Department Leadership
Chair
Tatiana Loboda
Dr. Loboda is a Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her B.A. degree in 1995 from the Moscow Pedagogical State University (Moscow, Russia), and her M.A. (2004) and Ph.D. (2008) degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Tatiana’s research interests include wildland fire, biodiversity, climate change, public health and their interactions with other human and physical factors on the landscape.
Associate Chair
George Hurtt
Dr. Hurtt received his Ph.D from Princeton University in 1997. From 1998-2010, he worked at the University of New Hampshire in the Institute for the Study of Earth Oceans and Space and Department of Natural Resources, finally becoming Chair of the Natural Resources and Earth System Science Ph.D. Program, UNH's largest doctoral program, and Director the Complex Systems Research Center, UNH's main center focused on Earth System Science.
He is the recipient of numerous honors and distinctions including the University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award.
Graduate Director
Leila De Floriani
Dr. De Floriani is a full professor at the University of Maryland with a joint appointment with the Department of Geographical Sciences and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). She is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, with the Center for Geospatial Information Science, and with the UMIACS Center for Automation Research.
Since Fall 2021, she is the Director of Graduate Studies in Geographical Sciences.
Research Director
Meredith Gore
Dr. Gore's research centers on the human dimensions of global environmental change. She works in partnership with diverse communities, nongovernmental organizations, civil society groups and government agencies. Her scholarship primarily focuses on risk principles and their application to addressing the negative impacts of global environmental change, with a particular emphasis on "nature crimes" such as wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing and illegal logging.
Director of MSGIS Program
Jack (Jianguo) Ma
Dr. Ma is the Director of the Master of Science in Geospatial Information Sciences (MSGIS) Program since 2008. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University.
His teaching covers spatial analysis; spatial statistics; GIS modeling; Web GIS; and spatial databases. He has also been involved in research on the applications of GIS in the areas of public health, renewable energy, and sustainable development.
Director of MSGEOINT Programs
Ruibo Han
Dr. Ruibo Han serves as the Director of the MS GEOINT and GC GEOINT Programs at the Center for Geospatial Information Science. With over two decades of experience in the geospatial domain, he previously held positions at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa before joining the University of Maryland.
Apart from overseeing the GEOINT programs, he also teaches courses in these programs and remains engaged in advacingin funding and publishing. His research and teaching focus spans urban dynamics, machine learning, big data analytics, web and mobile GIS, and public participatory geospatial systems.
Undergraduate Director
Keith Yearwood
Dr. Yearwood is a lecturer at the Department of Geographical Sciences, having taught classes such as Geography of Environmental Systems and Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Floods, and Fires.
His main area of interest is fluvial geomorphology.