An associate professor at SUNY-ESF recently presented a campus-wide seminar after being honored with the school’s award for exemplary research.

Giorgos Mountrakis received the 10th annual State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Exemplary Researcher Award in May 2015.

The Exemplary Researcher Award recognizes excellence in research, publishing and active involvement with graduate and undergraduate student research programs, according to a press release on the SUNY-ESF website.

Mountrakis presented a campus-wide research seminar on Feb. 11, entitled “GeoEnvironmentalism: Engineering an Equitable and Sustainable Future,” highlighting his work that the award recognized, according to the SUNY-ESF website.

Mountrakis was nominated for the award by his colleague Lindi Quackenbush, who is also an associate professor at SUNY-ESF. Quackenbush was on the search committee that hired Mountrakis, and now the duo serves as the participating faculty in the geospatial information science and engineering department, Quackenbush said.

When Quackenbush saw the call for nominations, she said she figured that Mountrakis would be an excellent candidate based on the work that he does.

“He is incredibly driven,” Quackenbush said, “He is able to take an idea and find a lot of big picture applications.”

Mountrakis said he was pleasantly surprised by Quackenbush’s nomination.

“I was not aware I was nominated by my colleague Dr. Quackenbush, and I was really surprised to find out that I received this honor during a faculty governance meeting in front of all of my faculty colleagues,” Mountrakis said in an email.

The award provides a $5,000 research stipend that can roll over for three years, according to the release. Mountrakis said that he is still undecided on how he will use the funds.

Mountrakis is trained as an engineer, he said, but his research branches out to other disciplines including ecology, forestry and social and computer science.

The nomination letter for the award, written by Quackenbush, highlighted Mountrakis’ research in environmental monitoring using remote sensing methods and geographic methods and in environmental decision systems.

“He’s had some individually quite impressive projects, but when you put that project followed by the next project, overlapping with a third project, it is quite remarkable,” Quackenbush said.

Mountrakis’ work has been published in various journals and books, and he has presented his work in national and international conferences, according to Quackenbush’s letter of recommendation.

When asked if he had a favorite area of research, Mountrakis said, “While it is difficult to choose among your own children, I think our work integrating satellite with socioeconomic data is an exciting path.”

Mountrakis has also accumulated a large amount of funding for his research. He has secured grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Syracuse Center of Excellence, according to the letter of recommendation.

Mountrakis also founded the Intelligent Geocomputing Laboratory at SUNY-ESF, according to the letter of recommendation.

“It was important for our students to have a place where not only can they conduct research, but also support each other,” Mountrakis said of the lab.

The lab has 11 workstations devoted toward the research activities of graduate students in Geospatial Science and Engineering, according to the letter of recommendation.

On top of conducting and publishing research and securing funds, Mountrakis supervises one postdoctoral researcher, four doctoral students and three master’s students, according to the letter of recommendation.

“He’s also getting his students involved in these projects,” Quackenbush said. “He is getting the next generation of researchers going. … He is one of the people that will make a difference in the field.”

Published on February 28, 2016 at 10:15 pm

Contact Taylor: tnwatson@syr.edu