A satellite dish once helped Sergii Skakun look out at the world from his apartment in Kyiv. Decades later, satellites help him look back toward Ukraine, using AI and remote sensing to support farmers, government statistics agencies and recovery efforts during war. 🔗 go.umd.edu/2bwe

In a new post for the European Geosciences Union (EGU) @egu.eu Cryospheric Sciences Blog, Ph.D. student Monojit Saha explores a persistent challenge in Arctic remote sensing: the difficulty of measuring sea ice conditions near coastlines. 🧊 blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr...

Growing up in a coastal town in China, Assistant Professor Danghan Xie saw firsthand floods and typhoons disrupt daily life. Today, he uses geospatial science to better understand coastal hazards and help protect communities from rising water 🌊

In collaboration with AGU's Chapman Conference on sea level, a new #AGUPubs special collection welcomes submissions that capture work on advances in sea level projections, their drivers, and how they are used and communicated.🌊 🔗spklr.io/63320E3Pbj#AGUPubs #Oceans #Climate

A new UMD-GLAD study shows that nearly 1/3 of global tree cover loss in 2018 led to permanent forest conversion. Using high-resolution satellite imagery, researchers identified where forests are disappearing & where they may recover. 🌎🌳 go.umd.edu/2bqn

Could rising seas make mangroves less effective at storing carbon? 🌊 A new study co-authored by Assis Prof Danghan Xie finds that while some mangrove areas may store more carbon as sea levels rise, entire forests could lose carbon as habitat shrinks and soils erode. 🔗 geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

News & Views on this paper by Laura Duncanson (@umdgeography.bsky.social): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌲🛰️ Congrats to GEOG Assoc Research Prof Adrián Pascual on receiving the 2026 BSOS Early Career Impact Award! Read how his remote sensing & LiDAR research advances sustainable forest management + inspires the next generation of environmental scientists ⤵️ geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

🤩Congratulations to Research Prof Emeritus Eric Vermote on receiving the 2025 William T. Pecora Award! Vermote's work has helped scientists around the world accurately monitor deforestation, drought, coastlines and other environmental changes. Read more: geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

🗓️ Registration is open for 2026 University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Symposium at UMD (June 15–18)! Join researchers, students + industry leaders exploring “AI Everywhere!” in GeoAI. 4 days of workshops, panels, student talks, networking & field trips: go.umd.edu/2bkf

🤩 Prof Leila De Floriani has been named a Distinguished University Professor, UMD’s highest faculty honor 👏 Her pioneering research has transformed how scientists analyze and visualize geographic data around the world. Read more: go.umd.edu/2bjt

🤩Did you miss our Department Awards? Meet this year’s student, faculty and staff honorees, plus the debut of 3 new awards: Staff Appreciation, GEOG Ambassador and GEOG Linchpin 🏆 Watch the full event on YouTube ▶️ geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

How can AI help detect food crises before they escalate? #NASAHarvest and partners are building a GeoAI tool to spot early signs of food system instability in conflict and climate-impacted regions. Via Taylor Geospatial's GIFS Challenge. go.umd.edu/2bhp

Authors from @unifrbiology.bsky.social, @fbm-unil.bsky.social, @yalesph.bsky.social, @dee-unil.bsky.social, @viralemergence.org, @yalesph.bsky.social, @uidaho.bsky.social, and @umdgeography.bsky.social collaborated on the project. geog.umd.edu/featured-con... 6/

More than 250 guests joined the Department of Geographical Sciences to honor 100+ high school students at the fifth annual Geographical Sciences Awards Banquet. 🌎📍 Here we highlight two students whose interests in coding + mapping have brought them to this event. geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

A #GlobalEcologyLab team led by Prof George Hurtt will help Rhode Island strengthen its climate strategy with high-resolution satellite data and advanced modeling that track how forests + urban tree canopies store carbon over time. Learn more: geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

How can near real-time satellite data support fire management? 🌎🔥 At a NASA FireSense workshop in Alabama, GEOG's Joanne Hall + Rob Sohlberg joined partners to support tools for firefighter safety, situational awareness & prescribed fire operations. Learn more: geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

A UMD-GLAD study finds global cropland expanded more than 6% between 2015-2024, even as cropland per person declined. The machine-learning analysis maps annual cropland at 30-meter resolution using nearly a decade of Landsat data. Learn more: go.umd.edu/2azx

How did a journey from Nigeria to the U.S. inspire cutting-edge GeoAI research for cities? PhD student Michaelmary Chukwu spoke with Aleksei Nelaev, Geoscientists’ Voices & @agu.org Voices for Science, about his academic path ⤵️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTvi...

👋We’re at #GEOINT2026 in Aurora, Colorado, May 4–6! Stop by Booth #800 to learn about our GEOINT programs, research and work in GIS, remote sensing, GeoAI and more. Come meet our faculty and students!

🗓️ Join us at 3:30 p.m. in River Road 325 and on Zoom on May 7, Thursday for this seminar with Associate Research Professor Mike Humber. He'll examine how local agricultural systems connect to global outcomes and vice versa. geog.umd.edu/event/semina...

🗓️ This Monday, May 4 at 5:30 p.m via Zoom: Learn about GeoAI workflows and the spatial applications of machine learning & deep learning from two Esri Solution Engineers, Wynnie Gross + Christopher Jensen. More info: geog.umd.edu/event/online...

🌳A new report from UMD-GLAD, @worldresources.bsky.social on Global Forest Watch finds tropical forest loss dropped 36% in 2025—showing policy works. But rising, climate-driven fires now drive 42% of loss, threatening progress. #treecoverloss Learn more: geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

NEW DATA: Tropical primary forest loss declined, driven largely by Brazil — but overall loss remains high as fires pose a rising threat, according to annual analysis from WRI’s Global Forest Watch and data from University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab. Full analysis➡️ go.wri.org/tcl2025-bs #TreeCoverLoss

The University of Maryland has reappointed Professor Tatiana Loboda as chair of Geographical Sciences through 2030–31. Here’s to five more years of exceptional leadership at the forefront of climate science and environmental change 🎉 geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

#MarylandDay is this Saturday! Come check out "How the Environment is Changing in Maryland! Here's the location of the GEOG table: 📍Earth Sciences tent on the Glenn L. Martin Hall lawn More info: marylandday.umd.edu

📈Asst Res Professor Lindsay "Bar" Barbieri @glp-earth.bsky.social is a co-author of this report, which presents a detailed analysis of the greenhouse gas sources and sinks in the United States ⤵️ go.umd.edu/2adc #EarthDay

Happy #EarthDay 🌍 Plus a reminder that most of Earth is Ocean, and that life on land and life in the seas are inextricably linked... www.cell.com/current-biol...

PhD student Xin Dong has been awarded UMD Graduate School’s Summer Research Fellowship 2026, supporting a key phase of her geospatial health dissertation on infectious disease modeling, including malaria. Congrats, Xin 👏👏👏 go.umd.edu/2aci

🌎 The University of Maryland is joining DC Climate Week on April 21 with a full day of events—including this seminar by Assoc Res Prof Adrián Pascual representing GEOG. 🛰 “Satellite Embeddings to Support Conservation” 🕒 3–3:45 p.m. 📍 Stamp Student Union, Jimenez Room ⤵️ luma.com/4x8wq5zc

🎉 Congrats to MSGIS student Peter Seabrook, named UMD Esri Innovation Program Student of the Year! His project, “The Temporal Twin,” uses ArcGIS Pro, Unity + ArcGIS Maps SDK for Unity to create a 3D environment where GIS data informs both space & time. Check out the project: go.umd.edu/2a3i

Robust GHG data are central for making good policy at national, subnational, and international levels. @ctrglobsust.bsky.social's new annual GHG inventory and analysis for the United States provides needed clarity on emissions tracking. Learn more at: ghgi.cgs.umd.edu

🌍🛰️Training led by Assist Prof Catherine Nakalembe in Nairobi is helping national teams across 9 African countries turn Earth observation data into real-time food security insights. go.umd.edu/2a21

Proud🤩 to share an article published on @science.org by Jérôme M. W. Gippet, first author and postdoc at the Bacher lab @unifrbiology.bsky.social, in collaboration with @yalesph.bsky.social, @uidaho.bsky.social and @umdgeography.bsky.social

At #AAG2026: Associate Professor Taylor Oshan earned national recognition for advancing spatial analysis, and PhD student Victor Irekponor took top honors. This is the second straight year one of Oshan's students has won first place in the paper competition✨ geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

Join us for the AIM Research & Learning Symposium on Tuesday, May 5! The symposium will feature talks by world-renowned #AI leaders, poster sessions and collaborative networking. Register to attend ➡️ go.umd.edu/symposium-26

🗓️ Join us April 16, 3:30 pm, River Road Room 325 for “Looking Ahead to NASA’s Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE)” with Assoc Prof John Armston. Learn how next-gen lidar will transform how we measure forests, ice and Earth’s changing ecosystems 🌍 go.umd.edu/29y2

What did four decades of wildlife trade data reveal? 🦠🐾 A study coauthored by Prof Meredith Gore w/ @fbm-unil.bsky.social found traded wild mammals are significantly more likely to share pathogens with humans in @science.org. Learn more: geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

Published in @science.org in collaboration with @unifrbiology.bsky.social @yalesph.bsky.social @uidaho.bsky.social @umdgeography.bsky.social Read also the original article 🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie...

🎉 2 PhD students earn dissertation fellowship 🎓 Jiaxun Sun + Zhili Li have received the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship, which provides funding, tuition support & dedicated time to complete high-impact research in energy policy + geospatial AI. go.umd.edu/29so

👏Ph.D. student Monojit Saha has received an AGS Council Fellowship from the American Geographical Society, supporting his research on improving satellite observations of Arctic coastal sea ice. geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

#ICYMI Associate Research Professor Louise Chini spoke with Maryland Today about tracking switchgrass, a biofuel crop that’s replacing food fields. Her fieldwork shows how energy crops may help fuel the world while affecting farmland 🌾 go.umd.edu/29on

🗓 Join us for “Climate Science for Sustainable Food Systems” with Asst Research Prof Weston Anderson. How can climate science support more resilient food systems in the face of growing extremes and data gaps? 👉Apr 9, 3:30 PM | River Room 325 & Zoom 🔗 go.umd.edu/29m8

GEOG Chair/Prof Tatiana Loboda is leading a NASA-backed effort to forecast malaria & dengue in Indonesia. With AI partner IMACS on board, the project aims to deliver high-res outbreak predictions to help local health authorities act faster. 🌍🦟 go.umd.edu/29ht

Get ahead with Geospatial Intelligence! Join us for a virtual session about our Master of Science and Graduate Certificate in GEOINT 📅 Wednesday, April 22 🕛 12 PM EDT Register now: umd.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

🌸 Happy Spring! 🌸 Our latest GEOG newsletter is here 📩 Catch all the exciting updates, stories and highlights from our department! 👉 Read & subscribe: conta.cc/3PZSQyh

🗓️ Join us Thursday, April 2 at 3:30 p.m. in River Rd 325 for a seminar w/ GEOG Chair Tatiana Loboda: “Earth-Observations-Driven Malaria & Dengue Early Warning System for ClimateSmart Indonesia” Learn how climate + data are shaping disease forecasting and response: geog.umd.edu/event/semina...

🔎Zoom in on U.S. crops: New 10-meter maps show crop fields in stunning detail, helping scientists track yields, spot trends, and boost food security. Via UMD's GLAD team and publicly available 🌽🌱 go.umd.edu/2989

✨New Faculty spotlight: Assistant Professor Danghan Xie path to UMD started in Putian, China, where frequent typhoons shut down daily life. Now, he uses geospatial science, remote sensing + modeling to better understand coastal hazards & help prepare for rising water 🌊 go.umd.edu/295s

🛰️ Position yourself for success in geospatial? 🌎 Join our virtual info session on the MS in GIS, GIS Certificate and Remote Sensing Certificate. Learn about spatial analysis, programming, remote sensing and more. 📅 April 15 🕛 12 PM EDT RSVP: geog.umd.edu/event/inform...