Congratulations to Yan Chen for successfully defending her dissertation, which is titled: Climatic Drivers of Gross Primary Productivity Variability: Insights from Observations and Earth System Models.
Graduate Students
Congcong Miao featured in UConn Today
Congcong Miao (PhD ’26) and her research featured on the UConn Today website.
Check out the full article, titled UConn Ph.D. Uses High-Tech Tools to Help Urban Planners Make Cities Safer.
today.uconn.edu/2026/04/meet-the-graduate-congcong-miao-ph-d
GSCU Grad students earn AAG IGIF Awards
| Congratulations go out to Ludwig Chen, Youshuang Hu, and Ailing Jin who each received a 2026 AAG International Geographic Funds Award.
The IGIF funds are designed to support university student career development in the academic areas of applied spatial analysis or geographic information science or systems (SA/GISS).
Awardees will be celebrated during the upcoming AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco as a part of the AAG Awards Ceremony, which they are encouraged to attend.
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Daniel Kraemer successfully defends his dissertation
Congratulations to Daniel Kraemer for successfully defending his dissertation, which is titled: Context is Everything: Advancing Earthquake Social Vulnerability Models Through Identifying Local and Hazard-Specific Drivers
Sydney Clements successfully defends her dissertation
Congratulations to Sydney Clements for successfully defending her dissertation, which is titled: Distributing Equity: An Analysis of Existing Food Hub Distribution Models in Connecticut.
GSCU Student Sydney Clements Named Switzer Fellow For Environmental Studies
Sydney Clements ’16 (CLAS), a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies, was named a Fellow of the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation for applied science, academic research, policy, and environmental activism.
Clements’ research is focused on the intersection of food access, farmer viability, and environmental sustainability. She is currently studying best practices for network food hubs to build a more sustainable and fair local food system in Connecticut.
The Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation is a national network that identifies and nurtures environmental leaders to create positive environmental change. This year, Clements is one of 24 Switzer Fellows to join the network of over 750 environmental leaders across the United States.
Aaron Adams successfully Defends his Dissertation
Congratulations to Aaron Adams for successfully defending his dissertation, which is titled: Spatial Perspectives on COVID-19: Lessons for Future Pandemic Preparedness.
Jake Layburn Successfully Defends his Thesis
Congratulations to Jake Layburn for successfully defending his thesis, which is titled: Health Geographic Perspective on Mpox Outbreak in the United States.
Quinn Molloy Successfully Defends her Dissertation
Congratulations to Quinn Molloy for successfully defending her dissertation, which is titled: Auto-dependency, Equity, and Place: A comprehensive assessment of household spending on transportation in the United States.
Yunhe Cui successfully defends her dissertation
Congratulations to Yunhe Cui for successfully defending her dissertation, which is titled: Bike-sharing: Towards Equitable Urban Transportation.