Lee De Cola, Ph.D.
Figure 1. Dr. De Cola gives a talk to the Center's summer students on using a GPS out in the field.
 Figure 3. Tao animation by De Cola.
For further information, contact Lee DeCola.
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Lee De Cola has worked as a research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey for 20 years and describes himself as “smart, humorous, and skeptical.” He has degrees in Mathematics, Urban Planning, and earned his Ph.D. in Geography while living in Africa.
Before working at USGS, De Cola lived in Nigeria for six years where he taught at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ibadan. Since lecturing was the only way for his students to collect notes, as books were too expensive, De Cola wrote a book, Data and Information, which primarily deals with how to convert numbers into information.
After leaving Nigeria, De Cola returned to the United States to pursue a post doctoral academic career in several different states. He taught in Los Angeles, California at the University of Southern California, lecturing in Urban and Regional Planning where he taught courses in statistics and data analysis in planning. In West Virginia, he taught courses on urban and population geography and on computers. In Vermont he taught several geography courses and finally settled in Virginia, where he joined the USGS in 1989.
When Dr. De Cola began to work at the USGS, he started his studies with fractals which he used in analysis, of spatial patterns, land surface change, and remote sensing imagery. He then focused on medical geography by researching vector-borne diseases and studying the spread of disease by analyzing temporal data and maps (fig. 2). De Cola integrated social, economic, and environmental information to determine the why and where of the spread of diseases. He is continuing to study the patterns in maps and the conclusions that can be drawn from them. He looks at different levels of perspectives and scales and then analyzes the patterns revealed at each level.One of his greatest interests has been setting up science training workshops at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Minorities are greatly underrepresented in science so he wants to help open doors and young minds to the great accomplishments these individuals could contribute to science.
While working at the USGS, De Cola has also been very involved with teaching. He has taught at George Mason University for 20 years, teaching courses on fractals, medical geography, and data analysis. He is currently taking a sabbatical from George Mason University to allow more time to teach a GIS class at John Hopkins University, “Environmental Science and Policies.” This online graduate course involves 15 students from all around the world. He has received an offer to teach the class again in the spring of 2009.
Figure 2. United States map shows West Nile Virus spread from 2001-2004
During Lee’s teaching experience, he has found that the learning curve for students has grown much faster and that students get easily bored with lectures. In teaching, he has been able to observe how students learn and how they process the information and he believes, as many others do, that “the way of schooling is dated.” De Cola says his current online course enables students to feel more relaxed than the traditional classroom setting and allows them to have a greater voice because they are able to share knowledge and provide feedback to the professor rather than the typical one-way discussion. Perhaps online courses are part of the answer to update the current way of schooling.
De Cola believes another of his greatest accomplishments was when he co-wrote Fractals in Geography with Nina Lam. The work with fractals started with his Ph.D. research and the relation he saw between fractals and the patterns of city growth. The field of fractals was not as developed then but the work of Benoit Mandelbrot greatly inspired De Cola to further study the subject.
When Dr. De Cola retires from the USGS he hopes to continue teaching science and geography. He is currently adapting the ideas from the book he wrote in Nigeria to the problem of fostering multidisciplinary environmental and health research.
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