The Department of Geography and Earth Sciences is comprised of physical, natural and social scientists from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Our mission is to create, extend and disseminate applied and theoretical scientific knowledge of the Earth’s physical, natural and human systems and their interactions through scholarly research, teaching and service.  This is accomplished through the lens of five interdisciplinary themes:

• Global Change
• Sustainability
• Human Environmental Interaction
• Hazards
• Geospatial Perspective

While each of these thematic areas represents distinct faculty expertise, there are considerable opportunities for multidisciplinary learning and research.

The Department houses programs leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees in the following areas: Geography, Earth Sciences, Geology and Meteorology.  Additionally the department contributes to two interdisciplinary graduate programs; Infrastructure and Environmental Systems and Public Policy.

Recent News

• Congratulations to Monica Dorning. She won a $1,000 travel scholarship from the Ecological Society of America to present her paper, “Simulating land change scenarios to explore urbanization-conservation conflicts at the edge of metropolis” at the ESA’s 2012 Emerging Issues Conference to be held at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV.

• Charlotte Action Research Project, or CHARP, a program through UNCC that teams graduate students with neighborhood leaders was in the news. Click here for link.

• Lauren Slawsky, a senior meteorology major, was recently awarded the 2011 National Weather Association Meteorological Satellite Applications Award Grant for her paper entitled, Land Cover and Land Use of the Charlotte, NC area using a 2009 Quickbird Image.

• Congratulations to the UNC Charlotte team on winning first place again this year at the 2011 North Carolina Geography Bowl tournament in Greensboro.

• Weather intern, Garrett Bedenbaugh, at Fox Charlotte or on YouTube

• Congratulations to Sarah Haas, a Ph.D. student in Geography and Urban Regional Analysis.  We received news that Sarah’s first dissertation chapter, entitled “Forest species diversity reduces disease risk in a generalist plant pathogen invasion” was accepted for publication in the high profile journal Ecology Letters. To say this is an extraordinary accomplishment at this stage of her career is an understatement. The ISI impact factor (15.25!) of Ecology Letters is currently the highest in Ecology and all of the Environmental & Earth Sciences journals, to my knowledge.

• Congratulations to Sanjay Lamsal, a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science.  We received news that another one of his post doctoral research papers was accepted for publication.  This paper, entitled “Spatial variation and prediction of forest biomass in a heterogeneous landscape”, will appear in the Journal of Forestry Research.

• Congrats to Kunwar Singh! He has been elected to the position of Deputy Education and Professional Development Councilor for the Student Advisory Council of ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing).  In addition to regular professional service activities, Kunwar's travel and registration expenses will be paid by ASPRS for the 2012 annual conference in Sacramento, California next March.

• Two of the departments geography and urban regional analysis Ph.D. students are recipients of the Graduate School’s most prestigious philanthropic awards. Click here for more information