�Ǹ�Թ�

“A lot of what we care about in neighborhood and health research is how people actually interact with the people and places around them—and that’s really hard to get at when someone’s just sitting across from you describing it after the fact,” Sagehorn says.

The team is developing new approaches that combine artificial intelligence with knowledge of physical processes to better understand complex phenomena across Earth and society. By bringing together multiple types of data and expertise, the researchers aim to make geospatial AI more useful, accurate and trustworthy for scientific discovery.

"They're typically physically accessible, relatively low-cost, low-pressure hub/hangouts, socially welcoming to a diversity of folks, and multigenerational – all key 'third place' attributes,' said Jessica Finlay, an assistant professor of geography at the �Ǹ�Թ�.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science Faculty Fellow, Dr. Jessica Finlay for receiving $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging

“We really want to build a larger collaborative community because this is an all-hands-on-deck moment when we need everybody across sectors to be thinking about how we solve the fast fire problem,” she said.

“Heat action plans are still really geographically uneven,” notes Sara Meerow, a geographer at the �Ǹ�Թ�. “There are whole regions of the world that essentially don’t have any heat action plans that we’re aware of.”

“Covid brought a greater awareness to third places, to how vital they are for everyday health and well-being,” said Jessica Finlay, an assistant professor of geography at the �Ǹ�Թ�. ”They can be a social glue that connects us, and it’s really important for not just individual health but collective health.”

“Drought stress for mountain forests around the Western U.S. is heavily dictated by the snow that accumulates each winter and then melts through the spring and summer,” Molotch said. “There is a direct connection there in terms of the water availability and drought stress that can provide one of the important ingredients for increases in wildfire intensity and frequency.”

"Communities that haven't historically thought a lot about about heat now really have to ... When it starts to become a chronic issue for a community, then you really have to figure out how to live with this." – Sara Meerow, associate professor of geography at the �Ǹ�Թ�

Congratulations to Geography Professor Peter Blanken for being elected as a 2027 American Meteorological Society (AMS) Fellow. AMS fellows are "elected by the AMS Council based on outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or