NASA DEVELOP at UGA

Students and faculty in the department of geography have pioneered a terrific new collaboration with NASA set to begin this summer:

University of Georgia's department of geography will partner with NASA through DEVELOP, a national student internship program created to enhance training and development in Earth science. The UGA collaboration is only the second housed strictly at a university in the U.S.

Initial UGA projects include analyzing the marshes of coastal Georgia, examining the correlations between public health and air quality in Washington County, Ga., determining the effects of ozone on hemlock conifers in the Great Smoky Mountains and assessing forest connectivity in Costa Rica.

"The DEVELOP Program gives the university a unique opportunity to engage further with NASA, attract and train a new cohort of student-scientists and extend our results to local communities," said Thomas Mote, professor and head of the department of geography, which is housed in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "The program is geared toward the use of NASA tools and resources to address local issues, and we're proud that geography has played the lead role in bringing the DEVELOP Program to the university."

Several faculty members in the department of geography have long had associations with NASA; Ph.D. student Steve Padgett-Vasquez, who worked at NASA before coming to UGA, is to be commended for connecting the department with this particular program. DEVELOP will help students gain important experience in research projects that will add to the body of knowledge concerning Earth science. We're glad to welcome this collaboration to the campus.