Geography & Environmental Studies

MSC 01 1110
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131

Physical Location:
Bandelier West & East

Phone: (505)277-5041
Fax: (505)277-3614

Graduate Students

Current Graduate Students

Akashia Allen 

Track: GIScience

Undergrad degree: BA in Biology, Colorado College

Academic Interests: Remote Sensing of Vegetation Patterns

Michael Ayala 

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree:Agricultural engineer (Universidad Central, Ecuador); MS Environmental Education for Sustainability (Griffith University, Australia)

Academic Interests: Participatory catchment management plans. Environmental education for sustainable development.

Natali Caceres Arteaga

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: Environmental Engineer (SEK International University), BA Management for Local Sustainable Development (Polytechnic University), Higher Diploma in Ecological Economics (FLACSO Ecuador), Master in Enviro

Courtney Brock

Track: GIScience

Undergrad degree: BS in Psychology, Minor in Evolutionary Anthropology

Academic Interests: spatial reasoning, cognitive mapping, and neural differences between species translating to variances in spatial awareness.

Bill Brown

TRACK: Geographic Information Systems, Thesis Track

DEGREES: I have two undergraduate degrees in History and Anthropology from the University of Alabama and a Master’s of Arts in Anthropology (concentration: Archaeology) from UNM

ACADEMIC INTERESTS: I’ve been a professional archaeologist since 1985 and understanding the creation of cultural landscapes (e.g., settlement patterns, creation of urban public space to justify social inequality, and mapping of sites in general) are critical to understanding prehistoric communities.  My goals are to develop the technical skills for mapping (GIS) as well as enhancing my understanding of cultural space in landscapes and urban environments.

Susanna Diller

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: Geography and GIS Certificate

Academic Interests: the ways in which water is used as a symbol of affluence, particularly in arid or semi-arid climates

Ursula Freire

 Track: PhD in Latin American Studies with concentrations in architecture and geography

Undergrad degree: Architect

Academic interests: Architecture and climate

Hayley Hajic
Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: Bachelors in Biology; Minor in Environmental Science, Grinnell College

Academic Interests: climate, environmental security, and natural disasters

 Hawk, Anjanette

 Track: GIScience

Undergrad degree: BS Anthropology-Archaeology, Minor Geography, UNM  

Academic Interests: Remote Sensing, GIS, Landcover Change, Landsat Imagery, Navajo Reservation

Jordy Hicks

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: BA Education (Secondary)

Academic Interests: Recreation Ecology, Public Land Management, National Parks, BIogeography, Urban Ecology

Kristen Long 

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: BA in Political Science from the University of New Mexico

Academic InterestsUrban Geography, Planning, Land Use Management, Water Resource Management, and Natural Resource Management

 Hanes Mottsinger

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: Anthropology; Exercise Science   

Prior Grad degree: MA Anthropology of International Development

Academic Interests: Agroecology, Reciprocity and Resilience, Actor-network theory, Remote sensing, Cartography and GIS

 Elicia Ramirez

Track: GIScience

Undergrad Degree: B.S. in Environmental Science, Minor in GIS

Acedemic Interests: Geomorphology, pedology, and climatology

Aaron Russell

Track:Environmental studies

Undergrad degree:BS in Environmental Science and BA in Political Science from UNM

Academic Interests:Accounting of carbon fluctuation in international treaties, city-scale policy concerning land-use and land-use change, and environmental and conflict driven migration

Sagert Sheets

Track:GIScience

Undergrad degree:BA English

Academic Interests:Applications of GIS to issues of food and/or health, as well the cartographic outputs of such applications

Jesse Sprauge

Track:GIScience

Education: M.S. (in progress) in Geographic Information Science (GIS) concurrently enrolled in the Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) certificate program through UNM's Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) B.S. in Earth and Planetary Science (Geology) from UNM 2013

Research Interests:Remote Sensing, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and hyper-spatial resolution image processing. Sensor calibration, data transmission, and real-time modeling CUDA GPU acceleration and parallelization of image processing algorithms including Structure from Motion (SfM) and Deep Belief Nets (DBN) for image analysis and classification. Computational Science and Engineering applications for remote sensing and Geographic Information Science

Jordan Stone

Track:Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree:Religious Studies

Academic Interests:Land use strategies, land restoration, environmental psychology, environmental education

Zach Taraschi

Track: GIScience

Undergrad degree: B.S. Geography, New Mexico State University

 Academic Interests: Water Resources, Fire Ecology, Rapid Land Cover Change, Remote Sensing, Object-Based Image Analysis, Applied GIS, Flash Flood/Mass Wasting, and Corgis 

Tammira Taylor

Track: GIScience

Undergrad degree: Geography and Environmental Studies, Minor in Sustainability Studies, UNM

Academic Interests: Remote Sensing and GIS, Emergency Management, Natural Hazards/Disasters, Sustainability, UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems), Wild land/Urban Interface

Sam Thompson

Track: GIScience

Undergrad degree: BS Economics, Texas Christian University

Academic Interests: Hedonic Pricing, Geography of Crime, GIScience

Jacob Wolff  

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: B.A. Geography and History, University of Pittsburgh

Academic Interests: Student neighborhoods and spatial dimensions of change in and around urban institutions of higher education

Jeremy Work  

Track: Environmental Studies

Undergrad degree: English and American Studies

Academic Interests: Race, culture, urban geography, geographic theory, and homelessness Quirky facts: fascinated by social contradictions

Gladys Valentin 

Track: GIScience

Undergrad Degree: B.A. in Geography, University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras, with emphasis in Physical & Environmental Geography and Technological Applications

Academic Interests: GIS, Remote Sensing, change detection, spatial statistical analysis, natural hazards (wildfires, mass wasting and atmospheric events), physical geography of island environments, coastal geomorphology and granulometry, watershed dynamics