Rate My Professor Donald Akanga

Akanga's research interests encompass climate change and livelihoods sustainability, human-environment interactions, community engagement for development, and remote sensing with geospatial applications to natural resources management. His dissertation examined spatio-temporal land cover change, socio-ecological status, and interconnections with livelihoods in Kenya's Greater Mau Forest Complex. Key publications include "Accelerating agricultural expansion in the Greater Mau Forest Complex Ecosystem, Kenya" (Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 2022), "Will land use land cover change drive atmospheric conditions to become more conducive to wildfires in the United States?" (International Journal of Climatology, 2021), and "Challenging a global land surface model in a local socio-environmental system" (Land, 2020). He has presented at conferences such as AGU Fall Meetings (2022, 2021), AAG (2018), and SEDAAG (2018). Akanga has received awards including the Michael A. Graff Dissertation Completion Award ($2,000, 2022), multiple research and travel fellowships totaling over $19,000, Michigan State University Cloud Computing Fellowship (2019), and Phi Kappa Phi recognition. At MSU Billings, he organizes GIS Day events and contributes to international GIS training for conservation professionals in Africa.