GeoHealth Lab seeks to understand environmental health, environmental justice, and health disparities using geographic information systems (GIS), geospatial technologies, community engagement approaches, and spatial statistical methods.

🧑‍🎓🧑‍🎓 Two Ph.D. Positions in Geospatial Assessments of Environmental Exposure/Health

• Job description: 

The GeoHealth Lab in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut is seeking two Ph.D. students interested in Geospatial Assessments of Environmental Exposure/Health to begin in Fall 2024. The successful candidates will conduct interdisciplinary research that seeks to understand how places, travel behaviors, and daily activities influence personal exposure to environmental factors that affect health (e.g., air pollution, greenspace, secondhand smoke, healthy food, noise pollution, heat, etc.) using GIS, geospatial technologies, and/or wearable sensors. They will also work closely with low-income and/or racial minority communities and local community organizations to support a project aimed at mitigating environmental health disparities. Candidates with research interests/experience in geospatial analysis of human mobility data (e.g., GPS data, travel-activity diaries, and mobile phone data), spatiotemporal data analysis, spatial statistics, individual-level exposure assessments, participatory GIS, and/or community engagements/citizen science are strongly encouraged to apply.

This position offers a tuition waiver and a competitive stipend for up to four years through a combination of research and teaching assistantships.

• Required Qualifications: 

A bachelor’s or master’s degree in Geography or related fields; proficiency with GIS; excellent written and oral communication skills in English; and strong motivation, work ethic, and the ability to work independently.

• Preferred Qualifications: 

Proficiency with one or more scientific programming languages (e.g., R, Python); interest/experience in human mobility research and geospatial assessments of personal exposure to air pollution; solid background in statistical analysis; and/or interest in community-engaged research.

• Application Process and Deadline:

Interested applicants should contact Dr. Yoo Min Park at yoomin.park@uconn.edu with a CV and expression of interest as early as possible before submitting an application to the Graduate School. The departmental deadline for applications for Fall 2024 graduate admissions with consideration for receiving this funding opportunity is December 15, 2023. For more details and the application procedure, check our admissions page (https://geography.uconn.edu/graduate/grad-application/) and the Department of Geography website (https://geography.uconn.edu/).