PhD STUDENT

Sarah Bardin is a doctoral student in Geography at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. Sarah received her M.A. in Geography at ASU and her B.A. in Public Policy and Political Science at the University of Chicago. Prior to ASU, she spent several years working as a research analyst and statistical programmer at Mathematica–a social policy think tank, where she supported large-scale, nationally-representative program and policy evaluations in the areas of nutrition, child welfare, and family planning. Sarah's research focuses on leveraging spatial modeling and GIS to generate policy-relevant, actionable insights from data.

PhD STUDENT

Coming from a background of math and computer science, Tyler develops algorithms and statistical methods for spatial data science. His work aims to better represent and mathematically model spatial problems and to chip away at our understanding of core geographical concepts, such as scale and process. Through algorithm design, he also seeks to advance the principled use of (spatial) data science in social science. In his spare time, Tyler loves watching movies, playing video games, and biking. Tyler received a B.S. with High Honors in Mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park and he's currently a Ph.D student at Arizona State University in the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC).

PhD STUDENT

Wenxin Yang is a PhD student interested in spatial ecology and using remote sensing and GIS to examine conservation issues. She is involved in the NSF-funded project Near-term Forecasts of Global Plant Distributions to model the connectivity of protected areas in the U.S. She received an M.S. in Urban Spatial Analytics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and a B.S. in Resources and Environmental Science from Beijing Normal University in 2018. (Co-Advisor with Dr. Amy Frazier).

Xuebin Yang | Oklahoma State University | Advisor - Analyzed potential woody plant cover across precipitation gradients in Oklahoma and Texas as researcher on OIA-1301789. Key Publications: 1, 2. Xuebin is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Kansas State University.

Mehak Sachdeva | Arizona State University | Committee Member - focus on computational methods and local regression models to analyze urban processes. Mehak is currently a postdoctoral researcher working with Stewart Fotheringham at Arizona State University.

Avipsa Roy | Arizona State University | Committee Member - develops algorithms to understand how human mobility patterns impact social equity in cities. Avipsa is currently an Assistant Professor at UC Irvine where she heads the STaNCe Lab.

Gustavo A. Ovando Montejo | Oklahoma State University | Committee Member - Gustavo is currently an Assistant Professor at Utah State University.

Advisor

Alek Berg | Arizona State University

Lindsay King | Oklahoma State University
Jennifer Mason | Ryerson University
Kirk Suitor | Ryerson University
Michael Morrish | Ryerson University
Tomasz Migdal | Ryerson University
Rajiv Lalla | Ryerson University
Tegan Buckingham | Ryerson University
Kevin Mackay | Ryerson University
Adam McKay | Ryerson University

Committee Member
Austin Boardman | Oklahoma State University
Heather Hart | Ryerson University
Jarrett Moore | Ryerson University
William Davis | Ryerson University
Sandra Albanese | Ryerson University
Wei Hu | Ryerson University