Assistant Professor of Geography
About Me:
As an urban geographer, I am concerned with how land use, transportation, and community health affect the sustainability of urban ecosystems. My methodological interests in simulation science include traditional system dynamics, spatial dynamic models, and agent-based representations of social influence, local access and migration dynamics. I employ a variety of software (primarily AnyLogic, but also Vensim, Stella, and NetLogo) to simulate urban system dynamics using a mix of continuous stock-flow structures and discrete agents. Current research projects include a civic engagement with the Massachusetts Avenue Project to model urban agriculture and the local food movement, and an NIH-funded partnership with the dental schools of New York University and Columbia University to model policy and program interventions that can improve oral health among older adults in Manhattan. I've also worked with Georgia Tech on an NSF-funded project that examined the role of mental models in shaping stakeholder decisions about shared resource concerns in metropolitan areas. Prior to academe I accumulated several years of industry experience as an engineer / strategist with United Technologies, General Motors, and Intel corporations.
Courses Taught:
- GEO 633: Critical Urban Issues.
- GEO 493/593: Dynamic Modeling of Human and Environmental Systems.
- GEO 367: Urban Social Geography.
- GEO 102: Introduction to Human Geography.
Educational Background:
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Urbana-Champaign, IL
Ph.D. (2007) degree in Geography.
Thesis: Simulating the Social Dynamics of Spatial Disparity through Neighborhood Network Evolution.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Cambridge, MA
M.S. (2001) degrees in Management and Chemical Engineering through the Leaders for Manufacturing program.
Thesis: A System Dynamics Exploration of Future Automotive Propulsion Regimes.
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, College Station, TX
B.S. (1996) degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry.
SANTA FE INSTITUTE, Santa Fe, NM
Participant in the 2004 Complex Systems Summer School (CSSS).
