Doctoral Students

Geospatial and Environmental Analysis Doctoral Program

Name: Asim Banskota
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Forestry
Email: asimb@vt.edu
B.S. - Environment Science, Kathmandu University, Nepal, 2002
M.S. - International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Netherlands, 2006
Thesis: "Estimating leaf area index of salt marsh vegeation using airborne hyperspectral data"
Current research interests: Estimation of biophysical and biochemical variables of forest vegetation using hyperspectral and LiDAR remote sensing data; Object oriented image segmentation/classification of remote sensing data; Application of multivariate statistics in image processing
Major advisor: Dr. Randolph Wynne, Forestry
Recent publications:

• Banskota, A. (2007). Don’t improve it into a flop. Habitat Himalaya. Vol XIV (2)

Name: Arvind Aniel Rombawa Bhuta
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Geography
Email: bhutaaa@vt.edu
B.S. - Zoology - Auburn University 1998
B.S./B.A. ­ Environmental Science/Geography, Auburn University, 2003
M.S. - Geography, Virginia Tech, 2006
Thesis: "A dendroecological analysis of disturbance of remnant Pinus palustris, southeastern Virginia"
Current research interests: Dendrochronology of Longleaf Pine; Biogeography of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker and the Gopher Tortoise; Southeastern Physical Geography; Human Dimensions of Southeastern Natural Resources
Major advisor: Lisa M. Kennedy, Geography
Recent presentations:

• 2008: Bhuta, A., Candice R. Luebbering, Andrew S. Foy, James B. Campbell, "Kite Photography and Image Enhancement for Estimation of Productive Ground Cover in Virginia's Pastures," poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston.
• 2008: Kennedy, L. M., James B. Campbell, Arvind Bhuta, "Aerial Photography and Dendrochronology Applied to Historical Vegetation Change in a Southern Appalachian Grass Bald: Instructional Collaboration to Enhance a Graduate Research Experience," poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston.
• 2007: Bhuta. A., L.M. Kennedy, J.R. Walters. Potential for using dendrochronology to reconstruct historical cavity excavation and maintenance of longleaf pine by red-cockaded woodpeckers. The 2007 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Franisco, CA
• 2006: Bhuta A.R., L.M. Kennedy, C.A. Copenheaver, & P.M. Sheridan. The dendrochronology of Pinus palustris in Virginia. Sixth Longleaf Alliance Regional Conference, Tifton, GA
• 2006: Bhuta A., A.A. Desjardins, & L.M. Kennedy. A study of bark thickness in Pinus occidentalis (Hispaniolan pine, Swartz) in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic: An educational experience for undergraduate students. Ecological Society of America (ESA) 91st Annual Meeting, Memphis TN
• 2006: Bhuta, A., L.M. Kennedy, C.A. Copenheaver, & P.M. Sheridan. The dendroecological history of naturally occurring longleaf pine in the Coastal Plain of Virginia. The 2006 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL
• 2005: Bhuta, A., L.M. Kennedy, C.A. Copenheaver, & P.M. Sheridan. The population dynamics of longleaf pine at its northernmost range. Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Division Association of American Geographers (SEDAAG), West Palm Beach, FL
• 2005: Bhuta, A. & L. M. Kennedy. A predictive model for identifying longleaf pine habitat in southeastern Virginia. The 2005 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, CO

Awards:

• 2008: Arvind Bhuta, Candice Luebbering, Andrew Foy, and Jim Campbell were named the unanimous winners of the Virginia Association for mapping and Land Information Systems poster competition in the Higher Education Division.
• 2008: Curriculum Club's Outstanding Member Award, Geography Society at Virginia Tech
• 2007: The Sidman P. Poole Scholarship

Name: Amos Desjardins
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Geography
Email: amosd@vt.edu
B.A. - Environmental Studies, Juniata College, 2004
M.S. - Geography, Virginia Tech, 2007
Thesis: "Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of a Coastal Lagoon in Southwestern Dominican Republic"
Current research interests: the nutrient factors associated with seedling establishment in the alpine treeline ecotone (ATE), as well as
nutrient profiles along currently existing tree islands in the ATE; the relationship between micro-climate variability (through ecotone and ecosystem profiles) and vegetation patterns, soil nutrients, and soil temperature.
Major advisor: Dr. Lynn Resler, Geography
Recent presentations:

• 2008: Desjardins, Amos, Lynn Resler, "Characterizing spatial-temporal patterns of phenology at alpine treeline in Glacier National Park," poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston.
• Amos Desjardins and Lisa Kennedy, Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of a coastal lagoon in southwestern Dominican Republic. Paper presented at the 102nd annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA., April 2007
• Amos Desjardins, Lisa Kennedy and M.A. Arford, Potential for Paleotempestology and Other Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction in Coastal Lakes of the Dominican Republic. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Philadelphia, PA., March, 2007

Name: Andrew Foy
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Geography
Email: foya@vt.edu
B.S. - Radford University, Geography, 2005
M.S. - Geography, Virginia Tech, 2007
Thesis: "A Landscape Scale Analysis Model for Native Bee Habitat"
Current research interests: biogeography, cartography, GIS,technology applied to solve environmental problems,modeling bee habitat with GIS and remote sensing, modeling uncertainty in GIS,development of GIS tools for uncertainty management, aerial photo assessments of agricultural ground cover using UAVs
Major advisor: Dr. Bill Carstensen, Geography
Recent presentations:

• 2008: Bhuta, A., Candice R. Luebbering, Andrew S. Foy, James B. Campbell, "Kite Photography and Image Enhancement for Estimation of Productive Ground Cover in Virginia's Pastures," poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers.
• Andrew Foy and Bill Carstensen, Application of a Spatial Uncertainty Tool to Automate and Enhance Data Fusion for Points, Lines, and Polygons, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 20, 2007
• Andrew Foy, Examination of the North American Native Bees' Ability to Pollinate and an Analysis on Habitat Classification and Change, American Association of Geographer Conference, Denver CO, 2006
• Andrew Foy and Bill Carstensen, Application of Spatial Uncertainty Models to Automate and Enhance Data Fusion: A Raster Modeling Approach, OGIS GIS/Remote Sensing Symposium, Virginia Tech, 2006

Awards:

• 2008: Arvind Bhuta, Candice Luebbering, Andrew Foy, and Jim Campbell were named the unanimous winners of the Virginia Association for mapping and Land Information Systems poster competition in the Higher Education Division.
• 2007: The Sidman P. Poole Scholarship

Name: David E. Kramar
Position: EPA Fellow and Instructor in Geography
Department: Geography
Email: dkramar@vt.edu
B.S. - Geography, Appalachian State University, 1999
M.S. - Geography, Virginia Tech, 2004
Thesis: “Estimating Hg Risk to the Common Loon (Gavia immer) in the Rangeley Lakes Region of Western Maine: a Regression Based GIS Model”
Current research interests: Biogeography, Environmental Modeling Using GIS, PDA and Web-Based integration of Environmental Datasets, Mercury Contamination in High Trophic Level Piscivores, Ecological Toxicology, Quantitative Methods
Dissertation Title: "Evaluation, assessment, and determination of risk to high trophic level piscivores in the Mid-Atlantic: A spatial, biological, and comparative case study of mercury in Virginia and New England bald eagle populations"
Major advisor: Dr. Bill Carstensen, Geography
Recent publications:

• Desorbo, Christopher R., Taylor, K., Kramar, D., K.M., Fair, J., Atwood, J.L., Evers, D.C., Hanson, W., Vogel, H.S. Reproductive Advantages for Common Loons Using Rafts on Lakes With Stable and Fluctuating Water Levels. Journal of Wildlife Management, 2006.
• Kramar, David, Goodale, W., Kennedy, L., Carstensen, L., Kaur, T. Relating Land Cover and Mercury Levels in Common Loons Using Geographic Information Systems, Ecotoxicology, Vol. 14, 2005
• Kaur, Taranjit, Singh, J., Goodale, W., Kramar, D., Nelson, P. Development of a Cyber- Infrastructure for Integrated Assessments of Environmental Contaminants, Ecotoxicology, Vol. 14, 2005

Recent presentations:

• Kramar, David E. "Mercury Assesment in Bald Eagle Populations." Appalachian State University. Boone, North Carolina. Department of Geography Speaker Series. March 2007. Invited Presentation:
• Kramar, David E. and Peter Vaux. "PEARL: Data acquisition and information summaries for environmental education and outreach in Maine". 30th Annual Meeting of the New England Association of Environmental Biologists (NEAEB). Bethel Maine. March 29, 2006.
• Kramar, David E. and Peter Vaux. "Online tools for viewing and interpreting environmental information in Maine." Maine Water Conference. Augusta, ME March 22, 2006.
• Kramar, David E. "Applications of GIS and ArcIMS." Concord University, West Virginia. November 13, 2006. Invited Presentation.
• Kramar, David E. and Vaux, Peter. “Development of the Atlantic Salmon Commission Data Access Pages within PEARL” Atlantic Salmon Commission Agency Staff Meeting. Eddington, Maine. December 15, 2005.
• Kennedy, Lisa, Kramar, D., Carstensen, L.W., Goodale, W. Spatial Patterns of Hg Levels in Common Loons in the Rangeley Lakes - Poster Presented at the Association of American Geographers Annual Conference. 2005 - Poster
• Kramar, David E. Proximity Analysis of the Influence of Land Cover on Loon Blood Hg Levels. Maine Water Conference. March 22, 2005 - Poster
• Kramar, David E., Vanakkam, V., Vaux, P. Current Architecture of the PEARL System. Maine Water Conference. March 22, 2005 - Poster

Reports:

• Nelson, S.J., P. Vaux, A. Grygo, R. Hallsworth, D. Kramar, January 31, 2006. Final Project Report: Searchable Park Access to Research Catchments (SPARC). National Park Service report.
• Martin, C., Normandin, J., and D. Kramar. 2006 “Distribution and Productivity of Ospreys and Bald Eagles in the Umbagog Lake Ecosystem in 2005: Findings from the 2005 field season” Prepared for: Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge. Submitted January 2, 2006.
• DeSorbo, C R., D. C. Evers and D. Kramar. 2005. Characterizing food habits and time budgets of Ospreys within the Lake Umbagog ecosystem. Report BRI 2005-14. BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, Maine. 21pp.
• Walker, Gary, E. Parisher, P. Smith, D. Whitlock, D. Kramar, U. Matthes, and L. Morefield. 2004. Characterization of Plant Community Structure and Abiotic Conditions on Climbed and Unclimbed Cliff Faces in the Obed River Gorge , Report submitted to the National Park Service, Obed River Gorge

Awards:

• 2008: A.B. Massey Honorarium for outstanding academic and professional leadership
• EPA STAR Fellow. Awarded 2006
• Recipient of the A.B. Massey Award for Outstanding Graduate Student, Department of Geography, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2004

Name: Candice Luebbering
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Geography
Email: candice@vt.edu
B.A. - Sociology/Anthropology, Minor in Geography, Truman State University,Kirksville, Missouri, 2004
M.S. - Geography, Virginia Tech, 2007
Thesis: "Beyond the Bezel: Utilizing Multiple Monitor High-Resolution Displays for Viewing Geospatial Data"
Current research interests: Geography of language (language spread, decline, and death), GIS, cartography
Major advisor: Dr. Korine Kolivras, Geography
Recent publications:

• In press: Luebbering C., L.W. Carstensen, J. Campbell and L. Grossman. 2008. "Beyond the Bezel: Utilizing Multiple Monitor High-Resolution Displays for Viewing Geospatial Data" in Cartography and Geographic Information Science.

Recent presentations:

• 2008: Bhuta, A., Candice R. Luebbering, Andrew S. Foy, James B. Campbell, "Kite Photography and Image Enhancement for Estimation of Productive Ground Cover in Virginia's Pastures," poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston.
• 2008: Ashleigh Burke, Candice Luebbering, Korine Kolivras, "Spatial Patterns of West Nile Infection and Mosquito Distributions in Fairfax County, Virginia," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston.
• Luebbering C. and L.W. Carstensen. 2006. Map Reading Efficiency on Variable Format High-Resolution Displays. The 2006 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago,IL. ­ Paper Presentation
• Luebbering C. and L.W. Carstensen. 2006. Effectiveness of the Gigapixel Display for Interpretation of Geospatial Data. 2006 Virginia GIS and Remote Sensing Research Symposium, Blacksburg, VA. ­ Poster
• Luebbering C. and L.W. Carstensen. 2007. Geospatial Analysis by Experts: High-Resolution Monitors and Improved Performance. The 2007 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA ­ Paper Presentation
• Luebbering C. 2007. Issues in human subjects testing in cartographic and visualization research. The 2007 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA - Invited Panelist

Awards:

• 2008: Arvind Bhuta, Candice Luebbering, Andrew Foy, and Jim Campbell were named the unanimous winners of the Virginia Association for mapping and Land Information Systems poster competition in the Higher Education Division.
• 2007: A.B. Massey Honorarium for outstanding academic and professional leadership
• 2007: The Sidman P. Poole Scholarship

Name: Susmita Sen
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences
Email: susmita@vt.edu
B.S. - Botany Honors, Calcutta University, Kolkata, India, 2001
M.S. - Forestry (Economics and Management), Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India, 2003
Thesis: "Landscape characterization of Bandhavgarh National Park, using remote sensing and GIS"
Current research interests: In my doctoral study, I am attempting to analyze remote sensing imagery to characterize the ecosystem development of a reclaimed coal mined site in southwestern Virginia. The results of this study could be applied to the entire coal mining area of the US.
Major advisor: Dr. Carl Zipper, Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences
Co-advisor: Dr Randolph Wynne, Forestry
Recent presentations:

• Sen, Susmita, C. Zipper, R. Wynne, and P. Donovan. Analyzing remote sensing imagery to characterize forest ecosystem development on reclaimed coal mined land. 2007, Mined land reforestation conference, Abingdon, Virginia. Poster presentation.

Name: Jessica Walker
Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Department: Forestry
Email: jesswalk@vt.edu
B.S. - Applied Mathematics, Williams College, 1991
M.S. - Geography, University of Arizona, 2000
Thesis: "A GIS Model of Sonoran Pronghorn Antelope Habitat in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona"
Current research interests: application of GIS and remote sensing technologies in environmental issues
Major advisor: Dr. Randolph Wynne, Forestry