Department
Rural Sociology
Organization
Pennsylvania State University
Email
gchi@psu.edu
Phone
814-826-4686
Address
112 Armsby
University Park , Pennsylvania 16802United StatesBioDr. Chi’s research is focused on socio-environmental systems, aiming to understand the interactions between human populations and built and natural environments and to identify important assets (social, environmental, infrastructural, institutional) to help vulnerable populations adapt and become resilient to environmental changes. His current work investigates climate change impacts on coastal communities in the Arctic and climate-driven migration and left-behind children in Central Asia. He is an expert in spatial and big data analytic methods and lead author of the textbook “Spatial Regression Models for the Social Sciences” (SAGE 2019). Dr. Chi leads the POLARIS project and the establishment of an infrastructure for collecting and analyzing social media data (60+ TB; Twitter, Facebook, mobile phone).

Interests

Permafrost, Social Science, Interdisciplinary Research, Indigenous Knowledge, Science Education, Citizen Science

Science Specialties

environmental demography, socio-environmental systems, rural sociology, big data, spatial analysis

Current Research

1. NSF Navigating the New Arctic Program. "NNA Track 1: Pursuing Opportunities for Long-term Arctic Resilience for Infrastructure and Society (POLARIS)" (Award # NNA-1927827). 1/1/2020–12/31/2023. PI. $3,009,000.
2. NSF Sociology Program. "RR: The Generalizability and Replicability of Twitter Data for Population Research" (Award # SES-1823633). 7/15/2018–6/30/2022. PI. $500,000.
3. NSF Office of Polar Program. "RAPID: Collaborative Research: COVID-19 Preparedness in Remote Fishing Communities in Rural Alaska" (Award # OPP-2032790). PI. Project dates: 6/15/2020–5/31/2022. $119,868.