Faculty
The University of Minnesota's MGIS program features distinguished faculty from a variety of disciplines across different colleges, including geography; forest resources; computer science; urban affairs; and soil, water, and climate. Faculty research interests and applied GIS expertise include:
- Spatial analysis, modeling, and statistics
- Spatial data science, cyber GIS, data mining, and AI/machine learning
- Web GIS and services, including open source
- GIS development
- Geovisualization and cartography
- Urban and regional planning and analysis
- Digital remote sensing/drones for mapping and monitoring the environment
- Water resources management, ecology, and biogeography
- GIS and society
| Name | Contact | Specialty |
|---|---|---|
| Chad Babcock Assistant Professor Department of Forest Resources College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences |
cbabcock@umn.edu | Remote sensing, forest inventory, geospatial analysis, Bayesian statistics |
| Jay Bell Professor Department of Soil, Water, and Climate College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences |
bellx007@umn.edu | Applications of GIScience for pedology and land assessment, digital terrain analysis, soil-landscape modeling |
| Yao-Yi Chiang Associate Professor Department of Computer Science College of Science and Engineering |
yaoyi@umn.edu | Spatial data science and machine learning, spatial artificial intelligence |
| Emily Fairfax Assistant Professor Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
efairfax@umn.edu | Beaver ecology, ecohydrology, remote sensing and drones, wildlife ecology and management, climate change, ecosystem engineering |
| Yingling Fan Professor Department of Urban and Regional Planning Humphrey School of Public Affairs |
yingling@umn.edu | Transportation, web mapping, spatial visualization, community engagement, and equity analyses |
| Brian Fischer Vice President Senior GIS Project Manager Houston Engineer |
fisc0247@umn.edu | Web mapping and services |
| Kathryn Grace Professor Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
612-625-4026 klgrace@umn.edu |
Spatial analysis and statistics, health, demography, food insecurity and population-environment interactions |
| Catherine Hansen GIS Support Specialist MN.IT Services Minnesota Department of Natural Resources |
612-301-3932 hansen.catherine@comcast.net |
GIS education, business GIS, spatial analysis |
| Justin Hansen Director of GIS Services WSB & Associates |
612-624-1498 hanse893@umn.edu |
Web GIS and services, GIS project management, solutions design |
| David Haynes II Assistant Professor Institute for Health Informatics, Medical School |
612-624-5818 dahaynes@umn.edu |
GIS and big data, spatial analysis, high-performance computing, health and population geography, geospatial data visualization |
| Andrew Jenks Teaching Specialist Department of Forest Resources College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences |
612-624-5317 ajenks@umn.edu |
GIS and forest resource management, GPS |
| Alireza Khani Associate Professor Department of Civil, Environmental & Geo-Engineering College of Science and Engineering |
akhani@umn.edu | Transportation networks, modeling the impacts of emerging technologies on public transit systems, and spatio-temporal travel behavior |
| Len Kne Director, Twin Cities U-Spatial |
612-624-7591 lenkne@umn.edu |
Web mapping, spatial database management, and administration |
| Geoffrey Maas Senior Geospatial Analyst Ramsey County |
maas0021@umn.edu | GIS applications in urban planning, project management, information policy and design, cartography and visualization |
| Steven Manson Professor Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
612-625-4577 manson@umn.edu |
Agent-based spatial modeling, spatial statistics, and analysis |
| Jeff Matson GIS Program Manager Center for Urban and Regional Affairs |
612-625-0081 jmatson@umn.edu |
Community-based GIS, urban GIS |
| Ryan Mattke Head John R. Borchert Map Library |
612-624-5757 matt0089@umn.edu |
Spatial digital humanities, libraries, and technology |
| Robert McMaster Professor Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
612-626-9425 mcmaster@umn.edu |
Digital cartography and spatial analysis, environmental risk assessment, GIS and society |
| Susanna McMaster Co-Director, MGIS Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
612-624-1498 mcmas002@umn.edu |
Environmental applications of GIScience, data quality and uncertainty, professional GIScience education |
| Laura Musacchio Associate Professor Department of Landscape Architecture College of Design |
musac003@umn.edu | Geodesign, sustainable urban spaces and design, green space systems |
| Ganapathy Narayanaraj Lecturer Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
|
Integrating field ecology and geospatial technologies to address natural resource conservation and management problems; landscape ecology; human-environment interactions |
| Bryan Runck Geocomputing Scientist GEMS Agroinformatics Initiative College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences |
runck014@umn.edu | Geospatial simulation and modeling, spatial artificial intelligence and machine learning, real-time GIS and Internet of things, GIScience applications to food, agriculture, and natural resource sciences |
| Vasudha Sharma Assistant Extension Professor Department of Soil, Water, and Climate College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences |
vasudha@umn.edu | Irrigation water management, water and nitrogen fertilizer interactions, crop evapotranspiration, soil-water dynamics, variable-rate irrigation and cover-crop water management |
| Shashi Shekhar Professor Department of Computer Science College of Science and Engineering |
612-624-8307 shekhar@umn.edu |
Spatial databases, data and knowledge engineering, spatial data mining |
| Eric Shook Associate Professor Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
612-625-5970 eshook@umn.edu |
CyberGIS, or the study of high-performance computing and GISc, use of large spatial data sets and high-performance computing to engage in innovative spatial analysis and visualization approaches |
| Ying Song Associate Professor Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts |
612-625-2056 yingsong@umn.edu |
Time geography, spatio-temporal modeling and analysis, and transportation geography |
| Stacey Stark Associate Director, Duluth U-Spatial |
slstark@umn.edu | Hazard mitigation planning, project management, K-12 geospatial education |
| Dan Sward Senior GIS Manager University Services |
612-624-2110 sward001@umn.edu |
GIS project management, facilities management |
| Peter Wiringa Geospatial Operations Manager U-Spatial |
wiringa@umn.edu | GIS development, web mapping, and spatial databases |
| Di Zhu Assistant Professor Department of Geography |
612-206-6873 dizhu@umn.edu |
Geospatial AI, big geo-data social sensing, spatial prediction models and networks, deep learning, complexity theory, and urban GIS applications |