Departmental Unit № 1
Department of Geographical Sciences
PhD in Geographical Sciences
100% Full Funding Guaranteed (5 Years)
Funding Package: Full tuition remission + 9-to-12 month living stipend (~$28,000–$34,000/yr) + comprehensive health insurance guaranteed through Teaching Assistantships (TA), Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA), and Dean's Fellowships.
Fall Priority Deadline: December 15 (Fall Admission)
GRE Policy: Not required / Waived
English Minimums: TOEFL iBT 96 minimum or IELTS 7.0 minimum
MS in Geospatial Information Sciences / Thesis Option
GRA / TA Eligible on Research Track
Funding Reality: Research students can receive full tuition remission and salary as GRAs on massive NASA/USGS grants.
Application Deadline: January 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 (2 Profiles)
Prof. Matthew C. Hansen
Professor of Geographical Sciences; Co-Director, Global Land Analysis & Discovery (GLAD)
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
One of the most cited satellite remote sensing scientists on Earth; he created the system used by world governments to monitor global deforestation and wetland loss in real time.
Core Research Topics: Satellite remote sensing, global forest change, NASA/USGS Landsat time-series, Google Earth Engine, global land-cover dynamics.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: World-famous remote sensing pioneer; creator of the Global Forest Watch and GLAD forest alert system. Processes petabytes of satellite imagery on Google Earth Engine to monitor weekly global deforestation and wetland drainage.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Landsat/Sentinel satellite constellations, Google Earth Engine, automated change-detection algorithms, high-performance spatial cluster computing, Python.
Recruiting Context: Director of the famous GLAD lab with unmatched NASA and federal remote sensing grant funding.
Candidate Match:
Remote SensingGISGeographyPython
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Discussing your experience with satellite image time-series analysis and Google Earth Engine, expressing strong admiration for his Global Forest Watch and GLAD remote sensing monitoring systems."
Prof. Tatiana Loboda
Professor and Chair of Geographical Sciences
In Plain Terms · What This Scholar Does:
She uses NASA satellite observations to track monster forest fires and shows how environmental changes and stagnant water bodies spread dangerous diseases.
Core Research Topics: Satellite remote sensing of wildfires, spatial environmental risk, infectious disease ecohydrology, climate-human interactions, spatial statistics.
Recent 2024–2026 Works & Grants: Department Chair. Science team lead for NASA Earth observation campaigns in the Arctic and tropics, mapping wildfire burn severity and environmental factors governing water-related disease outbreaks using satellite data.
Laboratory Instruments & Methods: Moderate-resolution satellite radiometry (MODIS, VIIRS), machine learning spatial regression, GIS spatial epidemiology, Python.
Recruiting Context: Department Chair with extensive NASA grant portfolio.
Candidate Match:
Remote SensingGISGeographyEnvironmental Science
Tailored Cold-Email Opening Hook:
"Discussing your background in environmental geography and GIS spatial analysis, connecting to her NASA satellite monitoring of environmental hazards."