Somayeh Dodge

Somayeh Dodge is an Associate Professor of Spatial Data Science in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She leads the MOVE Lab and serves as Co-Associate Director of the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science. Her research focuses on computational movement analysis, spatiotemporal data science, and the application of these tools to study human and ecological systems. She holds editorial roles in major journals including Journal of Spatial Information Science and Geographical Analysis.

Education: PhD in GIScience (University of Zurich, 2011), MS in GIS Engineering (K.N.Toosi University of Technology, 2005), and BS in Geomatics Engineering (2003). Postdoctoral work at The Ohio State University and University of Zurich. Prior faculty positions include University of Minnesota (2016–2019) and University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (2013–2016).

Research interests include wildfire impact analysis, mobility patterns during disasters, environmental vulnerability modeling, and geovisualization techniques. Her NSF CAREER project explores movement responses to environmental disruptions. Teaching focuses on GIScience, movement analytics, and spatial modeling courses.

Awards: 2021 NSF CAREER Award and 2022 AAG Emerging Scholar Award. Active in editorial boards for multiple journals and serves on the Board of Directors for the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS).

• Advising: Supervises 7 graduate students in mobility analytics and environmental modeling.
• Labs/Teams: MOVE Lab (https://move.geog.ucsb.edu/) focuses on computational movement ecology and human mobility studies.