The GIS Day 2026 Celebration, held on November 19, 2025 (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) at the Claude Pepper Center, was a great success! The event featured talks from four distinguished speakers representing Florida State University and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).
- Stewart Fotheringham, Ph.D., Krafft Professor of Spatial Data Science in the Department of Geography and Director of the Spatial Data Science Center, delivered a keynote speech titled Why “Spatial” is “Special”: The Power of Spatial Data Science and GIS.
- Michael Core, Application Developer/Designer at the Florida Resources and Environmental Analysis Center (FREAC), provided an overview of various GIS research projects conducted at FREAC, followed by an in-depth discussion on the application of deep learning for information extraction from remotely sensed imagery.
- Liz Martin, Specialist on the University Programs team at Esri, gave a virtual presentation highlighting ESRI as an organization and sharing details about student opportunities.
- Xiaojun Yang, Ph.D., Professor of Geography, presented an overview of GIScience education programs at FSU, including the Master of Science in Geographic Information Science (MSGIS) program. Established in 2005, it was the first MSGIS program in the State of Florida and one of only a few in the United States at the time. This year marks the program’s 20th anniversary, with more than 280 graduates, well over half of the total graduate students from the FSU Department of Geography.
The GIS Day 2025 Celebration was organized by the MSGIS Ad Hoc Committee (Amber DeJohn, Ph.D., Ziqi Li, Ph.D., and Dr. Yang) in the Department of Geography. Thank you to Michal Bryant for assistance with reserving the meeting space and Kari Edwards for her support in many ways!