GGS Research Activities

04/2012: New grant awarded to Dr. Chaowei Yang (PI) and Dr. Chen Xu (co-PI) from NASA Goddard for Joint Laboratory for Advanced Spatiotemporal Thinking and Computing (LASTIC). The current funding as of 04/18/2012 is $240,000.00

02/2012: New grant awarded to Dr. Sheryl Beach from the University of Puerto Rico and NSF for The Collapse of the Ancient Maya: Multi-Disciplinary Research on Society and the Environment. The current funding as of 02/06/2012 is $59,307.00

11/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Nigel Waters from the Postal Regulatory Commission for Optimizing the Closure of the US Postal Offices. The current funding as of 11/30/2011 is $8,000.00

10/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from the U.S. Weather Service and Riverside for Exploratory Research for Satellite Products and Understanding Evironmental Forcing. The current funding as of 10/19/2011 is $178,625.00

9/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Peggy Agouris from NASA for IPA. The total grant amount as of 11/07/2011 is $437,749.00

9/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from the USDA for USDA Crop Mapping Support. The current funding as of 10/19/2011 is $24,000.00

9/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Xianjun Hao and Dr. John Qu from NASA for MODIS Calibration and Characterization Support. The anticipated total funding as of 10/3/2011 is $289,440.00

8/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Donglian Sun from NOAA for Land Surface Temperature Evaluations. The current funding as of 10/3/2011 is $56,000.00

8/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach from NSF for Collaborative Research: Perennial Wetland Formation and Human Adaptation in NW Belize. The current funding as of 10/3/2011 is $281,783.00

8/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Songqing Chen (PI) and Dr. Chaowei Yang (co-PI) from NSF for CSR: Small: System Research to Advance Real-Time Dust Storm Forecasting. The total award amount as of 10/3/2011 is $425,000.00

8/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from NOAA for Satellite reprocessing in Support of NOAA CDR and Reanalysis Program. The current funding is $150,000.00

8/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Arie Croitoru from Image Processing Technologies for Service Agreement for Image Processing Technologies. The current funding is $40,689.00

7/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu and Dr. Xianjun Hao from the World Meteorology Organization for ESTC/COS/GMU World Meteorology Organization (WMO) WAMIS Support (Hardware). The current funding is $12,000.00

6/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Matthew Rice from the Army Corp of Engineers for Assessing the Value of Neo-Geographic Information. The current funding as of 4/4/2012 is $100,000.00

6/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach from NSF for Collaborative Research: Uci-Cansahcab Regional Intergration Project. The current funding is $27,777.00

6/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Kevin M. Curtin from FEMA and Virginia Fire Chiefs Association for Virginia Fire Chiefs Association Program Review. The current funding as of 3/19/2012 is $66,447.00

5/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Germana Manca from the University of Sassari, Italy, for Research Activity and Seminar Presentations in the field of Landuse Land planning. The total award amount is $21,000.00

5/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Kevin M. Curtin (Co-PI) and Dr. Lisa Pawloski (PI) from the Institute for East Asian Studies at Thammasat University, Thailand for the study of The development of economics, society, environment and health under international cooperation in teh Mekong Basin. The current funding is $12,000.00

3/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Peggy Agouris (PI) and Dr. John Kwiatkowski (Co-PI) from NASA and ASRC for Technical Response to METS 11 NNG10CR16C, Task 089, by the Microwave Remote Sensing Group. The anticipated total funding as of 4/4/2012 is $11,575,021.70

2/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Kevin M. Curtin from George Mason University Office of the Provost for Summer Research Funding. The total funding is $5,000.00

1/2011: New grant awarded to Dr. Paul Houser from NASA for Observed Water Cycle Predictability and NEWS Organization. The anticipated total funding is $568,273.00

12/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Kevin M. Curtin (PI) and Dr. Lisa Pawloski (Co-PI) from the Center for Global Studies at George Mason University for the study of the Spatial Elements of Health Outcomes in Kurdistan. The total award amount is $5,000.00

9/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. David Wong from the Bureau of the Census for Mapping ACS Data with MOE Information. The total award amount is $83,386.00

9/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Donglian Sun from NOAA for Algorithm Evaluation and Validation for GOES-R Flood and Standing Water (FSW) Product. The total grant amount as of 11/07/2011 is $106,759.00

9/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach from the National Park Service for Development of Curriculum-Based Spy Training Camp. The current funding is $20,200.00

9/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach and Dr. Linda Perry from NSF for EAGER: Linking Archaeological Starch Residues with Ancient Behaviors. The current funding as of 10/3/2011 is $82,348.00

9/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Germana Manca from the U.S. Department of Education for GISESP – Geographic Information Science for Environmental and Spatial Planning. The anticipated total funding is $415,718.00

8/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Anthony Stefanidis, Dr. Matthew Rice, Co-PI, and Dr. Jana Kosecka, Co-PI, VSIT&E from NGIA for MobiSynth: Enhancing Virtual Environments through Motion Imagery Analysis. The anticipated total funding is $748,114.00

7/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Anthony Stefanidis from Draper Laboratory for Spatiotemporal Analysis for Geospatial Surveillance Applications Draper Fiscal Yr. 11, Fiscal Yr. 12 (URAD). The current funding as of 10/21/2011 is $252,000.00

6/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from the Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology for NUIST-GMU Base for Exchange Faculty Program. The total award amount as of 02/06/2012 is $69,962.00

5/2010: New grant awarded to Dr. Huayi Wu (PI) and Dr. Chaowei Yang (Co-PI) from the Microsoft Corporation and GMU Foundation for Seamless Integration and Visualization of Heterogeneous and Distributed Earth Science Data Using Bing Map. The current funding as of 10/3/2011 is $67,857.00

12/2009: New grant awarded to Dr. Chaowei Yang from the GMU Foundation for Center Institutional Research. The funding to date as of 02/06/2012 is $32,673.00

10/2009: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu and Dr. Xianjun Hao from NASA and Sonoma Technology, Inc. for Reducing Unvertainties in National Somke Emissions Modeling as Applied in the BlueSky Framework: Dead and Live Fuel Moisture, Plume Rise, and Heat Release. The current funding is $72,000.00

9/2009: New grant awarded to Dr. Timothy Leslie and Dr. Lisa Pawloski, Co-PI, CHHS, from Inova for The Socio-geographic Determinants of Patients with Chronic Liver Disease. The total award amount is $10,000.00

9/2009: New grant awarded to Dr. Pasquale Franzese from NSF for Collaborative Research: Measurements and Advanced Modeling of Dispersion in the Urban Environment. The anticipated total funding is $255,719.00

09/2009: New grant award to GGS faculty from the National Science Foundation:
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach (PI George Mason University), of the Geography and GeoInformation Science Department, has been awarded a new grant from the National Science Foundation for “Collaborative Research: Perennial Wetland Formation and Human Adaptation in NW Belize”. The first installment of this award is $146,158, with a continuation of up to 30 months (total collaborative award $322,520). This award is collaborative with Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Science Technology and International Affairs Program (Timothy Beach, PI Georgetown). This international field and lab-based research project will study northern Belize's wetlands to test models of wetland formation and long-term human-environmental interactions in the Maya Lowlands. The main goals of this project are to determine the timing and processes of perennial wetland formation across a range of environments in the northern Belize coastal plain; to discern the underestimated role of water chemistry in landscape formation in this tropical region; and to establish the types and ranges of human adaptations to wetland formation, linking sites of previous research. Besides doctoral student funding, this grant award provides international field and laboratory experiences for graduate and undergraduate students, and allows the members of the research team and students to collaborate internationally with other earth scientists, archaeologists, and members of the local communities in which the research will occur.

8/2009: New grant awarded to Dr. Donglian Sun from NOAA for Land Surface Temperature and Flood Standing Water from the GOES Satellites. The total award amount is $150,233.00

3/2009: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from USDA for Evaluation and Improvement of Smoke Plume Rise Modeling. The total award amount is $116,143.00

11/2008: New grant award to GGS faculty from the General Services Administration:
Ed Zolnik, Kevin Curtin and Tim Leslie, all with the GGS Department have been awarded a $144,438 grant from the General Services Administration of the federal government. This competitive award is part of the federal government's initiative entitled: Envisioning the Future Federal Workplace in the Washington, DC Region. This initiative seeks to cultivate innovative regional coordination, design and planning practices for accommodating federal offices in the Washington region over the next half century. The award-winning team from George Mason will develop a GIS-based, decision support tool to help the federal government assess the costs and benefits of various siting scenarios throughout the National Capital Region. Besides funding several doctoral students, this grant award is expected to allow the members of the research team to cultivate more extensive research collaborations with faculty from other departments at George Mason such as computer science and engineering as well as regional economic development and planning stakeholders from throughout the National Capital Region.

10/2008: New NSF (Information and Data Management) award to GGS faculty to host a Workshop on Geospatial and Geotemporal Informatics:
Peggy Agouris received a new grant (budget: $50,000) from the National Science Foundation to organize a Workshop on GeoSpatial and GeoTemporal Informatics. The workshop will be held in January, 2009, in Washington DC, and will bring together leading experts in geoinformatics from the US and abroad. The objective is to identify the emerging major challenges in geospatial and geotemporal informatics, and to make relevant recommendations to NSF, other funding agencies, and the scientific community, in anticipation of future needs and demands.

9/2008: New grant awarded to Dr. David Wong from USGS for Basic Ordering Agreement for Student Services Opportunities with the USGS. The total award amount as of 04/18/2012 is $578,632.00

9/2008: New grant awarded to Dr. Paul Houser from NASA for Introducing a Water Budget Constraint to Improve Land Data Assimilation Performance. The total award amount as of 11/30/2011 is $90,000.00

9/2008: New grant awarded to Dr. Ruixin Yang from NASA for Aerosol-Cloud-Monsoon Interaction Studies with Single Column Model (SCM) and Comparison with GEOS4/5-GCM Simulation. The total award amount is $90,000.00

9/2008: GGS Faculty participates in Counter-IED Research project:
Kevin Curtin is participating in a multi-year project designed to produce Counter-IED Research for the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). This effort is lead by faculty in the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research, and in conjunction with the C4I Center, the Center for Social Complexity, and the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Professor Curtin's participation focuses on the use of GIS network analytical techniques (including linear referencing) and the optimization of network based phenomena.

9/2008: New NGA NURI award to GGS Faculty for Spatiotemporal Tracking:
Anthony Stefanidis and Peggy Agouris received a grant from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) as part of the NURI competition, for 'Spatio-Temporal Tracking of Entities: Determining Object Location from Text Descriptions through Spatial Analysis'. This 2-year award is a collaboration with linguists from Brandeis University, with GMU's budget being approx. $199,632.

8/2008: New grant awarded to Dr. Anthony Stefanidis and Dr. Peggy Agouris, Co-PI, from NGIA and Brandeis University for Spatio-Temporal Tracking of Entities: Determining Object Location from Text Descriptions through Spatial Analysis. The total award amount as of 10/19/2011 is $199,632.00.

7/2008: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) program grant to GGS faculty and student:
Ruixing Yang and Partha S Bhattacharjee received an NASA NESSF Grant for: 'Aerosol-Cloud-Monsoon interaction studies with Single Column Model (SCM) and comparison with GEOS4/5-GCM simulation'. This grant has an initial duration of 12 months and provides funds for Mr. Bhattacharjee's dissertation work. It also covers partial tuition and some miscellaneous expenses. This award is renewable up to 36 months.

7/2008: New NSF (Geography and Regional Science) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant to GGS faculty and student:
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach and Douglas A. Howard received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant for: Quantitative Hydrologic and Hydraulic Models for Jökulhlaup-Type Outflow Channels on Mars: Application of Earth Analogues, Comparative Geomorphology, and Remote Sensing. This grant has a duration of 18 months and provides funds for Mr. Howard's dissertation work, under the supervision of Dr. Beach. It covers all travel expenses to the field research site at the Jökulsá á Fjöllum channel at Vatnajökull glacier in Northeast Iceland and includes expenses for remote sensing data, petrographic sample preparation, and travel to two conferences to present research results.

6/2008: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from NOAA and UCAR for Soil Moisture Detection from Space with Multiple MODIS SRB Measurements. The total award amount as of 02/06/2012 is $15,000.00

6/2008: New grant awarded to Dr. Paul Houser from NASA and the Princeton University for Developing Consistent Earth System Data Records for the Global Terrestrial Water Cycle. The total award amount as of 10/3/2011 is $592,581.00

11/2007: New grant awarded to Dr. John Qu from NASA for NASA/GSGF/DRL Computational and Information Sciences and Technology (CIST) Support. The anticipated total funding is $277,006.00

3/2007: New grant awarded to Dr. John Kwiatkowski from NASA for Analysis and Specialized Products towards the Improvement of Satellite Precipitation Retrieval Algorithms. The total award amount is as of 4/4/2012 is $174,085.00