Recruitment Plans for
Fall 2024
Thank you for considering the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University for your doctoral studies. We invite you to learn more about the faculty in our school currently looking to recruit doctoral students for the upcoming academic year. Please contact the faculty members for more information by referring to the contact information indicated.
Please note, this list is not exhaustive. Opportunities to work with other faculty may still be possible depending upon the circumstances. If you apply to work with someone who is not actively recruiting students, your application may still be considered. However, if you apply and do not identify anyone to work with, your application may not be considered.
Dr. Jose-Benito Rosales Chavez
Faculty Name: Dr. Jose-Benito Rosales Chavez
Email: jose.rosaleschavez@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Geography, PhD Geographic Information Science (GIS), or PhD Urban Planning
Looking to Recruit: 1 Doctoral Student
Research Interest(s): Street Food Businesses, Food Environment, Occupational Health, Climate Change
Current Research/Research Projects: I am interested in documenting street food business owners’ experiences with climate change, its impact on their health and wellbeing, and mitigation and adaptation strategies street entrepreneurs use to protect themselves.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Students should have knowledge of GIS and spatial analyses and be interested in working with surveys, interviews, and ground-truthing (street canvassing) methods.
Dr. Meagan Ehlenz
Faculty Name: Dr. Meagan Ehlenz
Email: mehlenz@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Urban Planning
Looking to Recruit: 1 Doctoral Student
Research Interest(s): Anchor Institutions, Affordable Housing, Community Development
Current Research/Research Projects: I am interested in a doctoral student who could focus on one of two research agendas: 1) scalability of shared equity homeownership models, including CLTs, and other affordable housing strategies; 2) examining anchor institution models across the US (and beyond), including a broad survey assessment and detailed analysis of investments, motivations, and outcomes.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: A planning background is preferred with experience in (or ability to develop) mixed methods research skills, including survey design and interviews. Experience with GIS and large datasets would be preferred.
Dr. Aaron Flores
Faculty Name: Dr. Aaron Flores
Email: aaron.b.flores@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Geography or PhD Geographic Information Science (GIS)
Looking to Recruit: 1 Doctoral Student
Research Interest(s): Environmental Justice, Social Vulnerability, Flood Risk, Heat Risk
Current Research/Research Projects: I am interested in recruiting a doctoral student to work on projects related to 1) urban development in floodplains and the disproportionate impact this may have on communities of color and low socioeconomic status; 2) flood risk perception; 3) the impact of tidal flooding on elderly populations; and/or 4) measuring climate/health data literacy among researchers.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Students should have experience with GIS, spatial/statistical analysis, and/or survey methods as well as an interest in examining environmental justice issues.
Dr. Stewart Fotheringham
Faculty Name: Dr. Stewart Fotheringham
Email: sfotheri@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Geographic Information Science (GIS)
Looking to Recruit: 1 Doctoral Student
Research Interest(s): Spatial Analysis and Modeling
Current Research/Research Projects: The use of local statistical models such as MGWR to understand human behavior. Application area open and student would be expected to undertake research on both theoretical developments and empirical applications.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Strong background in statistical methods and computer programming.
Dr. Kelli Larson
Faculty Name: Dr. Kelli Larson
Email: kelli.larson@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Geography
Looking to Recruit: 1 Doctoral Student
Research Interest(s): Urban and Landscape Sustainability, Human-wildlife interactions, Conservation Planning
Current Research/Research Projects: While my group continues to work on questions related to the causes, consequences, and feedbacks of urban and residential land systems, I am increasingly focused on human dimensions of wildlife conservation and management. I particularly will be focusing on human-carnivore conflicts and coexistence in cities across the U.S. through interviews, surveys, and interdisciplinary geospatial approaches.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Ideal students have research experience with social-ecological dynamics of urban systems, particularly research and/or conservation planning related to human-wildlife interactions and landscape sustainability. Training in the biophysical and social sciences is ideal, as is knowledge and interest in statistical and geospatial analyses that facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge and approaches.
Dr. Sara Meerow
Faculty Name: Dr. Sara Meerow
Email: sara.meerow@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Geography, PhD Geographic Information Science (GIS), or PhD Urban Planning
Looking to Recruit: 1-2 Doctoral Student(s)
Research Interest(s): Urban Resilience, Green Infrastructure Planning, Urban Health Planning, Climate Change Adaption
Current Research/Research Projects: Current Research/Research Projects: I am looking to recruit PhD student(s) to work on multi-year funded projects focused on urban green infrastructure and urban heat resilience. The first project, funded by the US National Science Foundation as part of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Early Career Faculty Innovator program, will examine how cities make decisions about where to invest in green infrastructure and develop and test decision-support tools that stakeholders and communities can use to more strategically and equitably plan green infrastructure to address two of the biggest climate-related challenges: stormwater management and extreme heat. The second project is the Southwest Urban Corridor Integrated Field Laboratory (SW-IFL), a five-year project funded by the US Department of Energy for which we are developing new methods of evaluating how city plans address heat and multi-hazard resilience and understanding heat governance.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Students with experience and interest in green infrastructure planning, urban hydrological and/or urban heat modeling, urban heat, plan evaluation, governance analysis, or social network analysis are especially encouraged to apply.
Dr. Deirdre Pfeiffer
Faculty Name: Dr. Deirdre Pfeiffer
Email: deirdre.pfeiffer@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Urban Planning
Looking to Recruit: 1 Doctoral Student
Research Interest(s): Housing, Neighborhoods, Health, Social Equity
Current Research/Research Projects: I am the PI of the Arizona Research Center for Housing Equity and Sustainability (ARCHES). I am currently leading research on racially coded language in local housing opposition and exploring the potential for addressing housing challenges through single-family home garages and driveways.
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Strong interest in issues related to housing, neighborhoods, and social equity, desire to pursue the Urban Planning PhD, interest in qualitative methods like interviewing, discourse, and content analysis or quantitative methods like descriptive statistics and statistical modeling.
Dr. David Sailor
Faculty Name: Dr. David Sailor
Email: dsailor@asu.edu
Students Applying to: PhD Geography
Looking to Recruit: 1-2 Doctoral Student(s)
Research Interest(s): Urban Climate, Energy Balance Measurements, Urban Building Energy Modeling
Current Research/Research Projects: I have research projects that are looking at building and neighborhood scale impacts of urban heat mitigation technologies and strategies. This requires students who have expertise in either modeling (e.g., building to microscale) or measurements (e.g., experience with radiation, convection, and conduction measurements in urban settings).
Desired Qualifications & Skills: Building energy simulation experience with EnergyPlus. Observations experience with datalogging weather stations, heat flux sensors, net radiometers, etc.