UTK Geography & Sustainability

Meet our 2025-2026 graduate students! 🧡🌎 Got our traditional picture outside of BGB just in time for #GeographyAwarenessWeek!

Assistant Professor Gabe Schwartzman is part of a collaborative interdisciplinary research project studying data centers' planning and impact on communities in the South. Learn more: artsci.utk.edu/geography-prof… #UTArtSci #CASAdvantage @SloanFoundation @UTKGeography @ResearchUTK

Gabe Schwartzman, assistant professor in @ArtsSciencesUT, will study the development of data centers in the southern United States, their impact on rural communities, and the social implications of energy policies, regulations, and systems. bit.ly/4daF2KU

As part of this year’s cohort, Brian will travel to New York City to workshop his research in critical human geography and network with NYU’s leading faculty and deans. Congratulations, Brian!! 🎉

PhD Candidate Brian Boyce has been selected as a 2026 NYU Faculty First Look Scholar! Hosted by @nyuniversity Arts & Science , this highly competitive national program recognizes emerging scholars with exceptional potential to become future faculty leaders.

Known as the “Green Cowboy,” Freeman championed clean energy and climate‑conscious policy long before it became mainstream, and his legacy continues to inspire new generations of sustainability leaders.

This award honors S. David “Dave” Freeman, a UT alum and nationally recognized pioneer in energy policy whose career transformed public utilities, accelerated renewable energy adoption, and shaped environmental decision‑making across multiple U.S. presidential administrations.

We’re excited to share a brand‑new funding opportunity for undergraduate students majoring or minoring in Sustainability — the S. David Freeman Sustainability Scholarship! ✨ ✈️ The scholarship will provide support for travel for study abroad, conferences, or workshops

Last week, the Friesen Black Cultural Center hosted “Taste of Appalachia,” featuring regional food and live bluegrass music. Huge shoutout to our own Jake Watkins for helping plan the event, and it was wonderful to see folks from our department there in support!

🎙️ Spatial Signals Podcast | Episode 48: Sleep Is Highly Overrated I recently had a great conversation with Bradley Shellito and Chris McGinty on the Spatial Signals podcast by AmericaView. We discussed my journey into GIS, the motivation behind building open source geospatial tools, and my experiences teaching and publishing books in geospatial data science. Listen here: americaview.podbean.com Substack: americaview.substack.com/p/spatial-sign… #SpatialSignals #AmericaView #Geospatial #RemoteSensing #GIS #GeoAI #OpenSource

❗️Publication alert ❗️Dr. Sally Horn and collaborators have published a paper in Physical Geography on a new sediment record of environmental history from a landslide-dammed lake in Costa Rica. Read it at the 🔗 here: tandfonline.com/eprint/EMIUGAB…

.@theAAG @AmericanGeo @NCGE1915 @NCSSNetwork Bringing @ConversationUS into the Geography Classroom: Public Storytelling as Authentic Learning. Honored to write w/@Kat_Geographic @stjk1997. Proudly representing @UTKGeography @UTKnoxville @ArtsSciencesUT tandfonline.com/eprint/U6NWKTF…

Dr. Derek Alderman, Dr. Katrina Stack, and PhD Candidate Seth Kannarr recently published a new article, “Bringing The Conversation into the Geography Classroom: Public Storytelling as Authentic Learning” in The Professional Geographer. Read here: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Congratulations to @MLKStreet for this well deserved recognition!

Chancellor's Professor Derek Alderman was interviewed as a place-naming expert in a discussion of the renaming of the Gulf. He mentioned how the change served deeper purposes than people may have thought. Learn more: usatoday.com/story/news/nat… #UTArtSci #CASAdvantage @UTKGeography

Want to easily explore and visualize LiDAR point clouds from NOAA Digital Coast? In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to search, load, and interact with massive coastal LiDAR datasets using a powerful web app built with the maplibre-gl-lidar plugin. No complex setup required. ust open the browser and start exploring. Try the Web App: noaa-lidar.gishub.org GitHub Repository: github.com/opengeos/mapli… Full video tutorial: youtu.be/CEmFT6aEE70 NOAA Digital Coast: coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/l… #lidar #opensource #geosptial #mapping #noaa #opendata

The #AAG2026 mobile app is almost here! The app helps you get the most out of the Annual Meeting—explore the program, manage your schedule, and more. Attendees will soon receive instructions on how to unlock all meeting content. Check out the user guide: buff.ly/RX9eTdV

Women are essential to how people see and understand the world, yet their contributions have long been overlooked. Melinda Laituri, professor emeritus at CSU, shares the importance of women addressing the intractable issues societies face around the world. buff.ly/QYXcDP8

The Spring 2026 Graduate Student Research Awards are now open! Grants up to $5,000 are awarded to selected students to support their research, and creative activities. The deadline for proposals to be received in the Graduate School for spring 2026 is March 2 by 5 PM.

.@UTProvost @DondePlowman Deeply honored to be chosen for the Gilbert White Distinguished Public Service Award @theAAG. Proud to represent our modern land grant mission @UTKGeography @UTKnoxville @ArtsSciencesUT #derek-alderman" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">aag.org/2026-aag-award…