Brendan Hurley

Brendan Hurley

Assistant Professor, Director of GIS Certificate

Geospatial Science and Applications

Contact:

Email: Brendan Hurley

Office Phone: (202) 994-5126

2036 H St, NW, Room 208 Washington DC 20052

Office Hours

12:00pm - 3:00pm Wednesdays (in office)
12:00pm - 4:00pm Tuesday through Friday on Google Meet / Zoom:
Schedule a meeting https://calendly.com/hurley_gwu

Brendan Hurley is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the George Washington University. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Wildlife Science from Virginia Tech, a Master’s in Environmental Management from Duke University, and a PhD in Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences from George Mason University. He is the director of the Graduate Certificate in GIS, teaches Intermediate GIS, Techniques of Spatial Analysis, and Geospatial Statistics, and currently serves as a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission, Marine Turtle Specialist Group as well as on the George Washington University Cancer Center Advisory Task Force. His research interests include spatial clustering of events, the underlying spatial theory behind them, and how those events affect decision-making, and has published in a wide array of peer-reviewed journals, from Endangered Species Research, to Geographical Analysis, to PLoS One. Currently he is working on the geography of gun violence and social vulnerability in a partnership with Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Before joining the department, he was a Science Fellow in the United States House of Representatives, and spent 15 years doing conservation and GIS work around the United States. This included right whale conservation research in Woods Hole, MA; Hawaiian Monk seal field work in Hawaii; and aerial surveys in the Arctic Chukchi and Beaufort seas with the National Marine Mammal Lab in Seattle, where he suggested renaming the project “Marine and Coastal High Arctic Marine Mammal Ecological Research” or, the MC HAMMER project. He was declined. He currently lives in Fredericksburg Virginia with his wife, two kids, and rottweiler Bruce Wayne, who probably wants a walk right now.

Classes

Geog 2104 - Introduction to Cartography and GIS
Geog 3105 - Techniques of Spatial Analysis
Geog 3106 - Intermediate GIS
Geog 6305 - Geospatial Statistics

Publications

Alejandra Sandoval, Jeffrey A. Seminoff, Brendan Hurley, Zachary Posnik. In prep. Overlap of migratory corridor of East Pacific green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting in Michoacán, Mexico with fisheries.

Anand Gourishankar, Hana Zalvan, Brendan Hurley. Gun Violence and Social Vulnerability Index in the United States - a Geographic Analysis. In review - Pediatrics research briefs.

Bryan Wallace, Ashleigh Bandimere, Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Hector Acosta …Paolo Casale, Andrew DiMatteo, Brendan J Hurley, Brian J Hutchinson, Sara M Maxwell, Zach A Posnik, Isabel Rodriguez, Roderic B Mast. 2025. Updated global conservation status and priorities for marine turtles. Endangered Species Research. In press.

Hurley, B, and T Leslie. 2024. Spatiotemporal Variograms as Neighborhood Definers. Geographical Analysis 56 (2), 404-424

Bryan P Wallace, Zachary A Posnik, Brendan J Hurley, Andrew D DiMatteo, Ashleigh Bandimere, Isabel Rodriguez, Sara M Maxwell, Lucy Meyer, Hannah Brenner, Michael P Jensen, Erin LaCasella, Brian M Shamblin, F Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Kelly R Stewart, Peter H Dutton, Hector Barrios-Garrido, Mayuel Dalleau, Karen L Eckert, Nancy N FitzSimmons, Marco Garcia-Cruz, Graeme C Hays, Shaleyla Kelez, Cynthia J Lagueux, Christine A Madden Hof, Adolfo Marco, Samir LT Martins, Asghar Mobaraki, Jeanne A Mortimer, Ronel Nel, Andrea D Phillott, Nicolas J Pilcher, Nathan F Putman, ALan F Rees, Juan M Rguez-Baron, Jeffrey A Seminoff, Adhith Swaminathan, Oguz Turkozan, Sarah M Vargas, Pedro D Vernet, Sibelle Vilaça, Scott D Whiting, Brian J Hutchinson, Paolo Casale, Roderic B Mast. 2023. Marine turtle regional management units 2.0: an updated framework for conservation and research of wide-ranging megafauna species. Endangered Species Research 52, 209-223

Azzara, A., Wang, H., Rutherford, D., Hurley, B., Stephenson, S. 2015. A 10 Year Projection of Maritime Activity In The U.S. Arctic Region, Committee On The Marine Transportation System, Report to the White House.

Kathy Kuletz, Megan C. Ferguson, Brendan Hurley, Adrian E. Gall, Elizabeth A. Labunski, Tawna C. Morgan. 2015. Seasonal spatial patterns in seabird and marine mammal distribution in the eastern Chukchi and western Beaufort seas: Identifying biologically important pelagic areas. Progress in Oceanography 136, 175-200

Michael Jasny, Sylvia Fallon, Giulia Good Stefani, Brendan Hurley, Andrew J. Wright. 2014. A petition to list the Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, Natural Resource Defense Council.

Courtney E. Smith, Brendan J. Hurley, Christina N. Toms, Angela D. Mackey, Moby Solangi, Stan A. Kuczaj. 2013. Hurricane impacts on the foraging patterns of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in Mississippi Sound. Marine Ecology Progress Series 487, 231-244

Y Watanuki, RP Wilson, JC Prairie, K Ziervogel, C Arnosti, R Camassa, C Falcon, S Khatri, RM McLaughlin, BL White, S Yu, JM Boucher, C Chen, Y Sun, RC Beardsley, H Nishikawa, Y Ichiro, K Komatsu, H Sasaki, Y Sasai, T Setou, M Shimuzu, CE Smith, BJ Hurley, CN Toms, AD Mackey, M Solangi, SA Kuczaj, MA Pardo, N Silverberg, D Gendron, E Beier, DM Palacios, LH Thorne, AJ Read, GS Drew, JF Piatt, DF Hill, JA Santora, RR Veit. 2013. Biophysical coupling of marine hotspots. Marine Ecology Progress Series 487, 176-304

Wallace, B. P., A. D. DiMatteo, A. B. Bolten, M. Y. Chaloupka, B. J. Hutchinson, F. A. Abreu-Grobois, J. A. Mortimer, J. A. Seminoff, D. Amorocho, K. A. Bjorndal, J. Bourjea, B. W. Bowen, R. Briseño-Dueñas, P. Casale, B. C. Choudhury, A. Costa, P. H. Dutton, A. Fallabrino, E. M. Finkbeiner, A. Girard, M. Girondot, M. Hamann, B. J. Hurley, M. López-Mendilaharsu,, M. A. Marcovaldi, J. A. Musick, R. Nel, N. J. Pilcher, S. Troëng, B. Witherington and R. B. Mast. 2011. Global conservation priorities for marine turtles. PloS one 6 (9), e24510

Wallace B.P., A. D. DiMatteo, B. J. Hurley, E. M. Finkbeiner, A. B. Bolten, M. Y. Chaloupka, B. J. Hutchinson, F. A. Abreu-Grobois, D. Amorocho, K. A. Bjorndal, J. Bourjea, B. W. Bowen, R. Briseño-Dueñas, P. Casale, B. C. Choudhury, A. Costa, P. H. Dutton, A. Fallabrino, A. Girard, M. Girondot, M. H. Godfrey, M. Hamann, M. López-Mendilaharsu,, M. A. Marcovaldi, J. A. Mortimer, J. A. Musick, R. Nel, J. A. Seminoff, S. Troëng, B. 2010. Regional management units for marine turtles: a novel framework for prioritizing conservation and research across multiple scales. PloS one 5 (12), e15465

Hurley, B. 2010. Astokh Lease Area 4-D Seismic Survey Independent Observer Report: Piltun Lagoon Region, Sakhalin Island, Russian Federation. International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Education

B.Sc., Wildlife Science, Virginia Tech

M.E.M., Coastal Environmental Management, Duke University

Ph.D., Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences, George Mason University