FACULTY PROFILE: DR. LU LIANG

This semester's faculty profile is of Associate Professor, Dr. Lu Liang, who has been a faculty member at UNT for about 5 years. Prior to joining UNT, Lu taught at University of Arkansas, Monticello for three years where she was an assistant professor.

In true geography fashion, UNT's location is what drew her to our institution She felt it was a great place to study both urban and natural environments Her current research projects are:

“Geospatial study of air pollution using low-cost sensors, satellite, airborne imagery, and other multi-source data to study urban heat and urban pollution islands ”

And “detecting agricultural irrigation system types for crop fields in the US ” This information is critical for water and carbon conservation purposes.

Lu is a highly active person who enjoys bringing her energy into the classroom. Teaching takes her away from computer screens to interacting and talking with students. As much as she enjoys these interactions and the energy that she can bring to her classes, teaching also fills her with energy. This fuels her passion for working with students, fine-tuning her philosophy on instruction, and how this can play out in the classroom. She respects that students have different learning styles and enjoys the chance to engage with students in various ways. She also believes integrating research and realworld questions in her courses help students connect to their future careers. She encourages collaborative work and independent problem solving to help develop these skills in her students.

When asked what her favorite course to teach is, Lu had a hard time choosing With her online Intro to GIS course she gets to know over 200 students each year In her other two upper division courses (GIS for Applied Research and Digital Imaging Analysis) she can work with students on their projects, which she enjoys She learns just as much from her students as they are learning from her

When Lu is not teaching, she is busy doing research, community outreach, and mentoring her students. She also has recently received several awards! The UNT Presidential Early Career Award (2022), UNT Division of Research and Innovation’s Early Career Award for Research and Creativity (2023), and the Toulouse Scholar Award (2023)