Director
Luc Anselin
Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College; Director, Center for Spatial Data Science; Senior Fellow, NORC
Luc Anselin is the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College, the Director of the new Center for Spatial Data Science and a Senior Fellow at NORC. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.
Luc Anselin’s 2023-24 Courses
- SOCI 20559/30559 (GISC 20559/30559) Spacial Regression Analysis (Autumn)
Instructors
Crystal Bae
Assistant Instructional Professor of GIScience
Crystal Bae is Assistant Instructional Professor of GIScience in the Division of the Social Sciences and the College. Her research in spatial cognition focuses on geographic movement visualization, real-world navigation, cognition of neighborhoods and regions, and social decision making. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography with an Emphasis in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a former postdoc of the Movement Data Science Lab at UCSB.
Crystal Bae’s 2025-26 Courses
- GISC 2/37100 Cartographic Design and Geovisualization (Autumn)
- GISC 2/37104 Movement Data and Analysis (Autumn)
- GISC 2/38200 Spatial Analysis Methods in Geographic Information Systems (Winter)
- GISC 2/37102 Spatial Cognition (Spring)
- GISC 2/38702 Intro to GIS & Spatial Analysis (Spring; Summer)
F. Gianluca Sperone
Assistant Instructional Professor of GIScience
F. Gianluca Sperone is an Assistant Instructional Professor of GIS and Remote Sensing in the Center for Spatial Data Science and the College. He has over 20 years of experience in Academia, Corporate, Local Government, Consulting and Non-Profit organizations. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Geology from the University of Calabria, an M.A. in Environmental and Urban Geography from UIC and a PhD in Civil (Environmental) Engineering from Wayne State University. His research interests include geospatial analysis and geostatistical stochastic models of environmental phenomena, including adaptation of ecological systems to climate and spatiotemporal analysis of environmental pollutants. Currently he is studying how the resilience of drinking water distribution systems is affected by extreme weather events, aging infrastructures and the shrinking cities phenomenon. His teaching approach is based on the concept that science is a critical thinking and evidence-based process that explains natural phenomena by continuously asking questions and collecting and analyzing data to answer those questions.
Gianluca Sperone’s 2025-26 Courses
- GISC 2/34800 Introduction to Remote Sensing Analysis (Autumn)
- GISC TBD Digital Elevation Modeling and Analysis (Winter)
- GISC TBD Satellite Image Analysis (Winter)
- GISC 2/38400 GIScience Practicum (Spring)
- SOSC 13320 Social Science Inquiry: Spatial Analysis III (Spring)