Derrick Burt

Derrick Burt graduated Middlebury College in February 2021, where he studied geography and developed a strong interest in utilizing GIS and spatial thinking to study human environment interactions. Through coursework, Derrick began to appreciate not only the technical applications of geospatial technology but also the challenging social, ethical, and intellectual issues they often propose. Derrick was excited to work on the HEGSRR project because he believes developing open-source standards in geospatial communities is both interesting and an important way to increase access, transparency, and accountability in geography. Over the summer of 2021, Derrick’s primary contribution was improving the reproducibility and computational efficiency of the Kang et al 2020 measure of spatial accessibility to health care resources in the context of COVID-19 in Illinois using Python and CyberGISX. As a student in fall 2020, Derrick had previously worked on replicating the same study for Connecticut. Working to reproduce geographic studies in centralized, well documented, and open-source formats was a satisfying challenge!

Derrick joined the Middlebury College Department of Geography in August 2021 as the Assistant in Science Instruction.

Learn more about Derrick Burt and his work on GitHub.