Graduate Students

Our students are bright, success-oriented achievers who bring a broad mixture of skills, experiences, and interests. Some begin with little or no background in GIS. Others are already working in the field. MGIS students have undergraduate degrees from a variety of disciplinary areas including the humanities, social sciences, and natural/physical sciences. Some of our students founded the GIS Student Organization (GISSO), which sponsors a GIS Day event in the fall and a job and career fair in the spring.

Andrew Arlt

Andrew Arlt

Specialties

Habitat restoration and mitigation; Climate change

Carson Backhus headshot

Carson Backhus

she/her/hers

Specialties

GIS and history; Spatial digital humanities

Picture of Emily with a wall of colorful flowers as the backdrop

Emily K. Bender

she/her/hers

Specialties

Remote Sensing; Python; ArcGIS Pro & ArcGIS Online

Profile Picture of Laure Briol

Laure Briol

Specialties

Geospatial Transportation Modeling; Geovisualization and Design; Spatial Data Science and Optimization

Shana Crosson smiling with a bright sunny blue sky and water in the background

Shana Crosson

she/her/hers

Specialties

GIS education using geospatial technology

Photo of me in front of a small California fan palm

Max Forsman

he/him/his

Specialties

GIS; Botanical Ecology; Wetland Science; Ecological Restoration; Environmental Permitting

Profile Photo of Logan Gall

Logan Gall

Specialties

Spatial Data Science; Data Engineering; Hardware Sensors & Devices; Statistics

Image of Gunderson

Ellie Gunderson

she/her/hers

Specialties

Mathematical Modeling; Numerical Analysis; Differential Equations

A picture of me at the Toronto Zoo

Raymond Hagenswold

he/him/his

Specialties

GIS applications of wildlife management; Remote sensing

Amanda in front of a glacier in Grindelwald, Switzerland

Amanda Hoffman

she/her/hers

Specialties

Environmental geospatial analysis; Climate change; Data-driven decision-making; Sustainability

Samish Bay, WA

Ziliang Jin

Specialties

GIS; Horticulture science; HAZMAT

Image

Timothy Johnson

he/him/his

Specialties

Transportation GIS; Spatial data science

person standing outside

Izzy Keefe

she/her/hers

Specialties

Natural resources applications of GIS

Headshot

Greg Kohler

he/him/his

Specialties

Transportation; GIS; Python

Ben Landers Headshot

Ben Landers

he/him/his

Specialties

Environmental Science, Geoscience, Data Visualization, Geospatial Modeling

A photo of a white man with brown hair. He is wearing a green shirt and is in front of university buildings.

Kyle Olson

he/him/his

Specialties

Spatial analysis and modeling; Spatial data science

A picture of a person in an orange shirt smiling at the camera in a snowy forest. An older black dog sits next to him and is looking past the camera.

Evan Rock

he/him/his

Specialties

Geospatial analysis and modeling; Science education

Aleksei Rozanov

Aleksei Rosanov

Specialties

Machine Learning; Data Science; Remote Sensing; Geospatial Data

Leah standing next to her horse.

Leah Rumon

she/her/hers

Specialties

GIS for Local Government; Visualization & Cartography; Asset Management; Public Works Infrastructure

Performing fuel management for prescribed burns in southern Minnesota with the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Lucy Sageser

she/her/hers

Specialties

GIS, Public Lands Management, Habitat Restoration, Prescribed Burn and Wildfire Management

Nicole Schiller, with brown hair and wearing a black shirt

Nicole Schiller

she/her/hers

Specialties

GIS applications for polar science, earth science and oceanography

Hiking in the North Dakota Badlands

Eli Schlossberg

he/him/his

Specialties

Remote sensing applications of conservation; Polar regions

Kyle in winter at the bus stop at UMN West Bank

Kyle Smith

he/him/his

Specialties

Spatial Analysis for Urban Planning; Storytelling with GIS; Data Visualization & Decision-Making Support; Placemaking and Land Use

Headshot of a smiling woman with brown hair and a black shirt.

Cleo Young

she/her/hers & they/them/theirs

Specialties

Remote sensing; Climate change; Water resource management; Science communication