January 22, 2026
Congratulations to Julissa Rojas-Sandoval for being named a 2026 Ecological Society of America (ESA) Excellence in Ecology Scholar. This prestigious scholarship program celebrates and supports outstanding early- to mid-career Ph.D. ecologists from groups traditionally underrepresented in the scientific community.
More information can be found here: https://esa.org/blog/2026/01/21/ecological-society-of-america-selects-2026-eee-scholars
January 14, 2026
Professor Debs Ghosh is giving a colloquium to the Geosciences Department at Auburn University on Jan 15.
The title of her talk is “Making Structural Racism and Discrimination Measurable: A Community-Informed, Place-Based Index”.
October 23, 2025
Congratulations to Daniel Kraemer for successfully defending his dissertation, which is titled: Context is Everything: Advancing Earthquake Social Vulnerability Models Through Identifying Local and Hazard-Specific Drivers
October 20, 2025
Dr. Julissa Rojas-Sandoval’s current research about using AI to predict biological invasions is the focus of a post on the UConn Today site. Read the full story here: today.uconn.edu/2025/10/a-new-ai-based-method-to-help-prevent-biological-invasions
October 2, 2025
Congratulations to Sydney Clements for successfully defending her dissertation, which is titled: Distributing Equity: An Analysis of Existing Food Hub Distribution Models in Connecticut.
September 29, 2025
Assistant Professor-in-Residence Dan Wanyama and a group of his closest friends and colleagues have collaborated to share their expertise with sustainability and conservation scholars and specialists in Africa. They developed a free advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) training program that is attracting interest from around the globe.
The full story can be found here: today.uconn.edu/2025/09/snapshot-a-unique-collaboration-helps-boost-conservation-with-gis-training
September 18, 2025
Congratulations to Stacy Maddern for his project on building a community garden in the Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven. Below are links for news stories about the work Professor Maddern has been doing in New Haven:
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/newhallville_garden
https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/a-dream-takes-root-on-shelton-avenue
September 17, 2025
Prof. Debs Ghosh is invited to give a colloquium talk at the Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, UMass Amherst, on Friday, Sept 19th.
The title of her talk is “Listening to Communities, Measuring Inequities: A New Index of Structural Racism and Discrimination”
August 21, 2025
Google Street View images are digital snapshots of real streets, widely used for navigation and urban planning. Congcong Miao, a PhD student in GSCU, recently published a study in Journal of Transport Geography analyzing how people’s perceptions of street design affect transport safety. The study suggests emotional reactions to streetscapes can lead to non-motorist crashes and could help cities predict danger zones and design safer roads.
The study has been covered by several media outlets, including State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) and Streetsblog USA.
June 6, 2025
Congratulations to Professor Debs Ghosh for receiving the InCHIP Excellence Award for Research on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and Health Outcomes of Racism.