Hello!
My name is Rob (he/him)
Geospatial Analyst & Developer | Communicator | Writer
Interests:
Environmental Justice, Education, Community Geography, Numerical Spatial Analysis, Free and Open-Source SoftwareAbout
I am a geospatial computational scientist and landscape gardener currently based in Minneapolis. Aside from my professional life, I wear many other hats as a voting member of the South Side Green Zone Council and volunteer with the East Phillips Health Team (Instagram). I also recently completed a term as a visiting instructor at Macalester College (Fall 2024).
With two degrees from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (B.S. in Mathematics, Masters in Geographic Information Science), I’ve always enjoyed studying new mathematical concepts and numerical methodologies. What interests me the most, however, is taking these abstract ideas and applying them to the modern day.
Recently, I’ve been focused on mitigating harm from air pollution in the Twin Cities Metro but have also taken part in projects related to ecology, stormwater management, transportation, economics, and demography (a few examples are posted in the Projects page).
My research interests include: historic and contemporary barriers to racial equity; spatio-temporal modeling; and consequences of climate change. I am also passionate about community education and procedural justice in decision making.
In my free time I enjoy paddling, dancing, making music, and writing.
Mission
I dream of a world where we live in harmony with one another and the planet and believe that empathy, critical spatial-thinking, and GIS technologies are key to making this a reality for future generations.
As an educator, I structure materials around this notion with the ultimate goal of letting folks explore concepts as they relate to their own interests.
As a scientist, I see myself as a collaborator. Eager to learn from experts of other domains (including community members) to assist with data and computation.
Always happy to reword a definition or revisit a topic to support these processes. There is no such thing as a “dumb” question!
Running Bio
I was raised on Dakota Land in the town of Red Wing, Minnesota where I was taught a deep appreciation of our natural world at the Red Wing Environmental Learning Center. In 2017, I graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with a B.S. in mathematics and moved to Australia.
After 15 months of work-traveling as a farm hand, arborist’s assistant, and general labourer, I returned to the States to serve 2 terms as an Americorps math tutor in Minneapolis. During this time I was introduced to the Mapping Prejudice project, experienced the George Floyd Uprising, and began volunteering with various grassroots movements.
These experiences led me to the University of Minnesota’s Masters of Geographic Information Science (MGIS) program, which I graduated from in the Spring of 2023.
Throughout and immediately after my degree, I focused on applying new skills to study air quality and cumulative impacts to assist EJ movements in Minneapolis including the Roof Depot Struggle, the Shut Smith Coalition, and “SpikeAlerts” - a loose collective working toward a free and open-sourced alert system for community air monitoring projects.