Dr. Jake Nelson

Jake Nelson is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geosciences, Auburn University. He earned his B.S. in Environmental Science and M.S. in Geography from Oregon State University in 2012 and 2014, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from Arizona State University in 2019 and then served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Nelson is a geographic information scientist focusing on social and environmental outcomes of humans’ interaction with the built and natural environment. He is specifically focused on social and environmental vulnerability as it relates to exogenous shocks that are either anthropogenically or naturally induced. He approaches these phenomena through a spatial lens, emphasizing the use of geospatial and statistical techniques and relying on unmanned aerial vehicles as a primary data collection tool.