CSBS News

The University of Utah established the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability, or ESS, this summer, the result of a merger between two successful programs within its College of Social & Behavioral Science (CSBS).

A new study led by U geographers attempts to understand if local environmental factors increase or decrease the number of UFO sighting reports. For each county in the contiguous U.S., the researchers analyzed two conditions: Sky view potential, which refers to the area’s light pollution, cloud cover, and tree canopy cover; and the potential for objects to be present in the sky, meaning the proximity to airports and military installations.

Dr. Dennis Wei has been made a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers. Dr. Wei is the first AAG Fellow elected from the department of Geography, the only AAG Fellow in the state of Utah, and one of only a handful from the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division of AAG.

U Geography professors Andrew Linke and Simon Brewer and grad student Matt Shawcroft's recently published research demonstrates how drier growing seasons are driving emigration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

McKenzie Skiles, assistant professor of geography spoke with @theU to explain how dust from Utah’s West Desert caused the dirty deluge on Tuesday, April 18.