Sean Ahearn

Sean Ahearn is a Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Advanced Research of Spatial Information (CARSI) at Hunter College – CUNY. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Environmental Remote Sensing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1986) and a B.S. from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY, Syracuse University. His research focuses on remote sensing, GIS, agent-based models, and emergency response systems.

Prof. Ahearn led the design and implementation of NYCMap, the City of New York's digital geographic base-map, which became critical during the 9/11 crisis. His work was featured in the History Channel's documentary series on the Twin Towers. He served as past president of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) and was recently appointed to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. He also acted as an expert witness in the Larry Silverstein World Trade Center Lawsuit.

His teaching includes advanced GIS courses, programming for geographic applications, and remote sensing. He oversees CARSI, a research center advancing spatial data science and geoinformatics.