Department of Geography, UNT: We are a diverse, interdisciplinary, and collaborative department. Our faculty comprises 14 members from 7 countries with expertise in: Earth Science & Modeling; Globalization, Development, & Cities; Human Systems & the Environment; and GIS & Remote Sensing. We are located in the Environmental Education, Science and Technology Building (EESAT) along with environmental scientists and environmental philosophers as well as the Elm Fork Education Center.

The EESAT Building

Examples of Collaborations and Opportunities for Research
Intradepartmental collaborative projects
• Fry and Tiwari - Natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale
• Oppong and Tiwari - GIS and health research
• Pan and Dong - Environmental modeling and climate change
• Ponette-González and Pan - Land use change, hydrology and biogeochemistry in Mexico
• Rice - Industrial waste recycling
• Wolverton and Dong - Deer home range monitoring
• Wolverton and Fry - Deer management with the Kickapoo

Interdepartmental collaborative projects
• Archaeological chemistry (Geography, Biology)
• Computational epidemiology (Geography, Environmental Science, Computer Science)
• Hurricane sedimentation (Geography, Physics)
• Mesa Verde (Geography, English, Philosophy, Art, Media Arts)
• Natural gas drilling in the Barnet Shale (Geography, Biology)
• Pharmaceuticals in the environment (Geography, Biology)
• Volunteered geographic information, LiDAR and disaster damage assessment (Geography, Computer Science, Public Administration)
• Wetland mitigation (Geography, Biology)
Many of our faculty members also work internationally in such countries as Canada, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, China, New Zealand and Ghana.

Because we are located in the midst of a growing metroplex, there are many opportunities for urban, economic and environmental research through many organizations, including:
• North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG)
• Sustainable Denton (City of Denton)
• Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area (LLELA)
• National Environmental Observation Network (NEON)
• LBJ National Grasslands
• Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Various municipalities
• Trinity River Authority
• Lewisville Aquatic Environmental Research Facility
• U.S. Geological Survey
• Tarrant Regional Water District
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

The University of North Texas (UNT): UNT is located in Denton, Texas, approximately 30 minutes north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. UNT is the 33rd largest university in the United States (~36,000 students) and is considered an "emerging" research university.

University of North Texas Overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3qDKMuokEs
UNT at a Glance: http://www.unt.edu/identity/

The university is actively hiring in a number of different areas, and there is a strong campus-wide focus on interdisciplinarity and sustainability (http://sustainable.unt.edu/).

There are many other universities in the vicinity, including the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Dallas, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Texas Woman's University and Austin College. In addition, four major counties in the metroplex have community college systems (Dallas Community College, Tarrant County Community College, Collin County Community College and North Central Texas Community College). Baylor University and the University of Texas at Austin are 2.0 and 3.5 hours south of Denton, respectively, while the University of Oklahoma is 3.0 hours north.

Denton: Denton is a very livable and affordable town of ~120,000 inhabitants with a character all its own. The heart of Denton is located around the Courthouse Square in "downtown" Denton. Like many counties in Texas, the square consists of the old county courthouse. In Denton, the Square is a major destination with unique eateries, shops, music venues and an excellent used bookstore (http://dentonmainstreet.org/main/). It is also the site of many of the town's festivals.

Denton is a college town with two universities with all the amenities of being part of a large metroplex.

Video on Denton: the Official Best College Town in Texas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXa_RfAKgHo&context=C259f5ADOEgsToPDskL5s...

UNT's thriving music and visual arts programs bring many artists to Denton, giving the town a "little Austin" feel.

New York Times news feature on the indie rock music scene in Denton http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/travel/11cultured.html?pagewanted=all

Finally, Denton is now connected by light rail system to the City of Dallas and is conveniently located just 20 minutes from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.