Mike Engels (2005) has moved back to Minnesota and works as a Data Analyst for AudaExplore in Eagan, MN. One of his colleagues is Mike Kasel (2009), who is a Senior GIS Analyst.
Matt McLees (2013) is a Senior GeoData Specialist at East View Geospatial in Minnesota.
Norine Wilczek (2012) has been hired as a GIS Analyst/Traffic Operations Dispatcher at the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Regional Transportation Management Center.
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Robert McMaster, Professor of Geography, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education and MGIS faculty member, has been named as a 2013 UCGIS Fellow. Dr. McMaster was recognized for his contribution to the advancement of geographic information science education and research. For more information about Dr. McMaster's contributions, see the description provided on the UCGIS Fellows page.]]>
Kris Johnson, MGIS program, is the graduate winner of the 2013 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Student Scholar Award for his GIS project, Spatial Analysis of Bicycle-Automobile Collisions in the City of Minneapolis. Jameson Bupp, B.S. in Urban Studies, is the undergraduate winner of the same award for his project, Long Term Consequences of the Tear-Down-Rebuild Process in Urban Areas Substantiated Using GIS. Both students will compete in the graduate and undergraduate student paper sessions at the Fall 2013 Minnesota GIS/LIS Annual Conference in early October.
Matt Taraldsen received funding to participate in the SPREAD workshop in Colorado this summer, which is a multidisciplinary workshop focused on the communication of hydrometeorological hazards.
Finally, congratulations to our recent 2013 graduates! For a detailed listing, visit the MGIS graduates page.
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lied domains. In the early 1980s, her study on cancer mortality patterns in China has revealed unusual clustered patterns and identified possible links between environmental conditions and cancers. Her pioneering research on the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States was the first to confirm a national trend of HIV/AIDS spread in rural America. Her current research focuses on developing models to understand business return decisions in New Orleans after Katrina and to measure community resilience and sustainability. Dr. Lam has published one book, Fractals in Geography, and over 70 refereed journal articles and chapters, and has served as the PI or co-PI of over 35 external grants. She was also a Program Director of the Geography and Regional Sciences Program at the National Science Foundation from 1999-2001, and was elected and served as President of University Consortium on Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) in 2004. ]]>
Ben Butzow (2012) has moved to MnDOT's Waters Edge facility and is now a GIS Specialist with the GIS Support Group.
Tom Chambers (2012) is a GIS Consultant with Real Estate Mapping and Data, LLC.
Brian Fischer (2001) was promoted to a Principal and GIS Project Manager at Houston Engineering Inc. in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
Mike Foster (2010) now works as a GIS Specialist with URS Corporation in downtown Minneapolis.
Jason Gottfried (2011) is a Multi-Modal Transportation Planner/GIS Specialist with the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization.
Blaine Hackett (2001) along with Paul Wickman (2007) have joined forces and established a GIS consulting company, Flat Rock Geographics, in Minneapolis.
Jacque Hamilton (2007) is now a Geologic Information Specialist at the Minnesota Geological Survey.
Craig Hanson (2012) has moved to Williston, North Dakota where he is working as a GIS Specialist with AE2S.
Mike Kasel (2009) now works as a Senior GIS Analyst with Explore Information Services in Eagan, Minnesota.
Erin Kees (2008) has moved back to the Twin Cities and works for Xcel Energy as a Supervisor for the Ancillary Programs group.
Cole Kelleher (2012) is a Cartographer and Support Coordinator at the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and makes frequent trips to Antarctica.
Michael Lau (2012) is a 3D Product Engineer with ESRI in Redlands, California.
Matt Lindholm (2011) was recently hired by the Natural Resource Group, LLC as an Associate GIS Consultant.
Jason Menard (2007) has moved back to Minnesota and is now the GIS Instructional Technologist at Saint Olaf College in Northfield.
Tony Monsour (2012) works for Eastview Geospatial as a GIS Developer. More recently, he is the Vice President at Elevated GIS Solutions.
Andres Munoz (2008), after many successful years working for ESRI as a Solutions Engineer, will be returning to Colombia to begin his own consulting company.
Sean O'Brien (2012) is a GIS Technician with Houston Engineering.
Shane Pittman (2003) has been promoted to Supervisor of Spatial Data at Port Metro Vancouver.
Sathyan Srinivasan (2000) now works as the Senior Program Manager at Intel Corporation in Portland, Oregon.
Zach Tagar (2012) was hired as a GIS Research Analyst at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Zeb Thomas (2012) is now a GIS Data Analyst at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Kody Thurnau (2011) is back in the Twin Cities where he is a GIS Specialist at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
Norine Wilczek (2012) works as a GIS Specialist at the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
]]>Matthew Taraldsen, MGIS program, was the recipient of the 2012 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Scholarship Graduate Award for his research project "Use of GIS in the Climatology of Snow-to-liquid Equivalent Ratio in Minnesota." Kate Geraets, B.S. in Urban Studies, was the recipient of the same scholarship in the undergraduate category for her project "Impact of Vacant Parcels or Properties in North Minneapolis-Hawthorne Neighborhood."
Finally, congratulations to our nineteen 2012 graduates! For a detailed listing, visit the MGIS graduates page.
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As part of GIS Day activities at the University of Minnesota, five MGIS students, Alphonce Nicholaus, Zeb Thomas, Norine Wilczek, Lucas Winzenburg and Alex Zhang, visited the Buffalo Community Middle School on November 16th. They spent the day with Geography instructor David Casey's five classes to teach over 100 students about GIS. The student teachers talked about their backgrounds, their work in GIS, and the many possible applications of GIS. They then led a lesson in the computer lab with the students using ArcGIS online to pull in different data layers and understand what they represent. Finally, students had some fun with the web site geogreeting.com, spelling out messages from satellite images from around the globe. The day was a great success and Mr. Casey was very appreciative of the students' time and effort. This is just one example of how the GIS Student Organization is involved in GIS outreach and professional development activities.
On April 3rd, GISSO held their 11th annual GIS Career and Networking Fair and it was a great success. The goal of the event is to build a bridge between GIS students and employers around the region, granting the opportunity to network, exchange job opportunities and resumes, and share research and technologies being used in both the professional and academic worlds. Speakers included Steve Lime and Jeremy Moore from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and Nathan Aamot from ESRI as well as student poster and presentation sessions. Look out for the event again in Spring 2013!
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David DiBiase, Director of Education at ESRI, gave the fifth annual Borchert Lecture, which honors the late John Borchert, University of Minnesota Regents Professor in Geography and member of the U.S. National Academy of Science. His lecture titled Ways Forward for GIS&T Education was inspired by a forthcoming book, Teaching GIS&T, co-edited with David Unwin, Kenneth Foote, and Nicholas Tate. David DiBiase leads the Education Team within Esri's Industry Solutions group. The Team promotes and supports GIS use to enrich teaching and learning in formal and informal settings, domestically and internationally. Before joining Esri, David founded and led the Penn State Online GIS Certificate and Masters degree programs. He served as lead editor of the U.S. Department of Labor's Geospatial Technology Competency Model and UCGIS's GIS&T Body of Knowledge. From 1998-2003, as a member of URISA's Certification Committee, David helped design the criteria by which the GIS Certification Institute has awarded its "GIS Professional" credential to nearly 5,000 practitioners. He served as GISCI president from 2010-11. ]]>
Each year a student is recognized as the Outstanding Student of the Year for our local ESRI Development Center. The 2011 recipient is Tony Monsour.
Our students continued to shine at the 2011 ESRI User Conference in San Diego including being recipients of Map Gallery Awards. Kody Thurnau won one of three awards given out by the Cartography Special Interest group and he took First Place in the category of Single Map Product-Large Format Press Copy for his Duluth-Superior Metropolitan Bike Map.
Jessica Campbell was the recipient of the 2011 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Scholarship Graduate Award for her research project "Image Classification of Aquatic Emergent Vegetation Using RGB Clustering and Image Segmentation." Garrett Bing, B.S. in Geography, was the recipient of the same scholarship in the undergraduate category. Jessica went on to win second place in the Graduate Student paper competition and best poster in the poster session at the Fall 2011 Minnesota GIS/LIS Conference in early October.
Finally, congratulations to our twenty-five 2011 graduates! For a detailed listing, visit the MGIS graduates page.
Kelly Carpenter (2011) is a GIS Specialist at Barr Engineering in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a colleague of Jim Lind (2008) who now also works as a GIS Specialist for the same firm.
Kyle Chester (2010) has been working as a Permitting Analyst for Xcel Energy in Minneapolis, MN.
Jessica Deegan (2004) has transitioned to a new position as GIS Coordinator/Research Specialist with the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
Tony Drollinger (2010) is a Travel Demand Management Program Administrator for the Rideshare programs in the Marketing Department of Metro Transit in the Twin Cities.
Alyssa Erickson (2010) returned from Ghana and now works as a Data Analyst with Hardwick-Day, a local consulting firm.
Mike Foster (2010) is the GIS Specialist/IT Professional for the University of Minnesota Real Estate Office.
Kami Gish (2010) is a Business Analyst for the Delta Airlines E-Commerce Team in Minnesota.
Drew Hanson (2010) is a GIS consultant for ENEA Consultants in Seattle, Washington.
Eric Hanson (2010) has been employed by the Minnesota Department of Health as their GIS Information Technology Specialist.
Brad Herried (2010) has been hired as a Cartographer/Web Developer for the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota.
Nhu Hoang (2011) will be an E-4 Specialist with the United States Army. Once he completes additional training, he will become an O-1 Second Lieutenant.
Chacko Jacob (2009) is now working as a GIS/Remote Sensing Lead Analyst for a precision agriculture consulting company called Farmers Edge in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Tim Jacobson (2010) is working for the Minnesota House of Representatives as a Redistricting Technician.
Thomas Juntunen (2011) is a Research Fellow/GIS Specialist at the Polar Geospatial Center on the University of Minnesota campus.
Mike Kasel (2009) has moved on to a new position as Senior Healthcare Analyst with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota in Eagan.
Kathryn Klatt (2011) has been hired as an Environmental Data Technician at de maximis Data Management Solutions, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Len Kne (2009) recently returned to the University of Minnesota as the Associate Director for the U-Spatial initiative. He is also teaching the GIS 5577: Spatial Databases course in the MGIS program.
Vikrant Krishna (2011) is a GIS Developer for WSB & Associates in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Neha Kulkarni (2011) is a GIS/LiDAR Analyst in the Geomatics Group (Research and Development) at Tetra Tech, Inc. in Lafayette, California.
Molly Martin (2011) is an Image Analyst for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Resource Assessment Office in Grand Rapids.
Bennett Morris (2011) has been hired as a GIS technician for the Knife River Corporation in Sauk Rapids, MN.
Brian Mueller(2004) continues to work for the Bureau of Land Management as a GIS Analyst but has relocated to Washington, DC.
Ashley Nepp (2011) is the GIS Lab Instructor for the Geography Department at Macalester College.
Noel Peterson (2011) is an Assistant Analyst at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
Claire Porter (2011) is a Remote Sensing Specialist for the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota.
Jesse Reinhardt (2007) has moved to a new position as Public Health Planner with Carver County.
Kerry Ritterbusch (2011) is an Associate QA Analyst at PeopleNet in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Greg Schulz (2010) is the GIS/CADD Specialist for Bay West, Inc., an environmental consulting and remediation firm based in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Prakash Singh (2011) was recently promoted to a GIS Project Manager for AGNI Corporation in San Francisco, California.
Brian Udell (2010) has moved to a new position as Senior GIS Analyst for the Minnesota Department of Revenue.
Maggie Voth (2011) is a GIS Specialist with URS Corporation in addition to continuing with her graduate studies.
Congratulations to all these graduates!
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As part of GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week activities on the U of M Twin Cities campus, Dr. Timothy Nyerges, delivered the fourth annual Borchert Lecture on Friday, November 19th. Dr. Nyerges, Professor of Geography at the University of Washington and President of the University Consortium for GI Science, engaged the audience with his presentation, "Online Participartory GIS for Decision Support of Regional Transportation Improvement," in the Honeywell Auditorium (L110), Carlson School of Management, West Bank campus.]]>
Margaret Voth was the recipient of the 2010 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Scholarship Graduate Award for her research project "Assessing Minnesota Lake Clarity Using MODIS Imagery." Ms. Voth went on to win first place in the Graduate Student Paper Competition (cash award of $1,000) held at the October 2010 MN GIS/LIS Conference in Duluth. Colin Lee was the recipient of the same scholarship in the undergraduate category for his research on "Lidargrammetry: Reducing file sizes while retaining accuracy." Mr. Lee won second place in the Undergraduate Student Paper Competition with a cash award of $400.
Finally, congratulations to our recent graduates in December 2010: Kyle Chester, Mike Foster, Eric Hanson, Brad Herried, Tim Jacobson and Greg Schulz. For a listing of their Plan B projects, see the MGIS graduates page.
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