Lab members

Peter Howe

Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University (he/him)

Dr. Howe is a human-environment geographer and environmental social scientist whose research focuses on public perceptions of climate change and environmental risks, using large-scale social surveys, geospatial analysis, statistical modeling, and geovisualization.

Prior to joining the Utah State faculty Dr. Howe was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He received his PhD in 2012 and MS in 2009 from the Department of Geography at Penn State University. He grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and graduated from Arizona State University with a BS in Geography and BA in Political Science.


Current students


Brittany Lester

Brittany is pursuing a PhD in Environment and Society. Her background in psychology (BS Nebraska Wesleyan) and her passion for environmental advocacy has guided her research which seeks to understand public perceptions of climate migration as an adaptive strategy to climate change. Other interests include, statistical modeling and spatial analysis, environmental risk perceptions, and mitigation policy support.


Forest Cook

M.S., Geography


Jace Colby

M.S., Geography


Rachel Clarke

M.S., Geography


Former students & research assistants

Forrest Schoessow

M.S., Geography (2018)

Emily Esplin

M.S., Geography (2018)

Casey Trout

Research assistant (2019)

Kirsten Goldstein

M.S., Geography (2019)

Yajie Li

Ph.D., Environment and Society (2021)