Academic Programs
UNDERGRADUATE: Students can earn either a Bachelor
of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Geography. The under-
Faculty of Geography and GIScience
Faculty:
Douglas M. Amedeo, PhD, Iowa, 1967, Professor--spatial theory, environment
and behavior, diffusion
Geography
graduate program provides a broad liberal arts education J. Clark Archer, PhD, Iowa, 1974, Professor--political, settlement, computer
cartography, GIS School of Natural Resources
in physical, human Kenneth Dewey, PhD, Toronto, 1973, Professor--climate variations, severe
and regional geogra-
weather University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Qingfeng (Gene) Guan, PhD, University of California-Santa Barbara, 2008,
phy, combined with Assistant Professor - geographic information systems, environmental modeling
Paul R. Hanson, PhD, Nebraska, 2005, Assistant Professor--geomorphology,
courses in Geo- physical geography of the Great Plains
graphic Information R. M. (Matt) Joeckel, PhD, Iowa, 1993, Associate Professor--surficial processes,
soils and weathering, the Great Plains
Science (remote Cody Knutson, PhD, Nebraska, 2004, Research Assistant Professor—water
resources and drought, risk management,
sensing, GIS and car- Stephen J. Lavin, PhD, Kansas, 1979, Professor and Chair of Graduate Program--
tography), research map animation, communication and design
Merlin P. Lawson, PhD, Clark, 1973, Professor, Geosciences--climate change,
and writing skills, and quantitative methods. The program climate reconstruction, remote sensing
Richard E. Lonsdale, PhD, Syracuse, 1960, Professor Emeritus--marginal lands,
prepares students for positions in government and indus-
regional development
try, and also for graduate work in geography or related James W. Merchant, PhD, Kansas, 1984, Professor --remote sensing, geographic
information systems (GIS)
fields. Sunil Narumalani, PhD, South Carolina, 1993, Professor and Geography Program
Coordinator--GIS, remote sensing, environmental studies
Donald C. Rundquist, PhD, Nebraska, 1977, Professor--remote sensing,
GRADUATE: Graduate students can pursue either an MA geographic information systems (GIS)
Robert H. Stoddard, PhD, Iowa, 1966, Professor Emeritus--human/social, field
or PhD in Geography. Students have considerable flexi- techniques; South Asia Photograph courtesy of Michael Forsberg, UNL Geography 1989
http://www.michaelforsberg.com
bility in designing Brian D. Wardlow, PhD, Kansas, 2005, Research Assistant Professor-- remote
sensing, GIS, drought, land use/land cover
programs tailored to Donald A. Wilhite, PhD, Nebraska, 1977, Professor and SNR Director-climate,
their individual inter- drought, human dimensions Geographers study the spatial
David J. Wishart, PhD, Nebraska 1971, Professor and Chief Undergraduate Advisor-
ests and career -historical, indigenous peoples, Great Plains dimensions of human societies and
goals. Particularly earth’s environment. Geography is
Affiliated Faculty:
strong programs Rodrigo F. Cantarero, PhD, Southern California, 1988, Associate a discipline that offers unique
exist in: (1) Geo- Professor, Community and Regional Planning—planning, GIS insights about past, present and
Anatoly Gitelson, PhD, Russia, 1972, Professor--remote sensing
graphic Information Science, capitalizing on the strengths Ge Lin, Ph.D. SUNY Buffalo, 1996, Associate Professor, University of Nebraska future issues involving natural
Medical Center-GIS, health geography
and facilities of the Center for Advanced Land Manage- Brito Mutunayagam, DEDP Virginia Tech, 1981, Professor, Community and
resources, culture, economics and
ment Information Technologies (CALMIT); (2) Historical Regional Planning-- planning theory, GIS politics. For more than a century,
Yunwoo Nam, PhD, Pennsylvania, 2004, Assistant Professor, Community and
and Human Geography, whose foci include historical set- Regional Planning--GIS & analytic methods in planning the University of Nebraska-
tlement, land use, environmental perception, Native Gordon Scholz, MBA., Nebraska-Omaha, 1974, Professor, Community and Regional Lincoln, has been internationally
Planning--land development, planning
American studies, Great Plains studies, modern popula- Michael Shambaugh-Miller, Ph.D. Nebraska, 2004, Assistant Professor, University recognized as a center-of-
of Nebraska Medical Center-health geography
tion and settlement patterns, and political behavior; (3) Zhenghong Tang, PhD, Texas A&M, 2007, Assistant Professor, Community and
excellence in geographic education
Natural Resources, where graduate students can pursue Regional Planning--GIS & risk analysis and research .
_____________________________________
interdisciplinary studies in conservation biology, water
resources, natural hazards, climatology and related areas For additional information contact:
in conjunction with faculty of the School of Natural Re- Faculty of Geography and GIScience http://snrs.unl.edu/geographygis/index.asp
sources; and, (4) Community and Regional Planning, a cross School of Natural Resources
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
-disciplinary PhD combining strengths of the Faculty of
Lincoln, Nebraska 68583-0973
Geography and the Department of Community and Re- Telephone: (402) 472-2865. E-mail: jhurst3@unl.edu
gional Planning. http://snr.unl.edu/programs/geography.asp
8/09
Overview Facilities Research
Geography faculty and student offices are located in Hardin Some of the areas in which UNL geographers have
Geography is a unit of the University of Nebraska- Hall, a modern research and classroom facility that also recently focused
Lincoln (UNL) School of Natural Resources (SNR). houses other units of the School of Natural Resources. The research include:
The School is a unique cross-campus, multidisciplinary facility includes special- • Political geography
enterprise that includes faculty from both the UNL Col- ized laboratories and of U.S. elections
lege of Arts & Sciences and the Institute of Agriculture several nationally- • Human and histori-
and Natural Resources. Geography faculty and students cal geography of
recognized research the Great Plains
are affiliated with several SNR research centers including centers including • Environmental per-
the Center for Advanced Land Management Information CALMIT, the High ception and human
Technologies Plains Regional Climate behavior
(CALMIT), the Center, the National • Map communica-
N a t i o n a l tion and design
Drought Mitigation
Drought Miti- • Remote sensing of
Center and the UNL Water Center. All Geography stu- land and water
gation Center dents and faculty are provided access to state-of-the-art resources
(NDMC) and computing including image • GIS-based spatial
the High Plains processing and GIS software modeling of natural hazards
Regional Cli- such as ArcGIS, ERDAS Imag- • Land use
mate Center. • Drought impact assessment
ine and ENVI.
• Climate change
Geographers in the NDMC study the human and • Surficial processes in Great
biophysical impacts of drought. Plains landscapes
Faculty and students in Geography also regularly collabo-
rate with many other academic departments and re- Through CALMIT, UNL geographers have access to a 29-
search centers including UNL’s Center for Great Plains hectare field research station at UNL’s Agricultural Research
Studies, the Center for Digital Research in the Humani- and Development Center near Ithaca, NE; unique close-
ties, the Department of Community and Regional Plan- range remote sensing capabilities including platforms to de-
ning, the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, the ploy sensor packages that operate from the UV through the
Department of Geosciences and the University of Ne- microwave spectral bands over a variety of land and water
braska Medical Center. environments; and an aircraft for support of remote sensing
research, outfitted with instruments that include a thermal-
infrared camera
and an AISA Eagle
hyperspectral
(244 band) imag-
ing system.
UNL geographers used hyperspectral imagery to
map chlorophyll concentrations in lakes near
Fremont, NE.
Geographers at CALMIT used Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery of
western Nebraska (left) to map land cover (right) via image classification. Modeled soil erosion, Wagon Train watershed, NE