My CV

PDF

Download CV

Education

University of Maryland, College Park, USA, August 2019 ~

  • PhD, Department of Geographical Sciences

Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany, October 2017 - August 2019

  • MSc, International Cartography M.Sc. Program

University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), Madison, USA, September 2013 - May 2017

  • BSc with Honors, Geography, Cartography/Geographic Information System (GIS)

Publications

  • Liang, M., Pause, M., Prechtel, N., & Schramm, M. (2020). Regionalization of coarse scale soil moisture products using fine-scale vegetation indices - prospects and case study, Remote Sensing.
  • Kasmerchak, C., Mason, J., & Liang, M. (2018). Laser diffraction analysis of aggregates stability and disintegration in forest and grassland soils of northern Minnesota, USA. Geoderma, 2018.06.020.
  • Mason, J., Kasmerchak, C., & Liang, M. (2016). Monitoring aggregate disintegration with laser diffraction: A tool for studying soils as sediments. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 18, EGU2016-5279.
  • Mason, J., Kasmerchak, C., Keita, H., Liang, M., & Gruley, K. (2016). Effects of Holocene vegetation change on soils across the forest-grassland transition, northern Minnesota, and implications for erosion processes. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 18, EGU2016-5275.

Research Experience

Department of Geographical Sciences, UMD, August 2019 - ongoing

  • Analyzing Lidar data from multiple sources such as ICESat-2 and GEDI
  • Maintaining and detailing project activities and meeting notes weekly

Master’s Thesis Research, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, TU-Dresden, January 2019 - August 2019

  • Designed and proposed an innovative method using R & command-line tool
  • Retrieved and processed in-situ and optical remotely sensed time series data
  • Presented orally and in writing; programmed JavaScript visualization tool

Remote Sensing Research Group, Geo4Women Summer Research Program, TU-Wien, July 2018 - September 2018

  • Developed short-term project solving multivariate environmental problem
  • Combined in-situ, optical and SAR products for spatiotemporal analysis

Chair of Remote Sensing Technology, TUM, November 2017 - March 2018

  • Acquired and examined high-resolution commercial satellite data
  • Scripted in Google Earth Engine for fusing commercial and Sentinel-2 data

Senior Honors Thesis Research, Department of Geography, UW-Madison, September 2016 - May 2017

  • Quantified land use change from historical aerial photograph using GIS
  • Synthesized original geospatial data such as land survey notes, plat maps

Antarctic Meteorological Research Center, Space Science and Engineering Center, UW-Madison, 2016 - 2017

  • Acquired and archive real-time and existing Antarctic meteorological data
  • Utilized JavaScript to design a web-based interactive map as a data portal (ongoing) for domain scientists

Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, UW-Madison, 2016 - 2017

  • Programmed Python tools to extract and analyze large geocoded datasets of agricultural practices from web-based APIs
  • Navigated web-based statistical visualization library, Altair, to analyze data and produce aesthetic visualization results
  • Collaborated with faculty and three student programmers to analyze data and build models based on economic theories

Paleogeography Lab, Department of Geography, UW-Madison, 2016

  • Communicated with faculty and researchers to gather datasets and articles on North America paleo pollen counts
  • Collaborated with multiple researchers across disciplines and campuses to update Neotoma Paleoecology Database
  • Conducted data management and databasing tasks independently and provide timely updates to faculty members

Center for Sustainability and Global Movement, Nelson Institute, UW-Madison, 2016

  • Worked closely with faculty and a team of graduate/undergraduate students on a multidisciplinary NASA-funded project studying land cover land use change in Southeast Asian cities
  • Applied dense-time-stack technique on 50+ Landsat satellite imagery to select training data for land use categorization
  • Utilized supervised support vector machine, a machine learning algorithm, to classify the land use types

Geomorphology Lab, Department of Geography, UW-Madison, 2014 - 2016

  • Conducted field sampling work and laboratory experiments to analyze Minnesota soil samples
  • Worked closely with Dr. Joseph Mason and Graduate students to practice innovative method on analyzing soil aggregates
  • Organized and archive soil samples and experiments data regularly and timely in Excel

Teaching Experience

  • Teaching assistant for GEOG201 Geography of Environmental Systems at Department of Geographical Sciences, UMD (2019 - ongoing)
  • TOEFL, IELTS and SAT tutor at Web International English School, Kunming, China (Summer 2017)
  • Circulation Assistant at Math and Chemistry library, UW-Madison (2013-2017)
  • GIS and Cartography Academic Coach at Division of Diversity, Equity & Education Achievement, UW-Madison (2015)
  • Math and English Tutor at a private Elementary and Middle School tutoring agency in Kunming, China (2013)

Services and Activities

  • Social Event Coordinator at Graduate Student Organization (GSO) Department of Geographical Sciences, UMD (2019 - ongoing)
  • Conversational English Volunteer Tutor at Great University Tutoring Service, UW-Madison (2015 - 2017)
  • Japanese Language Exchange Participant at Japanese Student Association, UW-Madison (2015)
  • Director of Internal Affairs and Mentor at Multicultural Business Student, UW-Madison (2015)
  • Tax Return Preparer at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, Internal Revenue Service, Madison, WI (2013 - 2014)
  • Volunteer Event Facilitator at World Language Day, Madison, WI (2013)

Honors and Awards

  • Dean’s List (7 semesters)
  • College of Letters & Science Honors Program
  • Welton Summer Sophomore Research Apprenticeship Grant ($2000)
  • Letters & Science General Scholarship ($500)
  • UW - Madison Cartography Lab Design Challenge Honorable Mention
  • L&S Honors Summer Senior Thesis Grant ($3000)
  • Kohn Award in Department of Geography ($750)
  • Olmstead Achievement Award in Department of Geography ($100)
  • Geo4Women scholarship - Vienna University of Technology (€4000)
  • Scholarship for Study Completion - German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) STIBET-Programme (€900)

Presentation and Talk

  • Presenter, “Interaction of Human Settlement, Vegetation Patterns and Soils in the Northern Minnesota Prairie-Forest Region from the Euro-American Settlement Era to Present”, Senior Honors Thesis Symposium, UW-Madison (May 2017)
  • Presenter, “Interaction of Human Settlement, Vegetation Patterns and Soils in the Northern Minnesota Prairie-Forest Region from the Euro-American Settlement Era to Present”, Undergraduate Symposium, UW-Madison (April 2017)
  • Earthspeak Radio, guest speaker on Cartography conversation and the academic program of Cartography at UW-Madison (March 2017)
  • MadGeogNews (News for the UW-Madison Geography Department), interview included in the article “A Conversation with Undergraduate Student Mengyu Liang” (March 2017)

Programming Skills

Python | R | JavaScript | HTML/CSS |

Software Skills

QGIS | ArcGIS | Microsoft Suite | Adobe Illustrator | Adobe Photoshop | GitHub | ENVI |

Language Skills

  • Chinese (Native)
  • English (Proficient)
  • German (Elementary)
  • Japanese (Elementary)

Interests

badminton | running | hiking | Chinese calligraphy | cooking |

© Mengyu Liang 2020