Walker Johnson

Position:

• Graduate Student Department of Biology

Primary Research Project:

• Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP) and other Internet Mapping Application in the lab (BAID and CEON)

Contact details:

• Office: 325 Biology Building
• Phone: +1-915-747-8816
• Email:  gjohnson@miners.utep.edu

Websites:

• www.armap.org
• www.ceon.org
• www.baid.org
• www.ecoswims.org

Started at UTEP:

• Summer 2006

Education:

• 2000-02 BSc. (Honors), The University of Texas at El Paso, Major in Biology and minor in Geology.
• 1997-2000  El Paso Community College, Major in Biology.

Research Interests:

• Herpetology, EcoInformatics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing, and Computer Information Systems.

Teaching:

• Undergraduate classes:

          o    General Biology (Majors and Non-majors)

          o    Field Biology (Teaching Assistant)

Favorite Technologies:

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
• SEL’s 2D and 3D web-based mapping applications (www.armap.org, www.baidims.org and www.ceonims.org).

Favorite Field Site:

• Indio Mountain Research Station (IMRS)- Hudspeth County, TX.

Hobbies:

• Hiking, traveling, rafting, camping, cooking, golfing, tennis.

Ambitions:

• Obtain my PhD
• Develop my computer programming skills
• Have an impact on the way scientific data is managed, stored, and distributed.

Personal Statement:

I grew up in El Paso, TX and have always had a love for the great outdoors and the organisms that make up the ecosystem around us.  During my education that has taken me from the Southern Island of Galveston, TX to the Mojave Desert around Las Vegas, NV, I have worked on many different organisms - plants, small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles (rattlesnakes, lizards (Bi-sexual and unisexual), and the famous Desert Tortoise).  While studying these various organisms, I have had the opportunity to utilize some very interesting and advanced technologies that help in the understanding spatial ecology like Geographic Information Systems (GIS), radio telemetry, and some pretty hi-tech weather stations.  Returning to UTEP to pursue my PhD under Dr. Craig Tweedie has allowed me to expand my horizons with on-line GIS web-mapping applications.  With the development of ARMAP, I have had the opportunity to visit many new places (Alaska, Canada, California, and the National Science Foundation) to present our application at many different local, state, national, and international conferences and in the near future, a new adventure to an international conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.