Annemarie Schneider is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Department of Geography. The goal of her research over the past two decades has been to transform the study of urban areas from fine scale investigations for local planning to comparative analysis in support of global change research. Her research program combines earth observation data, machine learning, and spatial modeling to understand how cities and settlements are changing across Earth, how rapid urbanization impacts the environment at local, regional, and global scales, and how demographic, economic and policy changes have led to differential rates and patterns of urban growth. Her projects have been funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, and the World Bank. She received her MS and PhD in Geography and the Environment from Boston University, and in addition to research and teaching, she currently leads the Environmental Observation and Informatics (EOI) graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.