Ming-Hsiang Tsou
Professor, Department of Geography, San Diego State University.
Founding Director, the Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age (HDMA).
Mailing Address: Geography Department, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4493
Telephone: (619)594-0205, Fax: (619)594-4938
Email: mtsou@mail.sdsu.edu
Web: map.sdsu.edu/tsou/
C.V. (PDF version) (HTML version)
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Ming-Hsiang (Ming) Tsou is a Professor in the Department of Geography, San Diego State University (SDSU) and the Director of Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age (HDMA). He received a B.S. (1991) from National Taiwan University, an M.A. (1996) from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. (2001) from the University of Colorado at Boulder, all in Geography. His research interests are in Human Dynamics, Social Media, Big Data, Visualization, Internet Mapping, Web GIS, Mobile GIS, Cartography, and K-12 GIS education. He is co-author of Internet GIS, a scholarly book published in 2003 by Wiley and served on the editorial boards of the Annals of GIS (2008-), Cartography and GIScience (2013-) and the Professional Geographers (2011-). Tsou was the Chair of the Cartographic Specialty Group (2007-2008), the Chair of Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group (2012-2013) in the Association of American Geographers (AAG), and the co-chair of the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Data System Working Group (ESEDWG) Standard Process Group (SPG) from 2004 to 2007. He has been served on two U.S. National Academy of Science Committees: “Research Priorities for the USGS Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science” (2006-2007) and “Geotargeted Alerts and Warnings: A Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps” (2012- 2013). Since 2008, Tsou served as a senior researcher in the GeoTech Center to promote GIS education in community colleges and high schools and conducted professional training workshops for GIS educators annually ( www.geotechcenter.org/). In 2010, Tsou was awarded to a $1.3 million research grant funded by National Science Foundation and served as the Principal Investigator (PI) of, "Mapping ideas from Cyberspace to Realspace" (mappingideas.sdsu.edu/) research project (2010-2014). This NSF-CDI project integrates GIS, computational linguistics, web search engines, and social media APIs to track and analyze public-accessible websites and tweets for visualizing and analyzing the diffusion of information and ideas in cyberspace. In Spring 2014, Tsou established a new research center, Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age (humandynamics.sdsu.edu/), a transdisciplinary research area of excellence at San Diego State University to integrate research works from GIScience, Public Health, Social Science, Sociology, and Communication. Tsou is the founding director of the HDMA Center. In Fall 2014, Tsou received a NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research (IBSS) award for “Spatiotemporal Modeling of Human Dynamics Across Social Media and Social Networks” ($999,887, 2014-2018). This large interdisciplinary research project studies human dynamics across social media and social networks, focusing on information diffusion modeling over time and space, and the connection between online activities and real world human behaviors.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Teaching Awards
- 2011: The San Diego State University Senate Excellence in Teaching Award for 2010-2011 (the College Awardee).
- 2010: Outstanding Faculty Award, San Diego State University.
- 2004: Outstanding Faculty Award, San Diego State University. (The Outstanding Faculty Awards are in recognition as the most influential university professor in the academic career of the Outstanding Graduating Senior.)
Professional and Research Awards and Honors
- Elected Board of Directors (elected by the University Senates), San Diego State University Research Foundation (2014 – present).
- Founding Director of the Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age (only four selected clusters from total 28 proposals submitted via the call in the SDSU strategic plan in 2014).
- 2012: The President's Leadership Fund (PLF) Faculty and Staff Awards for Excellence, San Diego State University (Award funding: $5,000).
- 2009: HI-TEC (education) Innovative Program award at the 2009 HI-TEC conference (National Science Foundation: High Impact Technology Exchange Conference) with Professor Kennth Yanow at Southwestern College.
Serving on National Academy of Science Committees
- 2012- 2013: National Research Council of the National Academy of Science (NAS), Committee on Geotargeted Alerts and Warnings: A Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps. Committee member, 2012- Current. (Research gap analysis for Department of Homeland Security and FEMA). www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18414
- 2006-2007: National Research Council of the National Academy of Science, Committee on Research Priorities for the USGS Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science, Committee member. 2006-2007. www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12004
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
- Peng, Z.R. and Tsou, M. H. (2003). Internet GIS: distributed geographic information services for the Internet and wireless networks. (720 pages, publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This scholarly book has been widely cited by many research papers and become one major literature in the research field of Web GIS.
- Tsou, M. H. and Leitner, M. (guest editors) (March 2013 issue). Special Content Issue: “Mapping Cyberspace and Social Media”. Cartography and Geographic Information Science. 2013.
- Total: 56 refereed publications and 7 non-refereed publications: 27 peer reviewed journal articles, 10 refereed book chapters, 7 refereed encyclopedia entries, 12 refereed proceeding articles or extended abstracts, 1 white paper, 2 book reviews, 4 invited short articles.
| 2014-2018 | PI (Tsou). National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research (IBSS) award for “Spatiotemporal Modeling of Human Dynamics Across Social Media and Social Networks” ($999,887, 2014-2018). Collaborate with Drs. Jay Lee (Co-PI, Kent State), Ruoming Jin (Co-PI, Kent State), Xinyue Ye (Kent State), Brian Spitzberg (Co-PI, SDSU), Jean Marc Gawron (Co-PI, SDSU), Heather Corliss (SDSU), and Xuan Shi (U of Arkansas). This large interdisciplinary research project will study human dynamics across social media and social networks, focusing on information diffusion modeling over time and space, and the connection between online activities and real world human behaviors. (socialmedia.sdsu.edu/) |
| 2013-2015 | Senior Personnel (Tsou). GeoTech Center 2.0. National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technology Education (ATE) program. PI: Vincent A. DiNoto, Jr., Director of GeoTech Center, Jefferson Community and Technical College. SDSU Sub-award: $54,895. (2013-2015). (www.geotechcenter.org/) |
| 2010-2014 | PI (Tsou). National Science Foundation (NSF) Award: “CDI-Type II: Mapping Cyberspace to Realspace: Visualizing and Understanding the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Global Diffusion of Ideas and the Semantic Web.” 09/01/2010- 08/31/2014. (48 months). Award # 1028177. (Co-PIs: Dipak K Gupta, Political Science, SDSU; Jean Marc Gawron, Linguistics, SDSU; Brian Spitzberg, Communication, SDSU, Senior Personnel: An Li, Geography). Funding Amount: $1,300,213. (mappingideas.sdsu.edu/) |
| 2012 | PI (Tsou). GIS Mapping for Older Adult Services in San Diego. San Diego Foundation. $33,448. (Jan 2012 – Dec 2012). (Co-PI: Dr. Yawen Li, School of Social Work) (mappingideas.sdsu.edu/health/) |
| 2009 | Co-Investigator (Technology developer). Founding Agency: the San Diego Foundation. MAPS (Metropolitan Area Pluralism Study).PI: Dr. Rebecca Moore, Department of Religious Studies, SDSU. $ 23,000 (2009 – 2010). (geoinfo.sdsu.edu/maps/) |
| 2009 | PI (Tsou). Bizarre Map Challenge (BMC): A Nationwide Map Design Competition, funded by the National GeoTech Center (NSF-supported). (Nine months, Dec 1, 2009 – August 31, 2010). $31,000. Completed. (bizarremap.sdsu.edu/) |
| 2009 | PI (Tsou). International Community Foundation. “Baja-Eco-Info Mapping Tool: Mapping Conservation and Threats for the Gulf of California”, (nine months, Jan 1, 2009 – August 31, 2009). $11,500. Completed. (geoinfo.sdsu.edu/baja/) |
TEACHING INNOVATIONS:
- The GIS iBook development: the "Introduction to GIScience" Collaborative Textbook Project for iPad devices. Editors: Ming-Hsiang Tsou, Cynthia Paloma (graduate student), and Yi-ting Chuang (graduate student): mappingideas.sdsu.edu/ibook/
- GIS Career and Education Awareness website and online learning modules: geoinfo.sdsu.edu/hightech/
- Geospatial Technology Summer Workshops for community college teachers and high school teachers (2009 – 2013): geoinfo.sdsu.edu/hightech/GISWorkshop2012.htm
- Social Networking Media (Facebook) for Teaching Aids: a Facebook Page for the introduction of Geospatial Technology. (www.facebook.com/pages/Geospatial-Technology-at-SDSU-GEOG104-GEOG381-GEOG583/129010146571?ref=mf).
- YouTube Channel for Geospatial Technology: geoinfo.sdsu.edu/hightech/GISVideos.htm
Research Websites
- HDMA Center
- NSF-IBSS: Social Media
- NSF-CDI: Mapping Ideas
- Mapping for Older Adult Services in SD
- San Diego Wildfire Interactive Web Mapping (2003, 2007, 2014)
- GIS iBook on iPads
- Geospatial Education Program Finder
- GIS Career and Education Awareness
- GEOINFO Gateway
- WHEO: An open web mapping project
Teaching Websites
- GEOG104
- GEOG381
- GEOG484
- GEOG581
- GEOG583
- Seminar: Wireless Mobile GIS
- Seminar: Web Mapping and Social Media
- Facebook: Intro of Geospatial Technology
- YouTube Channel