Sukanya Dasgupta

• Earth System Science PhD Student under NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) 

After completing her Bachelor’s Degree at University of Memphis and Master’s Degree at Auburn University in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sukanya is continuing her education in getting her PhD in the Interdisciplinary Earth System Science program in the Geosciences department at Auburn University. Her research focus is in urban agglomeration, climate modeling, urban heat islands, geospatial data, urbanization, remote sensing, and data science concepts, such as data mining, machine learning, and coding in Python and R. She has a passion for photography, hiking, traveling, cooking and playing with puppies.

Syeda Nazifa Tasneem

• Geography Master’s Student

I am Syeda Nazifa Tasneem from Dhaka, Bangladesh. I have completed my B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Geography and Environment from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. My area of interest is urbanization, climate change, environmental pollution, GIS and Remote Sensing. Currently, I am pursuing my Master’s in Geosciences Department (Geography concentration) at Auburn University.   

Miranda Silano

• Geography Master’s Student under the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) 

Miranda Silano has a Bachelor’s of Science in Geology from the University of Florida. Her undergraduate research background is in vertebrate paleontology, paleoclimatology, and paleoecology. Her past research has involved using stable isotope geochemistry to help piece together past climates and ecosystems. Learning about the past has fueled an interest in the situation with current climate change, and how humans are involved. She is excited to start research with Dr. Chandana Mitra on climate change and urban sustainability and working with others to help make the Earth a healthier home. 

Dr. Murat Atasoy

• Post-Doc

Dr. Atasoy’s research interests focus on anthropogenic activity, urban growth, climate science and Remote Sensing applications with GIS. In particular, he offers courses in environmental science, GIS, urban ecology, environmental sociology, ecosystem services and management and climate change dynamics. In order to tie together the environmental disturbance and urban geography, he has worked extensively to enhance and extend the applications of Land Use/Land Cover change, urban growth dynamics, climate change and resiliency. He employs an integrated approach using GIS-Remote Sensing techniques, statistical analyses and urban growth models to disperse the knowledge in dynamics of human-environment interactions. Dr. Atasoy’s present research projects are associated with the determination of Land Use/Land Cover change, urban heat island estimates and estimating human-environment interactions in relation to public health and sociology. His current project focuses on the urban growth and its correlations with health conditions of minorities in the US. Another aspect of his experimental study is to investigate different ethnic origin individuals’ public green space accessibility using GIS-remote sensing techniques and statistical analyses. The prospective outcomes of his research will help global cities develop a necessary complement to facilitate better understanding of human-environment interactions, anthropogenic disturbance and landscape quality. His future objectives include conducting research with interdisciplinary fields to examine urban heat islands, climate resiliency and sustainable urban growth model development. As a result, his research team will disseminate these findings through K-12 education and implicate STEM-based teaching techniques to utilize the empirical results with students and extension services.