David Minor, Senior Faculty Specialist
Quick Chat With David Minor
A native of Livonia, Michigan, David Minor has worked at the Department of Geographical Sciences' Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) since 2017.
How would you explain your role in one sentence?
Managing forest data from field measurements and airborne lidar for the calibration and validation of spaceborne forest biomass models.
What do you like most about your role?
As part of my work, I get to with datasets from around the world. I may never get to travel to these places, but working with this data and the people that collected it gives me a glimpse into just how different forests can be.
What’s a work-related pet peeve you have?
Not quite a pet peeve, but I wish our department was not quite so siloed into our individual lab groups. I’m guilty of this too, because there’s always more work to do and only so much time. I’m always glad to get to interact with people outside of my group, so please say hi!
You’ve been chair of the Faculty Specialist Committee for about a year. What made you want to take on this leadership role?
I wanted to take on the role of Faculty Specialist Chair partially to give back to the department and partially for myself.
In the past, I felt like I didn’t have the time or experience to take on a role like this, but having been in the department for awhile, I decided it was time to take a more active role. I’ve benefited from really great leadership from others during my time in the department. Among other things, the FS chair distills important information and deadlines so that other people can focus on their duties, and I’m pleased if I can now do that for others.
For myself, after years of working from home and keeping my head down at work, I felt like I hardly knew anyone outside of my immediate lab group. A really nice benefit of this role is that I get to know people that my main work wouldn’t require me to interact with.
What’s something you wish more people understood about the work faculty specialists do?
I think it’s important for people to realize that faculty specialists’ duties don’t fit well into one box. There are a lot of us in the department and the duties we have are very diverse, ranging from administrative responsibilities to self-funded research. Each of us are doing important work for our projects, even if that may look very different from what another faculty specialist is doing.
What are your main concerns as faculty specialist chair?
My main concern is that people don’t miss opportunities for advancement. I don’t want anyone to miss an administrative deadline, and hope that if a policy is unclear, I can help find the answers.
What do you do to recharge outside of work?
Spending time with my family and trying to grow houseplants and a garden (with varying success).
What’s something else you’d like your GEOG colleagues to know about you?
My background is in forest ecology and zoology, so I love to get outdoors when I can, even if my job is mostly at a computer these days.
Photo courtesy of David Minor
