Peter Anthamatten specializes in health and GIS, cartography, and geographic education. While he strives to maintain a broad range of research interests, the focus of his research is on the geography of health with an emphasis on children’s health and nutrition environments. Early in his career, he focused on evaluating the relation between children’s physical environment and their nutrition status in low-income status. Since arriving at Denver in 2008, working with faculty at the UC Denver College of Urban Planning and Architecture and the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, he has authored multiple articles on the impacts of playground design on children’s physical activity behavior. He has also co-authored a book on the geography of health.

In addition to work in health geography, Peter continues to maintain an interest in geographic education, and specifically the role of spatial thinking skills in teaching geography. Drawing from graduate work with Phil Gersmehl and a post-doctoral position at the New York Center for Geographic Education, the purpose of his work in this area is to build the bridge between basic research in the cognition sciences and teaching practice. Finally, drawing from previous work, he continues to use geospatial analysis to explore the intersections between policy and bioconservation initiatives.