Congratulations to Jalissa for successfully defending her thesis titled "Quantifying Early-Season Miscanthus × giganteus Spatiotemporal Patterns Using High-Resolution UAS LIDAR". We have truly appreciated her time and expertise while she was here. We wish her the best of luck back in New York State!

Sam Taylor published his master's work in Landslides titled, "Assessing wildfire spatial variability and hyperspectral data in debris-flow modeling". This work uses AVIRIS imagery from the Thomas Fire and Montecito Debris Flows to examine the USGS M1 debris-flow likelihood models. Congratulations, Sam!

11 students from across the nation came to Van Allen Hall from June 3 to 19 to build an instrument for a balloon or drone, collect data with that instrument, conduct data analysis, and then present their work. Adventures were had, and missions were successfully completed!

Congratulations to A H M Mainul Islam, who successfully defended his thesis titled, "ESTIMATING PHOTOSYNTHETIC CAPACITY IN BLIGHTED BUR OAKS USING LEAF HYPERSPECTRAL REFLECTANCE AND MACHINE LEARNING MODELS: MODEL GENERALIZABILITY".

Riley was selected for the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability's Harold H. McCarty Award, which is awarded to an outstanding Geography Master’s student. This award is an honor recognizing the high quality of her work and her contribution to the SEES program.

Nina Osborne, Charlotte Hanfland, Beverly Bishop, and Lillie Carreon showcased their semester's research and represented the LOQATE Lab at the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival. Great work!

Dr. Meerdink will be offering SEES:4500 Advanced Remote Sensing in Fall 2026. This class covers the theory and practice of remote sensing using ENVI computer labs and experiments. This class is perfect for students who want the opportunity to learn advanced remote sensing techniques and who are curious about how remote sensing really works.

On March 27, third-year University of Iowa student Nina Osborne was working at the UI Admission Visitors Center when she checked her email. In her inbox, she read that she had been awarded a 2026 Goldwater Scholarship, the country’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarship for students pursuing research careers in mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering.

On Saturday, March 28, A H M Mainul Islam presented his bur oak blight research at the 2026 Annual James F. Jakobsen Research Showcase in the Iowa Memorial Union. The Jakobsen Conference is an annual local conference to promote graduate research and interdepartmental communication at the University of Iowa.

The Office of Undergraduate Research and the Office of the Vice President for Research recognize outstanding accomplishments in scholarly investigation, artistic creation, or performance by an undergraduate student. Nina has been awarded the EURA for her research in the LOQATE lab. Her work uses hyperspectral imaging to monitor landscape-level patterns of tree health. She currently examines Bur oak spectral responses to heat and high CO₂ to detect stress before it becomes visible.