Dept Theme
Geographers have an ongoing concern with the acquisition, manipulation, and representation of spatial data. The widespread adoption of digital technology coupled with management of very large spatial data sets has led to the development of Geographic Information Science. Particularly with respect to digital information, the nature of geographical data that vary with scale, time, and spectral characteristics presents unique problems for geographers and environmental scientists. In our world of massive amounts of information, geographers use remote sensing methods for collecting and integrating geographical data. They utilize cartography and geographic information systems to uncover spatial patterns and trends, to reconstruct past environmental conditions and to predict future scenarios. The use of such methods requires expertise not covered in human and physical geography concentrations. Conceptually, the societal, political and ethical implications of geographic information in policy and decision-making are only beginning to be understood, and this forms an important component of study in geographic information science. The dissemination of geographic knowledge at all levels of education forms another important component of this concentration.
![]() |
Barbara Buttenfield |
GIS; Cartographic Generalization; Multi-Scale Databases | |
| Ken Erickson |
GIS | Emeritus | |
![]() |
Kenneth Foote |
American & European Landscape History; GIScience & Internet Techniques; Geography in Higher Educ, | |
![]() |
Stefan Leyk |
GIScience, uncertainty modeling, small area estimation, cartographic pattern recognition | |
![]() |
Seth Spielman |
Urban Geography, Medical Geography, Spatial Statistics, GIScience |
10 students total. TIP: To sort by more than one column, hold down the shift key while clicking an additional column header.
| Name | Degree | Specialties |
|---|---|---|
| Anderson-Tarver, Christopher | Ph.D. | GIS Science |
| Getman, Daniel | Ph.D. | renewable energy; computational geography |
| Jochem, Warren | Ph.D. | GIS; disease ecology & spatial epidemiology |
| Maclaurin, Galen | Ph.D. | Spatial & temporal modeling; GIS; remote sensing; spatial statistics; demographic modeling |
| Norlund, Petra | Ph.D. | Geographic Information Science |
| Stauffer, Andrew | M.A. | cartograhic generalization; GIS |
| Stum, Alexander | Ph.D. | spatial predictive model, GIS |
| Wendel, Jochen | Ph.D. | GIS, Cartography, Self-Organizing Maps, Multimedia Visualization |
| Wolf, Eric | Ph.D. | GIS; Remote Sensing |
| Xu, Li | M.A. | internet based research on social relations, human mobility |
May 2013
Barbara Buttenfield Elected Fellow of UCGIS
Feb 2013
Babs Buttenfield a member of NRC panel on the current and future workforce in geospatial fields
Feb 2012
Chris Anderson-Tarver Receives the CaGIS Doctoral Scholarship Award
Sep 2011
Chris Anderson-Tarver Receives Rocky Mountain GITA Scholarship
Feb 2011
Chris Anderson-Tarver Receives Travel Scholarship from the US National Committee
Feb 2011
Jochen Wendel Receives Travel Scholarship from the U.S. National Committee
Jan 2011
Stefan Leyk Receives National Institutes of Health Grant
Oct 2010
Gamma Theta Upsilon wins trivia bowl
Sep 2010
CU Geography is ranked 2nd in nation
Apr 2010
Jeremy Smith wins Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship
Mar 2010
Geography student wins $20K sustainability grant
Mar 2010
Ken Foote Elected President of AAG
Feb 2010
Babs Buttenfield and Stefan Leyk Win NSF Grant
Feb 2010
Early Career Workshop for new faculty and advanced doctoral students, 13-19 June 2010, Boulder CO
Jul 2009
Mark Parsons awarded the Charles S. Falkenberd Award by AGU/ESIP
Feb 2011
What are Self-Organizing Maps? And why do they matter?
Jan 2011
Mobile Location Services: History, Technology, Ecosystems, and GIScience
Oct 2010
Info session for undergraduates.
Jan 2010
Memorialization of US College and University Tragedies: Spaces of Mourning and Remembrance
Oct 2009
Weird Science: Race, Religion, and Politics in the Cartography of Arno Peters and James Gall
Sep 2009
Bayesian Spatio-temporal Model of Short-term Effects of Air Quality on Respiratory Health in Chicago
Leyk S., Maclaurin G.J., Hunter L.M., Nawrotzki R., Twine W., Collinson M. and Erasmus B. (2012). Spatially and Temporally Varying Associations Between Temporary Outmigration and Natural Resource Availability in Resource-Dependent Rural Communities in South Africa: A Modeling Framework. Applied Geography 34:559-568 .
Leyk S., Norlund P.U., Nuckols J.R. (2012). Robust Assessment of Spatial Non-Stationarity in Model Associations Related to Pediatric Mortality due to Diarrheal Disease in Brazil. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology 3:95-105.
Leyk S., Buttenfield B.P. and Nagle N.N. (in press). Modeling Ambiguity in Census Microdata Allocations to Improve Demographic Small Area Estimates. Transactions in GIS.
Leyk S., Buttenfield B.P., Nagle N.N. and Stum A.K. (in press). Establishing Relationships Between Parcel Data and Landcover for Demographic Small Area Estimation. Cartography and Geographical Information Science.
Leyk S., Nagle N.N. and Buttenfield B.P. (in press). Maximum Entropy Dasymetric Modeling for Demographic Small Area Estimation Under Uncertainty. Geographical Analysis.
Spielman, S.E. and Yoo, E-H. (2009). The Spatial Dimensions of Neighborhood Effects. Social Science and Medicine, 68(6).
Erdemir, E. T., Batta R., Spielman S. E., Rogerson P., et. al. (2008). Optimization of aeromedical base locations in New Mexico. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40(3) .
Spielman, S.E. and Thill, J.C. (2008). Social Area Analysis, Data Mining, and GIS. Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems, 32(2) .
Spielman, S. E. (2006). Appropriate use of the K-function in Urban Environments (Letter). American Journal of Public Health, 96(2).
Spielman, S.E., Golembeski, C.A., Northridge, M.E., et al. (2006). Interdisciplinary Planning for Healthier Communities: Findings from the Harlem Children's Zone Asthma Initiative. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(1). .
Images taken by faculty and grad students associated with geographic information science
The research of our faculty and students is supported by facilities in Guggenheim and in our partnering units, on the CU Boulder Campus in the Front Range area. Here are some examples:
For more information about Geographic Information Science, including courses,
See About > Geographic Information Science