Saint Louis University’s master’s program in geographic information science addresses an increasing demand for professionals with geospatial science skills. It offers a combination of geospatial theory and practical training. The interdisciplinary Master of Science (M.S.) in Geographic Information Science (GIScience), also known as Geospatial Science, from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Saint Louis University, is offered in cooperation with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and other departments that offer GIScience courses (e.g., Departments of Biology and Computer Science). The program combines geospatial theory and practical training in geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing and global positioning system software. The program prepares students to become experts well qualified to meet the increasing demand for experts in geospatial analytics, imaging science, photogrammetry, spatial statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. As an interdisciplinary program, the M.S. in GIScience focuses on research to address environmental, social and economic issues. Students apply GIS, remote sensing, geovisualization, spatial analysis and statistics, database management and GIS programming within natural science, social science and integrative human-environment domains using innovative technologies and software programs (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, ENVI+IDL, SARscape, Python, GeoDA, R).

Careers Graduates from SLU’s GIS master’s program have a very good employment outlook. According to the Geospatial Information and Technology Association, employment in this field is growing at an annual rate of almost 35 percent, with the commercial subsection of the market expanding by 100% each year. Recent graduates from this program have been employed by various environmental, remote sensing and GIS companies, including Bayer, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)