Thank you for your interest in the HEIMA Lab! We are interested in connecting with prospective researchers and students. Please see below for descriptions of current student positions.
General information for prospective graduate students can be found on the Department of Geography's website. Specific questions can be addressed to Dr. Nicholas Magliocca (nrmagliocca@ua.edu).
If you want to visit but can't, take a virtual tour of the beautiful UA campus via drone!
CURRENT POSITIONS
1. Two Funded Ph.D. Assistantship Positions in Agent-Based and/or Land-Use Change Modeling
I am recruiting two full-time doctoral students to begin in fall semester 2021. The students will join an interdisciplinary team working to support simulation modeling for one of the two projects described below. Funding support will include tuition waiver, stipend, and some conference travel. Priority will be given to students with a Master's degree. Proficiency with GIS is required. Previous programming experience is preferred, but no specific programming language is required. Experience working with remote sensing imagery and data processing is desirable. Prospective students must be self-motivated and have a willingness to work in an interdisciplinary research environment.
If interested, please contact Dr. Nicholas Magliocca (nrmagliocca@ua.edu) with your CV, transcripts (unofficial is acceptable), writing sample (e.g., thesis), and any other material you would like to be considered. Full applications to the graduate program are due February 15, but to be considered for funding applications should be submitted by December 15. However, contacting Dr. Magliocca well in advance is strongly encouraged.
2. MS and PhD Students in Geography at the University of Alabama
The HEIMA Lab at the University of Alabama is seeking MS and PhD students to work in the general area of human-environment interactions. The Lab’s research is focused on understanding how humans make decisions to modify the environment, and how those modifications change environmental dynamics and feedback on subsequent human decisions. We are seeking MS and PhD students that are interested in bridging human and physical geography and will complement ongoing project topics including:
Qualifications
The Lab is seeking students with expertise in: GIS and spatial analysis, agent-based modeling, spatial statistical modeling, network analysis, synthesis of case studies (e.g., meta-analysis), or other computational approaches to studying human-environment interactions.
Stipend, tuition, and fees
Funding will be provided through Dr. Magliocca’s active projects and/or the Department of Geography’s Graduate Assistantship program. The position carries a full tuition waiver, a stipend, and health insurance. Additional funding for conference presentations will also be provided. Fellowships through the University of Alabama Graduate School are available for exceptional applicants.
To Apply
To be considered for funding support, applications should be received by December 15 for fall submission. Applications for spring semester should be received by October 15. Admission and selection for Graduate Assistantships is highly competitive. Interested students should first contact Dr. Nicholas Magliocca (nrmagliocca@ua.edu) with a statement of interest, an unofficial transcript, and (optional) relevant test scores (e.g., GRE, TOEFL) to assess competitiveness and topical fit with the HEIMA Lab.
General information for prospective graduate students can be found on the Department of Geography's website. Specific questions can be addressed to Dr. Nicholas Magliocca (nrmagliocca@ua.edu).
If you want to visit but can't, take a virtual tour of the beautiful UA campus via drone!
CURRENT POSITIONS
1. Two Funded Ph.D. Assistantship Positions in Agent-Based and/or Land-Use Change Modeling
I am recruiting two full-time doctoral students to begin in fall semester 2021. The students will join an interdisciplinary team working to support simulation modeling for one of the two projects described below. Funding support will include tuition waiver, stipend, and some conference travel. Priority will be given to students with a Master's degree. Proficiency with GIS is required. Previous programming experience is preferred, but no specific programming language is required. Experience working with remote sensing imagery and data processing is desirable. Prospective students must be self-motivated and have a willingness to work in an interdisciplinary research environment.
- “Making the hidden visible: Accelerated land-use change and degradation caused by narco-trafficking in and around Central America’s protected areas.” This project uses narco-trafficking in the Central American Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) as a case study for how to render illicit activity spatially and temporally explicit – in other words, make the hidden visible. A novel combination of remote-sensing multi-temporal-data fusion, counterfactual land change modeling, and synthesis of criminal activity datasets is used to characterize and predict the impact of narco-traffickers on land-use change in and around protected areas across the MBC. The prospective student will develop a land-use change simulation model to estimate the amount of land-use change caused by illicit versus conventional economic activities. The model developed will be applicable to land-use change modeling more broadly, and the student will learn innovative computational experiment methods. This three-year project is supported by NASA’s Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) program.
- “Illicit drug trafficking networks: Behavioral responses to interdiction.” This project is developing a scenario testing environment that tightly integrates a GIS front end with a simulation modeling and data analytics backend. The testing environment will enable the quantification of narco-traffickers’ spatial and operational adaptive responses across the spectrum of interdiction scenarios, from which predictive ‘behavioral profiles’ will be derived, catalyzing a shift from reactive to anticipatory medium-to long-term counterdrug interdiction strategies. The prospective student will further develop an existing agent-based model of an illicit supply network, and explore innovative methods of coupling simulation models with spatial optimization model and Geographic Information System (GIS). This four-year project is supported by the National Science Foundation’s program Disrupting Illicit Supply Networks.
If interested, please contact Dr. Nicholas Magliocca (nrmagliocca@ua.edu) with your CV, transcripts (unofficial is acceptable), writing sample (e.g., thesis), and any other material you would like to be considered. Full applications to the graduate program are due February 15, but to be considered for funding applications should be submitted by December 15. However, contacting Dr. Magliocca well in advance is strongly encouraged.
2. MS and PhD Students in Geography at the University of Alabama
The HEIMA Lab at the University of Alabama is seeking MS and PhD students to work in the general area of human-environment interactions. The Lab’s research is focused on understanding how humans make decisions to modify the environment, and how those modifications change environmental dynamics and feedback on subsequent human decisions. We are seeking MS and PhD students that are interested in bridging human and physical geography and will complement ongoing project topics including:
- Global synthesis of large-scale land acquisitions and associated land-use changes.
- Risk perception and adaptive responses of residential households to coastal hazards
- Land-use change in Latin America driven by illicit commodity trafficking networks.
- Land-use and livelihood change driven by global agricultural commodity markets.
- Integrating a livelihoods perspective into food-energy-water (FEW) nexus analysis.
- Socio-environmental synthesis of coastal saltmarsh evolution and vulnerability.
- Cultural evolution approaches to understanding landscape modification in the Anthropocene.
Qualifications
The Lab is seeking students with expertise in: GIS and spatial analysis, agent-based modeling, spatial statistical modeling, network analysis, synthesis of case studies (e.g., meta-analysis), or other computational approaches to studying human-environment interactions.
Stipend, tuition, and fees
Funding will be provided through Dr. Magliocca’s active projects and/or the Department of Geography’s Graduate Assistantship program. The position carries a full tuition waiver, a stipend, and health insurance. Additional funding for conference presentations will also be provided. Fellowships through the University of Alabama Graduate School are available for exceptional applicants.
To Apply
To be considered for funding support, applications should be received by December 15 for fall submission. Applications for spring semester should be received by October 15. Admission and selection for Graduate Assistantships is highly competitive. Interested students should first contact Dr. Nicholas Magliocca (nrmagliocca@ua.edu) with a statement of interest, an unofficial transcript, and (optional) relevant test scores (e.g., GRE, TOEFL) to assess competitiveness and topical fit with the HEIMA Lab.
