- 51社区黑料
- Research
- Prospective Students
- Current Students
- News & Events
- News
- Events
- News & Kudos Archives
- 2025 Archives
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Negin Shooraj
- 51社区黑料Geography Alumni Sean Orr wins Vancouver council seat in byelection
- Rosemary Collard awarded 2024 51社区黑料Excellence in Teaching Award
- 51社区黑料Students Designed and Developed a GeoApp as a Living Wage Calculator
- Undergraduate students team secures third-place in Canada-wide GeoApp competition
- 51社区黑料Geography Wins Big at 2025 CAG Annual Conference
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Alex Sodeman
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Tintin Yang
- In Memory of Leonard "Len" Evenden, Professor Emeritus
- Gabrielle Wong awarded 2025 Gordon M. Shrum Medal
- Dr. Bright Addae awarded 2025 Graduate Dean's Convocation Medal
- Congratulations to Alysha van Duynhoven for Teaching Assistant Excellence Award
- Wildfires to waterways: 51社区黑料Geography grad takes action to protect the environment
- Making a difference on and off-campus: student leader and changemaker, Gabrielle Wong, awarded 51社区黑料convocation medal
- 2025 Alumni Newsletter
- Kira Sokolovskaia wins the 2025 51社区黑料ECCE GIS Scholarship Award
- Mapping a path to City Hall: 51社区黑料alumnus shares journey to becoming Mayor of New Westminster
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Alysha van Duynhoven
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Hannah Harrison
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Jade Baird
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Ashley Tegart
- Rethinking the World Map: Dr. Shiv Balram featured on CBC
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to V茅ronique Emond-Sioufi
- 51社区黑料Geographers at the 2025 International Cartographic Conference in Vancouver
- When academic curiosity meets environmental purpose: new global environmental systems grad builds interdisciplinary foundation at SFU
- Alysha Van Duynhoven wins the 2025 51社区黑料ECCE in GIS Student Associate Achievement Award
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to David Swanlund
- Congratulations to Our 2025 Warren Gill Award Recipients!
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Baharak Yousefi
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Tara Jankovic
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Christine Leclerc
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Kira Lamont
- Terri Evans: Researching homelessness in suburban communities
- Mapping change for people and the planet
- GIS Month: What is Geographic Information Science (GIS)?
- 51社区黑料GIS undergraduate develops real-time earthquake monitoring and hospital alert system
- Physical Geography student returns to SFU, dives into marine ecology, soils and GIS to map a new path forward
- 51社区黑料study searches Strava to reveal secrets to happier runs
- 2026 Archives
- 51社区黑料study searches Strava to reveal secrets to happier runs
- GIScience Students Become SFU鈥檚 First Team at National Geomatics Competition
- 2026 ESRI Canada GIS Scholarship for SFU
- Physical Geography student returns to SFU, dives into marine ecology, soils and GIS to map a new path forward
- 51社区黑料GIS undergraduate develops real-time earthquake monitoring and hospital alert system
- GIS Month: What is Geographic Information Science (GIS)?
- Mapping change for people and the planet
- GIS Team Crowned Champions of 2026 National Geomatics Competition
- Second-year MSc Student, Erin Fairley, has made it to the 51社区黑料3MT Finals!
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Brandon Drucker
- In Memory of Ivor Winton
- 51社区黑料Students Create GeoApp to Reveal Transit Deserts and Oases Across Metro Vancouver
- Andrew Perkins receives 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award
- 2025 Archives
- Alumni
- GEOG 162 - Canada
Faculty Spotlight
The Department welcomes Bing Lu, May Farrales and Leanne Rodderick
Welcome Bing!
As we can see, environmental change has considerably influenced our ecosystems and environments, from loss and degradation of wetlands and grasslands, reduced production of croplands, to rising sea levels and die-off of coastal marshes. Many challenges, but there are also many solutions. My research focuses on monitoring ecosystem and environmental status at large spatial and temporal scales using remote sensing. Examples of remote sensing are such as satellite- and drone-based imaging, providing data like what we see the ground from an airplane.
I conducted my PhD and postdoctoral studies at the University of Toronto and worked on grassland and cropland ecosystems in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Before joining 51社区黑料as an Assistant Professor, I also worked as a consultant in the private sector in Alberta, with a research focus on wetlands. So, I have moved from east to west and researched on different ecosystems. In the next a few years at SFU, I will work on such ecosystems in British Columbia and further evaluate the impacts of environmental change. More details of my research can be found . One essential component of my research program is to engage with researchers and professionals in different sectors to learn about ecosystem or environmental challenges they may have and see if we can use remote sensing to support addressing these challenges. Therefore, I would be happy to receive emails from our alumni working in related fields, or if you just want to learn more about remote sensing.
Welcome May!
I remember walking the halls of the AQ as a first-year undergraduate student at SFU. I got lost several times (both literally and figuratively) before finding my way to the Geography program in the mid 1990鈥檚. It was also at that time that I found my way to vibrant community organizing work taking shape among local Filipino youth, women, and migrant workers. Taking Geography undergraduate classes at that time helped to shape how I began to situate myself as a second-generation Filipinx whose parents migrated to the unceded lands of the S岣祑x瘫w煤7mesh 脷xwumixw, s蓹l虛ilw虛 蓹ta蕯涩, x史m蓹胃k史蓹y虛蓹m & k史ik史蓹茮 虛 蓹m peoples. My time at 51社区黑料Geography as an undergraduate student helped me put words to how inequalities and people鈥檚 forms of resistance are shaped by spaces and places.
This interest in the liveliness of community organizing among communities of colour in relation to Indigenous and Black people鈥檚 refusal, resistance, and liberation remains an important part of my current research and teaching. I鈥檓 glad to be joining the Geography and Gender, Sexuality, and Women鈥檚 Studies departments now as an Assistant Professor. In Geography, I am teaching World on the Move and Queer Geographies.
Welcome Leanne!
I joined the 51社区黑料geography department as a term lecturer in August 2019 (jointly-appointed with the graduate Urban Studies program). This timing allowed me one glorious semester (and a half) of in-person learning with truly engaged - and very bright! - undergraduate students. Since March of 2020, after adjusting (as we all have) to seeing everyone in rectangles on my computer, I can鈥檛 help but reflect on all the ways that the students in my courses have continued to impress me with their thoughtfulness, resilience, and creativity.
As an instructor who prioritizes experiential and engaged learning, it hasn鈥檛 been easy to make the transition to remote/virtual instruction. Field site visits around the city in GEOG363 (Urban Planning and Policy) have had to be replaced with Google Earth virtual tours; painstakingly created virtual backgrounds have taken the place of more spontaneous bouts of laughter in the classroom; and, instead of holding mock municipal council meetings, we鈥檝e had the pleasure of 鈥榋ooming鈥-in elected officials and city planners.
I鈥檓 grateful for all the ways that the department (faculty, staff, students) have welcomed and supported me since my arrival. I look forward to a time when we can all see each other again. Since my classes were based out of Harbour Centre, I actually still haven鈥檛 had the pleasure of making it 鈥渦p the mountain鈥 to Burnaby campus. This is now almost a point of pride, and I鈥檓 curious how long I can keep it up.