Geo Scientist Develops NASA-like Tool to Gauge Changes

“I like the directness of the Brooklyn College students,” admits Professor Rebecca Boger of the Geology Department, pointing out that interested students come to her with very direct questions. “I, on my part, try to promote a collaborative learning, so students work in groups.”
    An American-Canadian dual-national, Boger received her masters of science in geography from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. While pursuing her Ph.D. at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, thanks to a Knauss Fellowship, she went to work for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE). A NASA-funded program, GLOBE targets the teaching of environmental education for primary and secondary schools around the world. While never fully intending to become an academic, Boger became a front-row witness, and active participant, in a major scientific and social transformation – the cultural and academic shift toward studying and promoting environmental science.
    “Today there’s more understanding about the connection between human land-based activities and what happens to oceans and estuaries,” Boger says by way of example. “The runoff from farming that washes into rivers is rich in nutrients and stimulates the overgrowth of aquatic plant life, which unfortunately depletes the dissolved oxygen available for fish and other aquatic species.”
    In 2007, after years of working with academics from all over the world, Boger joined the faculty of Brooklyn College, in great part to pursue the development of a geographic information system (GIS). A computer-based program, the GIS will help store, analyze, and visualize vast amounts
    

of spatial data instrumental to make land cover maps, understanding how seasons may be changing and how every living being responds to that.
    “This ties in nicely with environmental science,” Boger explains. “Whether you are dealing with coastal issues, watershed analyses, or the way urbanization affects the quality of water, the GIS is a very powerful tool that could also help social scientists who’d like to study demographic information of different types.”
    Boger expects the lab will be running in the spring semester. Senior lab technician Guillermo Roca will be working with her in the day-to-day operations.
    Boger explains that her classes offer and demand more than attending lectures, being much more project-oriented. “I’m trying to develop projects that use Brooklyn and New York City as a context for study,” she adds.
One reason to take this job, she says, is to work directly with students and get involved in research projects from which she is likely to learn as much as anyone else.
     “I’m a life-long learner,” admits the professor. “And getting an offer to do it at Brooklyn College in New York City is a rarity – and a challenge.”