Overview

       In April 1980, the University of Missouri received funding from a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant to begin the first major interdisciplinary geoscience activity at the University of Missouri-Columbia. From that beginning other initiatives, programs, and centers have been developed to provide a rich and robust geoscience network of centers and expertise across the campus.

Geographic Information Sciences is essential to the University of Missouri in its Research One status as a tool for applied and basic research. The State of Missouri recognized the major impact of this technology, awarding the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Clearinghouse for Missouri to the University in its capacity as a land grant institution. As GIS is extended and implemented across state and local governments these activities have spawned research and projects using GI Science in the context of transportation planning, biodiversity analysis, homeland security, watershed analysis, geospatial intelligence, community informatics, and socio-economic analysis.

The University of Missouri’s commitment to instruction in geospatial techniques and technologies has been manifested through the development of an undergraduate Minor and an interdisciplinary certification program in Geographic Information Science for graduate and undergraduate students. The program is available to all students and requires completing coursework that includes:

1. Foundational courses
2. Theoretical Breadth courses
3. Technical Breadth and Application courses, and
4. A Capstone experience.

The research centers and other funded projects enable the University to supplement and enhance the preparation of our students to contribute to the geospatial community, as well as society at large, by providing a skilled and knowledgeable workforce for both public and private enterprise.