Miguel Castrence
GISDE/M.A. '03
 
1. Please describe your present professional position? Please include the URL of your organization.
 
I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Geography at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. I am being supported by an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship as well as a research assistantship at the Hawai`i Biodiversity and Mapping Program.
 
2. What do you find satisfying about your position?
 
UH-Manoa is the perfect place for my research interests. I am combining my past experiences in geographic information sciences and coastal resource management with new interests in the human dimensions of conservation. UH provides a great deal of intellectual freedom, the EWC offers a wonderful international and interdisciplinary community, and HBMP keeps me current in remote sensing techniques.
 
3. How did the GISDE program at Clark University help to prepare you?
 
The interdisciplinary nature of the GISDE program allowed me the flexibility to pursue unique and innovative research. It also provided me with a set of practical tools and analytical skills, which I have been able to apply in a variety of contexts, both in the U.S. and abroad.
 
4. Why should prospective students enroll in the GISDE program at Clark University?
 
IDCE and the Graduate School of Geography are both great environments in which students are exposed to diverse and cutting-edge research topics. The faculty, staff and fellow students are helpful and supportive. Class sizes are small, so students can get very personalized attention, and we enjoy an academic, social and professional camaraderie which continues long after graduation.
 
5. Did you have an internship as part of your Clark education? If so, how did it help to connect you to your current career?
 
After my second semester, I spent a summer conducting fieldwork in over 40 community-based marine protected areas in the Visayas, a group of provinces of the central Philippines. After graduation, I returned to the Philippines on a 12-month Fulbright scholarship, living and working in the province of Palawan. To put my hard-earned skills into practice, I collaborated with and provided technical assistance to two local NGOs: the Environmental Legal Assistance Center and Conservation International. This is where the "Development and Environment" aspect of the GISDE program came into relevance for me.
 
6. What was the topic of your research while at Clark University?
 
The title of my research project was "Rapid Coral Reef Assessment with Remote Sensing: Local Spatial Autocorrelation in Landsat ETM + Imagery as an Indicator of Ecosystem Health." I used a combination of remote sensing analysis, spatial statistics, landscape ecology metrics, and field surveys to assess the condition of coral reefs.

Click here to read Miguel's thesis.