Research
Research is where geography stops being a lecture and starts being yours – and here, undergraduates and graduate students both get their hands on it.
The Department of Geographic & Environmental Sciences offers numerous opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in graduate student or faculty-led research. Every senior undergraduate student will even engage in a research thesis project with a faculty mentor. Beyond that, many of our faculty are distinguished grant recipients, working on important interdisciplinary projects that are making a difference in our local and regional communities today. A sample of where our faculty work:
- Environmental Sciences – Climate variability and change, dendrochronology, water resources, land system change and natural hazards, with faculty including Day, Gaughan and Rochner.
- Meteorology – Severe weather and hazards, radar and satellite technology, instrumentation, forecasting and synoptic and mesoscale meteorology, with faculty including Gunter and Naylor.
- Urban Analytics – Crime mapping and analysis, population and demographic modeling, racial and ethnic segregation, transportation and urban economic geography, with faculty including Song and Zhang.
- Human and Cultural Dynamics – Geopolitics, medical geography, race and racial inequality, critical food studies and environmental policy, with faculty including Mott, Venkatasubramanian and Walker.
- Geospatial Technologies – Environmental remote sensing, geographic information systems and spatial analysis and modeling, with faculty including Stevens and the Center for Geographic Information Sciences.
New to research? Talk with faculty whose work catches your eye – or start in the Helton Center GIS lab and follow the questions.
By the Numbers
in funding to expand the UofL Horner Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary
projected job market growth in Environmental Sciences
different alumni career paths
in funding for a collaborative research project across 8 Kentucky institutions to advance climate resiliency
Faculty Research Spotlight
Kentucky River Basin
Dr. Andrew Day was awarded a Kentucky Water Resources Institute (KWRI) grant that advances previously work on historical spatiotemporal shifts in extreme high and low daily streamflow events across the wider Kentucky River Basin in the context of changing environmental and climate conditions. By quantifying these flow extremes within the wider area of the basin, we hope to inform future flood/drought planning processes not currently covered by existing sub-basin management plans.
Enhance Weather Understanding
Dr. Gunter and Dr. Naylor are collaborating with other atmospheric scientists to explore Kentucky's rich meteorological and climatological datasets and advance the knowledge about Kentucky's historical climate, climate change projections, and characteristics of extreme weather. The project aims to analyze Kentucky's climate and extreme weather through historical datasets, quantify projections of climate change in Kentucky, and improve Kentucky's weather and climate research infrastructure. This project is a part of a larger, multi-institution, interdisciplinary Kentucky climate resilience project.
Paleo-Perspectives on Kentucky's Hydroclimate and Geohazards
Dr. Maegen Rochner, in a collaboration with research partners, which will work to characterize mean and extreme climate states for Kentucky, evaluate rates of change between climate states, and contextualize recent extreme events within the long-term context provided by paleoenvironmental proxies. This project is a part of a larger, multi-institution, interdisciplinary Kentucky climate resilience project.
Research That Changes the World
At the Department of Geographic &Environmental Sciences, you'll tackle real-world challenges through innovative research. Join us and make a difference!