Departmental Unit № 1
Department of Geography, Environment and Society
PhD in Geography
100% Full Funding Guaranteed (5 Years)
Funding Package: Full tuition waiver + 9-to-12 month living stipend (~$25,000–$29,000/yr) + health insurance guaranteed through Teaching Assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA).
Fall Priority Deadline: December 15 (Fall Admission)
GRE Policy: Not required / Waived
English Minimums: TOEFL iBT 79 minimum or IELTS 6.5 minimum
MA in Geography (Thesis Track)
100% Full Funding on Thesis Track!
Funding Reality: UMN Geography routinely fully funds admitted MA thesis students via departmental TA appointments in physical geography and GIS!
Application Deadline: December 15
Admissions Advisory: If full funding is required and MS is self-funded, students are strongly advised to apply directly to the PhD track.
Vetted Matched Scholars (1 Profiles)
Prof. Ying Song
Associate Professor of Geography, Environment and Society
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
She uses computer map algorithms to track how people move through cities, measuring whether residents are being exposed to toxic air and flood waters during their daily routines.
Core Research Topics: GIScience, spatial temporal data mining, movement analytics, spatial simulation models, environmental spatial exposure modeling.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Develops spatial algorithms to analyze human environmental exposure, tracking how populations move through polluted air zones and flood hazard corridors using mobile GPS tracks and GIS spatial models.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: GIS spatial analysis (ArcGIS Pro, QGIS), spatial-temporal trajectory mining, agent-based modeling, Python (GeoPandas, shapely, networkx).
Recruiting Context: Active researcher in GIScience with high interest in students with GIS and spatial programming backgrounds.
Candidate Match:
GISSpatial AnalysisGeographyPython
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Discussing your background in GIS, spatial analysis, and Python scripting applied to environmental exposure and geospatial analytics."
Departmental Unit № 2
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering (St. Anthony Falls Laboratory)
PhD in Civil Engineering (Water Resources / Environmental)
100% Full Funding Guaranteed (5 Years)
Funding Package: Tuition waiver + 12-month stipend (~$32,000/yr) + health insurance.
Fall Priority Deadline: December 15
GRE Policy: Not required
English Minimums: TOEFL iBT 79 or IELTS 6.5
MS in Civil Engineering (Thesis Option)
Funded on Research Track via RA
Funding Reality: Thesis MS students funded as Graduate Research Assistants at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory.
Application Deadline: December 15
Admissions Advisory: If full funding is required and MS is self-funded, students are strongly advised to apply directly to the PhD track.
Vetted Matched Scholars (1 Profiles)
Prof. William A. Arnold
Joseph T. and Rose S. Ling Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
He studies how natural sunlight in rivers breaks down toxic drugs, pesticides, and industrial chemicals, discovering how nature cleans polluted water and what toxic fragments get left behind.
Core Research Topics: Environmental organic chemistry, aquatic pollutant degradation, pesticide and antibiotic water pollution, photochemical reaction kinetics, wet-lab water analysis.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Co-authored 2026 guidelines in ES&T Letters on environmental contaminant measurement. Investigates sunlight-driven photochemical degradation of pharmaceuticals and pesticides in surface lake and river waters.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), mass spectrometry, solar simulators, chemical reaction kinetics, wet-lab analytical water testing.
Recruiting Context: Distinguished leader in environmental aquatic chemistry with continuous federal grant support.
Candidate Match:
Environmental PollutionLab Water TestingWater QualityEnvironmental Chemistry
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Highlighting your laboratory testing and water analysis background, referencing his research on photochemical contaminant transformation and aquatic chemical kinetics."