Alexander received his Diploma of Specialist in Cartography from the Department
of Geography and Geoecology at Saint Petersburg State University. In 2008, he successfully
defended his Master's Thesis and earned his MA in Geography at the University of
Northern Iowa. Alexander's main assignment as a Research Assistant was to investigate
the issue of heat loss from the on-campus buildings using aerial thermal infrared
imagery. Alexander also participated in a number of smaller projects, including
ArcGIS customization for school redistricting in Cedar Falls and web-development
for the WebDIP project. He is currently involved with the development of the OpenSDSS
platform for the GeoTREE Center.