News
Nathanson selected as 2009 Truman Scholar
Rachel has been selected as one of 60 students from 55 different universities based on her leadership potential. Congratulations Rachel!
The University of Iowa
Geography Department is glad to welcome Erika Wise to the faculty. Erika specializes in the causes of climate variability and the impacts of climate change and variability on physical, biological, and human systems.
Leicht and Kumar Awarded $780K NSF Grant
The Social Science Research Center
at the University of Iowa will complete a pilot study in 2010 to test the efficacy of using a spatially dispersed sampling design and contextualize the neighborhood and physical environment within the General Social Survey.
Welcome to Geography at Iowa!
We live on a dynamic planet, one that is constantly changing in response to complex human and natural processes. Geographers study the interactions of people with each other and their environment to better understand these intricately related processes.
At The University of Iowa, we conduct research and teach students about social and biophysical systems and the events that shape the world in which we live. Our focus is on understanding these dynamics with a special emphasis on human-environment interactions as well as the science and the technologies that are needed to analyze, model, and visualize geographic processes.
We offer research opportunities and areas of emphasis in:
• Environmental
Studies,
• Geographic Information Science,
• Geography of Health, and
• International Development.
There is a growing demand for skills in spatial sciences and applications. Our undergraduate program offers students a major or minor in Geography to provide the breadth of knowledge needed to understand contemporary social and environmental problems and the skills needed to work in geographic professions. This program will, for example, introduce students to issues related to environmental monitoring and policy, climate change, ecosystem processes, population dynamics, international development, remote sensing, and geographic information systems.
Our graduate program is focused on the environmental consequences of human decisions at local, regional, and global scales and the application of GIScience to the study of these consequences. We provide cutting-edge educational and research experience for professional and research oriented graduate studies in GIScience, envrionmental change, health geography, and international development. The department offers three degree options: a Professional Master's Program (M.A. with specialization in GIScience), a pre-doctoral M.A. and a PhD in Geography. The Professional Master’s Program is designed to provide students and professionals with the course work and application experience required to be leaders in the application of GIScience in environmental and social fields. The latter degrees provide research opportunities for students interested in academia or research careers in the public or private sector. Examples of recent work by our graduate students include the representation of digital agents that are geographically-aware, mobile and intelligent; models of carbon sequestration and transport; the spatial analysis of cancer in Iowa; grid computing for geographic analysis; and models of how mountain ecosystems adapt in response to global climate change.
Faculty research is supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, among others, to study human-environment interactions and the development of computational theories and tools to support this research.
We invite you to explore all of our programs and the field of Geography!
