GIS Institute

GIS Institute: Immersive Training for Spatial Research

Twice a year in January and June, Harvard University’s Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) offers a two-week training course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its application to research. The program is designed for Harvard graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, faculty, and staff, as well as external researchers who want to integrate spatial thinking, incorporate GIS methods, learn spatial analysis tools, and communicate with maps in their research.  Over the course of two weeks, participants will experience the following:

  • Support in developing discipline-specific and GIS-relevant context for research projects
  • Introduction to geographic information systems
  • Spatial data development, management, and manipulation
  • Spatial analysis concepts, tools, and procedures
  • The practice and principles of communicating with maps
  • Tours of GIS resources on campus and seminars with Harvard scholars and research staff who use GIS in their respective fields
  • Big data/Big Geo-data and cloud-based GIS (PostGIS)
  • One-on-one consultations and step-by-step guidance through participants’ individual projects

The last day of the program will be devoted to a Geography Conference during which participants will present the culmination of their work during the Institute.

The primary instructors, Scott Bell and Connie Chen, have been teaching and using GIS for over 4 decades. Their experience spans the commercial life of GIS software and tools; each has conducted and published research using, and on, geographic information.

See Frequently Asked Questions & Answers. Click on a recent past session from the list below to see the complete program. Click on a future session to apply.

See also: Teaching