Research
With cutting-edge research CU Geography faculty maintain active research projects in each subfield: Physical Geography, GIS/Data Science, and Human Geography/Environment-Society Relations. Our faculty and graduate students bring in significant external research funding from renowned agencies including:
- National Science Foundation
- The Fulbright Foundation
- The American Council of Learned Societies
- The Social Science Research Council
- The National Institutes of Health
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- The US Forest Service
- The US Park Service
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service
Many of our faculty and students conduct interdisciplinary research and are affiliated with other units on the CU Boulder Campus as well as nearby Federal labs.
We look at how best to apply our research to serve society's needs. CIRES researchers explore all aspects of the earth system and search for ways to better understand how natural and human-made disturbances impact our dynamic planet. Our focus on innovation and collaboration has made us a world leader in interdisciplinary research and teaching. We're committed to communicating our research in ways that help inform decision-makers and the public about how we can best ensure a sustainable future environment
CIRES is...
- The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
- A joint institute of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado at Boulder
- Engaged in earth system research that spans six major divisions
- Home to five research centers on the CU-Boulder campus
- Inspired and directed by a diverse Council of Fellows
- Committed to education and outreach at all levels
- Host to more than 220 visiting research scientists since 1967
- A research and learning environment like no other
Our researchers uncover and communicate processes concerning earth and environmental systems - matters that are becoming ever more urgent as changes in climate and land use are felt worldwide.
As the University of Colorado’s oldest institute, INSTAAR has a long history of responding to pressing environmental issues. Our traditional focus has been on polar and alpine regions, where effects of global change are especially pronounced. In recent decades, our research has broadened to include environmental challenges that span local, regional, and global scales. INSTAAR research topics range widely and include Quaternary and modern environments, human and ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, landscape evolution, hydrology, oceanography, and climate. Our field sites are located across all seven continents and the world’s oceans.
Our expertise across disciplines helps us generate influential science that can inform policy decisions and improve society’s awareness and understanding of natural and anthropogenic global change.
The Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) is a research institute within the Graduate School of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Since its establishment in 1957, it has provided a setting for interdisciplinary, collaborative research on problems of societal concern. By engaging faculty from all the social and behavioral sciences at the University, IBS encourages work that transcends disciplinary boundaries, that illuminates the complexity of social behavior and social life, and that has important implications for social policy.
IBS is organized into five research programs, each defined by an interdisciplinary area of research and directed by a senior research scientist. Three programs have centers which specialize in research topics consistent with the broader goals of the Program. Computing and Research Services provides computing and information technology services for IBS research activities.
The mission of the Center for African and African American Studies (acronym: the CAAAS, and commonly called the Cause) is to research, promote, preserve, interpret, and disseminate knowledge about the histories, cultures, and arts of Africa, African Americans, and the wider world of the African diaspora. With its emphasis on historical knowledge, cultural grounding, academic excellence, social responsibility, and artistic expression (à la the National Council for Black Studies, the Association for the Study of African American Life & History, and the Association for Black Culture Centers), the CAAAS promotes the production and dissemination of knowledge, personal and professional development, mentorship, leadership training, and advocacy for social change and social justice.
The Center for African and African American Studies has three major program areas: (1) research; (2) visual and performing arts; and (3) student services. Indeed, it is simultaneously a research center, cultural arts center, and student services center. However, students play, and consequently student-centered events and programming play, a central role in the CAAAS because our students are our future and conduits and creators of African, African American, and African diasporan culture for subsequent generations. In other words, even though the CAAAS has three major program areas, students are central to all of our programming and events, and they work closely with faculty and staff on CAAAS-sponsored scholarly, artistic, and community development projects.
The Center of the American West is a recognized hub for illuminating the role of the western United States in regional, national and global issues. We bring people together to explore the ongoing complexities of and challenges facing the western United States through education, research, programs, and projects.
The Center for Asian Studies (CAS) is an interdisciplinary organization located on the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado that brings together faculty, students, and community members to encourage and support Asian scholarship across disciplinary and college boundaries. CAS has recently been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as one of only three National Resource Centers for Asian Studies nationwide, a credit to the strength of CU's Asian language and area studies programs. CAS organizes events, supports research and teaching, and acts as a key resource for students and scholars with an interest in Asian Studies. The Center's area of focus encompasses all of Asia, from China and Japan to the countries of the Middle East.
Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies provides Native students and faculty an intellectual and social home at CU Boulder. We promote collaborative research focusing on both local and global Indigenous knowledge and foster wide ranging NAIS projects that aim to open conversations both in Colorado and the world.
The United Nations General Assembly’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) points to the interconnections among indigenous peoples and groups around the world. The understanding and support of developing global indigeneity is our focus.
Highlights that illustrate our work and uniqueness:
- Global Research & Connections: CNAIS faculty and affiliated programs have projects and connections extending from Sápmi (Sami territories) to Tahiti; we have a presence at the U.N., with a member of our Executive Board acting as legal counsel for the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and another faculty on the UN Expert Mechanism for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- Indigenous Legal Scholars: CU Law is home to American Indian Law Program.We interface with legal scholars on a daily basis and have unparalleled access to legal studies resources through our collaborations with NARF the NILL, situated within sight of our office.
- Outreach and Engagement: CNAIS’s First Peoples Worldwide program provides legal and economic expertise to Indigenous communities around the world, and consults widely on Indigenous topics. FPW’s report on the Dakota Access Pipeline gained widespread attention, as it highlighted the extraordinary costs in time and money associated with failures to follow best practices and respect the rights of indigenous peoples.
Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS) Website
The Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) acts as a campus-wide incubator for research and teaching in the social sciences.
CARTSS supports social science research by faculty and students through seed grant programs.
CARTSS coordinates interdisciplinary methodological training and professional socialization in the social sciences through the Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences (ITSS) initiative.
Center to Advance Research & Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS)
CU Population Center (CUPC) is a community of scholars and professionals engaged in population and demographic research and training across the University of Colorado. Based at the Institute of Behavioral Science at CU Boulder, CUPC brings together researchers across three University of Colorado campuses and the broader Rocky Mountain West. CUPC provides administrative, technical, and development support to its affiliates and fosters intellectual community and engagement to advance population and demographic research. CUPC is funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as a Population Dynamics Research Center.
The three main goals of CUPC are to:
- Accelerate population science that matters
- Fuel innovation in population science
- Support junior researchers doing population science
Earth Lab was launched by CU Boulder’s Grand Challenge in September of 2015 and adopted by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in July 2017. Earth Lab is an Earth systems synthesis center aimed at addressing emerging needs and opportunities associated with the deluge of Earth systems data and the growth of analytical power that, combined, can generate new insights. The diversity of available data about our Earth provides opportunities to ask questions at temporal and spatial scales not previously possible. This precipitates a need to evaluate how we conduct science, how we build collaborations, and how we teach the next generation. Earth Lab’s mission is to harness the data revolution through research, analytics, and education to accelerate understanding of global environmental change to help society better manage and adapt.
Earth Lab's research agenda includes many aspects of global environmental change and includes science projects that focus on fire, forests, permafrost, erosion, risk and decision making, data harmonization, extreme events, human health and environmental change, and human settlements.
Earth Lab's Analytics Hub brings together computer scientists, statisticians, earth scientists, and aerospace engineers, the group provides tools, training, and support for data processing, analysis, and visualization to the Earth Lab team and the broader scientific community.
Earth Lab's Education Initiative currently offers 3 courses in earth data analytics. All materials are online. Additionally, the Earth Data Analytics - Foundations professional graduate certificate will be offered through the University of Colorado Boulder Earth Lab beginning in August 2018.
Earth Lab consists of full time staff, postdocs, GRAs, undergraduate interns, and faculty affiliates. Earth Lab also partners with government agencies and industry partners. Earth Lab facilities include office space in SEEC S348 and a newly renovated visualization studio and decision theater in SEEC S372.
What We Do
We enable a broad community of researchers to turn environmental data into actionable knowledge and accelerate discovery in Environmental Data Science. We advance team science by using research-based best practices to facilitate collaboration within the center and by studying ESIIL teams to improve basic understanding of multidisciplinary team science.
Who We Are
We are a leading incubator and accelerator of Environmental Data Science (EDS), creating and promoting environments where groundbreaking science happens, next-generation data scientists are trained, multidisciplinary teams thrive, and data, tools, training opportunities, and community are openly accessible and foster collaboration.
The Environmental Data Science Innovation & Impact Lab (ESIIL) Website
The mission of the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center is to provide an institutional space for research, teaching and discussion on Latin America at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Its general purpose is to bring together CU faculty, graduate and undergraduate students and visiting scholars interested in Latin American and Latinx issues: recognizing the diversity of their interests and approaches, supporting their research, teaching, and studies, and strengthening their links with Latin America and with communities of Latin American origin in the United States.
What We Do
From the Arctic to the Antarctic, snow and ice play a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate and providing freshwater resources to people, plants, and animals. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), part of the CU Boulder Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), conducts innovative research and provides open data to understand how the frozen parts of Earth affect the rest of the planet and impact society. Research studies and data are primarily focused on the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground and climate interactions that make up Earth’s cryosphere.
Through a unique combination of data management and scientific research, NSIDC enables scientists, educators, students, journalists and many others to better understand the cryosphere, why it’s important and how it’s changing. Key areas of NSIDC expertise include:
- Stewardship and free distribution of scientific data from a broad range of sources including Earth-observing satellites, airborne remote sensing campaigns, field studies and historical observations.
- Research studies of polar regions, the cryosphere and related climate processes.
- Scientific analysis and insights on how regions of the cryosphere are changing, as well as educational content about what the cryosphere is and why it matters.
- Creating software tools to access and work with data as well as providing robust user support to the NSIDC data user community.
In 1976, the World Data Center (WDC) for Glaciology, Boulder, operated at the University of Colorado as an analog archive and information center, essentially a special collection library. It was one of many World Data Centers—now the World Data System. In 1982, NOAA designated data activities of the WDC for Glaciology, Boulder as the National Snow and Ice Data Center and an affiliate of other NOAA data centers. NSIDC and the WDC for Glaciology, Boulder, operated concurrently. NSIDC became part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder. CIRES functions as a partnership of NOAA and CU Boulder, and is home to hundreds of environmental scientists working to understand the dynamic Earth system, including people's relationship with the planet.
Throughout its history, NSIDC has specialized in data management and scientific research of Earth’s frozen regions, otherwise known as the cryosphere. NSIDC research scientists and data experts work with scientists within CIRES as well as collaborators across the world to publish research that advances understanding of how the cryosphere impacts local, regional and global environments and the human relationship with those environments. NSIDC scientists and data experts also work together to provide relevant, high impact data to the cryospheric science community and beyond.
Vision: We envision a just and equitable world where knowledge is applied to ensure that humans live in harmony with nature.
Mission: We are the National Science Foundation's designated information clearinghouse for the societal dimensions of hazards and disasters. Our mission is dedicated to reducing disaster harm through:
- Building connections between researchers, nonprofit and private sector professionals, the media, policymakers, and state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal officials;
- Translating and sharing hazards and disaster research and information;
- Advancing social science and interdisciplinary knowledge, with a special emphasis on socially and economically marginalized populations; and
- Training and mentoring a diverse next generation of hazards and disaster professionals.
We work to empower a culture where all people are educated and inspired to take positive action to mitigate hazards losses and to build stronger communities.
Researchers in the Population Program study population dynamics and human well-being in a large variety of contemporary and historical settings.
Birth, death, marriage and migration combine with culture to shape the human experience. This powerful combination allows us to understand the dynamics of social and health inequalities, human responses to environmental change, and the causes and consequences of human migration for individuals and places.
The Population Program is home to the CU Population Center, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. It draws interdisciplinary researchers from across campus and beyond, with expertise in anthropology, behavioral genetics, demography, economics, geography, history, information science, psychology, and sociology.
The Population Program offers an outstanding training environment and student research opportunities, and houses CU Boulder’s Graduate Certificate in Population Studies.
Researchers in the Program on International Development study core aspects of economic, human, and political development in a global context.
Development is a crucial and extremely broad concept. It encompasses a large variety of goals that are fundamental to human happiness and fulfillment. These goals include not just material prosperity, but also environmental quality, physical safety, cultural preservation, freedom of expression, social equality, women’s rights, and many more. The Program on International Development brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars—from economics, geography, political science, and women’s and gender studies—who study the challenges to these goals and propose ways to alleviate them. Our key focus is on human well-being in less developed countries, such as the effect of climate change on political conflict in Kenya. But we also research aspects of underdevelopment in high-income societies, such as the impact of migration policy in the US and Europe.
The Center for the Governance of Natural Resources is located in the program.
Our academic program focuses on quantitative studies of water in the environment including its role in geologic and biogeochemical processes, ecosystem functions, and global elemental cycling.
- Interdisciplinary & interdepartmental (CEAE, EBIO, ENVS, GEOG, & GEOL).
- For science & engineering graduate students.
- Intensive in math & physics, including fluid dynamics.
- PhD Degree and Graduate Certificate offered.
- Research Partners: CADSWES, INSTAAR, & other research units of CU-Boulder; USGS & NOAA.
Studio Lab was officially launched in 2020 to provide top-notch hands-on experiential training for undergraduate students. We admit undergraduates as Studio Lab scholars who are matched with a research mentor and paid to work as research assistants. We also social events and professional training sessions. We organize a number of professional opportunities including helping students present their research at CU and outside the university, and submit their work for publication.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) offers flexible funding options (grants) for undergraduates and faculty to form partnerships for projects in all majors, fields of study and professional practice; host engaging events for students, staff and faculty to connect and grow; celebrate and enable mentorship; support student-led campus publications; collaborate broadly throughout campus; and work with national and global partners to advance best practices.
"I decided to minor in Geography and courses like Snow Hydrology and GIS Mapping have helped me tremendously in my current career."— Emma Jauron, Minor in Geography
