Navigate the world. Plan the future.
The School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, housed within The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Arizona State University, invites applications for the Presidential Graduate Assistantship (PGA) program. We are recruiting four doctoral students to begin Fall 2027: two in GeoAI and two in housing and transportation.
The PGA is a merit-based award created to support the recruitment, professional development and faculty mentoring of doctoral students in all fields whose research, teaching and service will contribute to advancing the ASU Charter. The PGA provides opportunities for professional development, faculty mentoring and recruitment of doctoral students enrolled in on-campus immersion programs.
What PGA scholars gain
Financial support
Four years of funding that includes full tuition coverage, a competitive stipend and health insurance. Continued support is contingent on satisfactory academic progress.
Mentorship and research
Specialized training and mentored research with a team of interdisciplinary faculty mentors. Each student will receive both a primary and secondary research mentor, while developing an Individual Development Plan tailored to their research interests and career goals.
Professional development
Membership in a university-wide cohort of PGA scholars, with access to specialized training, workshops and networking opportunities provided by the Office of Inclusive Excellence and the Graduate College.
Available PGA positions
PGA: Housing and Transportation
We are recruiting two doctoral students to begin Fall 2027. Priority will be given to applicants whose research interests align with housing affordability, transportation access and connections between them. Applicants with backgrounds in urban planning, transportation, housing, geography, GIScience, or related fields are strongly encouraged to apply. Relevant methodological interests may include spatial data science, causal inference, qualitative fieldwork and participatory planning. Potential research areas include:
- Zoning and land use regulations that shape housing supply, density and mixed-use development
Parking requirements and policy reforms and their effects on housing costs, travel behavior and urban development - Equitable transit-oriented development that integrates anti-displacement strategies with mobility, climate resilience and community development goals
- Spatial and socioeconomic disparities in access to affordable housing, employment, transportation and essential services
- Community-engaged planning and policy strategies that promote housing affordability and transportation access
Faculty Recruiting PhD students:
- Deborah Salon studies transport and residential choices in cities and suburbs, and the government policies and investments that affect them. Much of her work focuses on car ownership and use in America and explores options to make our transport system work better for people while also reducing its environmental impact.
- Hue-Tam Jamme examines the behavioral roots and long-term consequences of car dependence. Specifically, she studies how non-car based transportation relates to social interaction and community.
- David King studies codependence of transportation and land use planning along with transportation finance and economics.
- Lindsay Oluyede focuses on understanding and addressing transportation insecurity. Her research explores what and how we can learn from people’s lived experiences with transportation to inform planning policy and practice.
- Cheng-Kai Hsu studies the intersection of urban climate, transportation and public health, with a particular focus on travel behavior and mobility analytics, traffic safety, global environmental health and causal inference.
- Deirdre Pfeiffer specializes in housing strategies to improve social outcomes, neighborhood environment and wellbeing and planning for changing housing markets.
- Meagan Ehlenz focuses on housing policy and affordable housing mechanisms, evaluating existing barriers and the implications of policy alternatives.
- Daoqin Tong studies spatial analytics, optimization and geographic information systems to promote urban sustainability, with applications in the areas of equitable access and urban transportation.
PGA: GeoAI
We are recruiting two doctoral students to begin Fall 2027. Priority will be given to applicants with strong computational and big data analytical skills in Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI), particularly in deep learning, remote sensing image analysis and multimodal modeling. Applicants with background in GIScience, remote sensing and computer science are strongly encouraged to apply. Areas of interest include developing and applying GeoAI and vision-language models to map and monitor natural disasters such as wildfires, landslides, floods, and to advance spatial optimization models for resource allocation, evacuation management, equitable infrastructure investment. The overarching goal is to enhance environmental resilience and improve data-driven disaster response.
Faculty Recruiting PhD students:
- Wenwen Li focuses on advancing GeoAI through both cutting-edge methodological development (e.g., multimodal geospatial foundation model) and its applications to critical societal challenges at the human-environmental interface, including landslide mapping, wildfire forecasting, flood monitoring and climate change.
- Heather Baier develops spatially-adaptive GeoAI methods to model uncertainty, adaptation and transferability in satellite-based prediction. Her work focuses on improving the robustness and interpretability of models used to estimate socioeconomic and development indicators across diverse geographic contexts.
- Daoqin Tong advances the fields of spatial optimization and urban informatics by integrating GeoAI into data-driven approaches for resource allocation, urban sustainability and hazard mitigation. Her research has been applied to address critical challenges including food accessibility, water scarcity, flood resilience and transportation planning.
- Dylan Connor uses causal inference and big data to study how environmental and social processes interact to shape community vulnerability, bringing expertise in analytical tools that connect GeoAI outputs to disaster resilience outcomes.
Application Information and Inquiries
The deadline to apply is December 15, 2026. Interested applicants should apply to one of our PhD programs in geographic information science, geography or urban planning. Detailed information can be found on Graduate Programs including these application requirements:
- graduate admission application and application fee (or note fee waiver if applicable)
- official transcripts
- two letters of recommendation
- current curriculum vitae or resume
- personal statement
- sample of the applicant's written work
- proof of English proficiency (if applicable)
Note:
- Applicants do not need to hold a master’s degree.
- The direct admit process enables students to earn the master’s degree en route to a doctoral degree. (if applicable otherwise delete)
- The GRE is not required (if applicable).
- Applicants should indicate interest in the Presidential Graduate Assistantship in their personal statement and the peer faculty mentor(s) that they would like to work with.
- Recipients are expected to enroll in an on-campus immersion doctoral program for a minimum of 9 credit hours each academic semester (or as determined by their unit).
For questions, please email [email protected].
About the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (SGSUP) advances the ASU mission and Charter through interdisciplinary research and discovery of public value. SGSUP advances geospatial knowledge for a complex world, emphasizing education, research and applied solutions to urban and environmental problems. SGSUP is committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive culture to help students from all backgrounds achieve success at ASU and beyond.
About Arizona State University
ASU is a large, comprehensive, research university and for nearly two decades, has transformed into the “New American University,” one dedicated to the simultaneous pursuit of excellence, broad access to quality education and meaningful societal impact. By our Charter and Design Aspirations, we center inclusion and success as values that drive the enterprise; adopt inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning as ways to address society’s greatest challenges; and develop innovative partnerships to produce master learners across the lifespan.