and their interactions with the environment, using machine learning/deep learning, spatial data science, and spatiotemporal modelling.
My study and research are all basically around GIS and urban mobility, I am interested in analysing people’s travel behaviour in the cities and trying to figure out why they make the choices and how the built environment plays a role in it. One of my favourite research topics is social/spatial injustice.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
I'm interested in integrating field investigation, remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and modeling tools to promote invasive species control and biodiversity conservation.
Wenxin Yang is a PhD student working on landscape ecology and biodiversity conservation. Her research interests are leveraging geospatial analytics for biodiversity conservation and open spatial data science.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
I work at the intersection of climate extremes, such as wildfires, and the related societal and health risks faced by marginalized populations. My research particularly focuses on how the relocation decisions and overall health risks of coastal migrant communities are evolving with the increasing frequency of wildfires.
I study the interaction between people and their environments, and analyze the spatial characteristics of all manner of cultural, economic, political, and physical processes and their relationships.
I am currently working on the Wildfire Research Initiative and exploring the spatial patterns of fire risk probability and evacuation strategies in Santa Barbara and California. My personal research emphasis is on the explaining the spatial distribution of political orientation and public health outcomes in US.
