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Congratulations are in order for awards recently received by students and faculty:

Terry Slocum, Bill Johnson, Chris Brown and Josh Long.

Graduate Students

Megan Holroyd has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad fellowship to study KiSwahili this summer in Arusha, Tanzania.

Brett Chloupek has received another $27,000 FLAS award to continue his study of Polish.

Heather Putnam has received a $6,500 FLAS to study KiSwahili for the summer term at the Summer Cooperative African Language Institute (SCALI).

Luke Struckman has received a $6,500 FLAS to study 3rd year Arabic in Morocco.

Hilary Hungerford has earned a 2nd year $27,000 FLAS to study Hausa. She has also received the 2008 Outstanding Thesis Award from the College, and the Howard Baumgartel Peace and Justice Award for 2008.

Ryan Good and Megan Holroyd earned $4000 fellowships from the African Studies Center, for Applied Research on African Health and Development through funding from the Oswald Family Foundation.

Undergraduate Students

Jennifer Kongs and Lucas Culbertson have been selected from the Geography Department to receive Harley S. Nelson Scholarships for 2008-2009.

Faculty

Chris Brown has received the 2008 John C. Wright Graduate Mentor Award. "This annual award is given to honor a faculty member in the College who demonstrates exceptional effort, care and guidance in the advisement of his/her graduate students." The award includes a prize of $500.

Bill Johnson has received the 2008 Byron A. Alexander Graduate Mentor Award. "This annual award is given to honor a faculty member in the College who demonstrates exceptional effort, care and guidance in the advisement of his/her graduate students." The award includes a prize of $500.

Thanks to those graduate students who nominated Chris and Bill!

• Congratulations to Terry Slocum on the release of the third edition of his book Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization. Three of our alumni, Robert McMaster, Fritz Kessler, and Hugh Howard are co-authors.
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• Geography Ph.D. student Lilian Rebellato (a Bill Woods advisee) was the co-winner of the 2008 KU Latin Americanist Graduate Research Competition held March 7th on campus for her research presentation “Precolonial Settlement Dynamics in Central Amazonia” (see <http://www2.ku.edu/~latamst/>). Fifteen MA and Ph.D. students presented original field or archival research on Latin America in an invited competition judged by an interdisciplinary Faculty Panel. Other invited Jayhawk Geographers were Aida Ramos Viera, Andy Hilburn, Lisa Rausch, Jonathan Thayn, and John Kelly.
  
  
• Jon Thayn has received the the 2008 Robert N. Colwell Memorial Fellowship (for $5,000) from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Congratulations Jon!
  
  
• Jerry Dobson is featured in March 2008 issue of Kansas Alumni magazine.
  
  
• Brett Chloupek was awarded the $500.00 first prize in the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2008 Essay Contest. His essay was titled: "Slovakia's Gypsies: Centuries of Problems, Few New Solutions." He will give the last CREES brownbag of the year on May 6th. Read more about it.
  
  
• David McDermott has been selected to be the 2008 recipient of the $1000 PhD-level Cartography and Geographic Information Society Scholarship. The award will be presented at the AAG meeting in April.  Congratulations Dave!
  
  
• Jerry Dobson has received the 2008 Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) Distinguished Career Award, which is intended "to honor the accomplishments of senior professionals in areas that deal with aspects of cartography, GIS or GIScience, particularly those that address the interface between cartography and GIScience." Jerry is the first person ever to receive this award and the award will only be bestowed to one person every two years.
  
  
• Josh Long has received the 2008 Carlin Graduate Teaching Assistant Award; only two GTAs in the entire university were chosen for this award. The fact that two of our students have received this award in the last three years (Henry Way received the award in 2006) is a clear indication of the high quality of instruction by GTAs in our department. Thanks to all of our GTAs for the wonderful work that you do.
  
  
• GLOBALIZATION(S) SEMINAR--Johannes Feddema, Department of Geography presented "Conveying Science to a Global Audience: Inside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" at the Hall Center Conference Hall on March 3rd.
  
  
• Kees van der Veen plays role in February 19th being proclaimed Polar Education and Research Day by the State of Kansas.
  
  
• Geography graduate student Cristin Burke has been awarded a 2008 AAG Dissertation
  Research Grant to support her project in Kazakhstan.
  
  

• Kees van der Veen quoted in February 4, 2008 issue of the Oread.
  
  
• Shannon O'Lear quoted in Kansas Alumni magazine article on Center for Teaching Excellence.
  
  
• Professors Feddema and Dobson quoted in Jan. 21, 2008 issue of the Oread.
  
  
• KU prof: Global warming not sole culprit. Kees van der Veen quoted in Journal World article of 12/13/07.
  
  
• GIS Day @ KU - Information also available at www.gis.ku.edu
  
  
• Globe-O-Mania 2007 - A Huge Success!
  
  
• Jerry Dobson was awarded the distinction of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Jerry was one of only two geographers to receive the award this year. Congratulations Jerry!
  
  
• Shannon O'Lear named as one of first CTE Faculty Fellows.
  
  
• Garth Myers has been named a 2007-2008 senior administrative fellow. The program allows selected faculty the opportunity to explore senior administration through meeting with senior administrators, visiting administrative units across campus and discussing national trends in higher education.

 

 

• Department of Geography 2007 Graduation Celebration.
  

• First-hand knowledge helps Way in study of geography

• GeoClub visited three farms on the Kaw Valley Farm Tour over October 6th weekend.
  
  
• Awards Lead to Marriage for Graduate Students
  
  
• Best wishes to Curt Sorenson on the occasion of his retirement from the Department of Geography after 32 years of service.
  
  
• 210 Lindley Hall is now the McColl Conference Room. Dedication activities were held on May 8, 2007 to honor Professor Emeritus Robert W. McColl.
  
  
  
• KU Geography graduate student Josh Campbell was awarded the 2007 Thesis Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Josh received his award at the CLAS Master's Hooding Ceremony on May 19, 2007 at 10 AM in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre of Murphy Hall. Congratulations Josh!
  
  
  
  
• Congratulations to Steve Egbert, Brian Wardlow and Jude Kastens for two awards received for an article published last year in Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing - they received the Leica Geosystems first place award for best scientific paper and the John I. Davidson President's first place award for best practical paper.  Brian Wardlow (KU PhD, 2006, and currently at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln) was the lead author, and Jude Kastens of KARS/KBS and Steve Egbert were co-authors. Their paper is entitled "Using USDA Crop Progress Data for the Evaluation of Green-up Onset Data Calculated from MODIS 250-Meter Data."
  

• KU Geography's Ph.D. student Andy Hilburn was named recipient of the 2006 Ralph D. Cross Award for Excellence in Geography from the Department of Geography and Geology at The University of Southern Mississippi, awarded to the department's outstanding graduate student each year.
  
  
• Congratulations are in order for Bill Woods who has been named the 2006 recipient of the Carl Sauer Award for outstanding Latin American scholarship by the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers. The Award will be presented at the CLAG meeting May 31 to June 3, 2007 in Colorado Springs.
  
  
• The 2007 Meeting of The AAG, April 17-21 2007, San Francisco, CA
  

  University of Kansas Presenters

  
  
• Lawrence Journal-World article features Peter Herlihy, Jerome Dobson, and research in Mexico
  
  
• Oread article features Garth Myers and travel during state department travel advisories
  

Fall 2006

June 2, 2006
KU News Release:

KU professor’s research defies traditional thinking about agriculture in Amazonia

Research by a University of Kansas professor (William Woods) and his colleagues showing that ancient Amazonia may have supported large-scale agriculture is challenging conventional thinking and providing ideas for more efficient and environmentally friendly land use in the future. Please click here to read entire article.

Graduation 2006

The Department of Geography held its annual graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2006, on the East Lawn of Lindley Hall. There were 50 graduates--5 Geography Ph.D., 8 Geography M.A., 9 Geography B.S., 10 Geography B.G.S., 8 Geography B.A., and 10 Atmospheric Sciences B.S. After addresses by faculty and student representatives, there was a barbeque lunch for the graduates and their guests.

Graduation Photo Album

Graduate Teaching Assistant Honored for Service

Diana Carlin, dean of the Graduate School and International Programs, honored eight students with awards totaling more than $5,000 for their dedication and skill as teaching assistants in an April 28 ceremony at the Burge Union. Henry Way, in Geography, was one of two students to win a$1,250 Carlin Graduate Teaching Assitant Award. The teaching assistant award winners were recognized during commencement ceremonies May 21.

Teaching assistants were nominated from departments and programs throughout the university. A selection committee chose winners based on their commitment to teaching, departmental and student comments and level of responsibility.

Carlin sponsors the Carlin Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, which was first presented in 1993.

Spring 2006

Professor Johannes Feddema published papers in Science (cited in the AAAS Science Roundup and accompanied by a piece from Dr. Roger Pielke Sr.) and in Climate Dynamics showing that anthropogenic land cover change could have a significant effect on the global climate.

Professor William I. Woods is the 2006 Robert McC. Netting award recipient.

Fall 2006

James Shortridge wins $10,000 Higuchi Research Achievement Award

J. Christopher Brown receives Kemper Fellowship

Fall 2005

Professor Steve Egbert recieved a Kemper Award for outstanding teaching.

Summer 2005

Ph.D. student Joel Plummer received a NASA Fellowship for his research with Prof. David Braaten on Ice Sheet Mapping and Mass Balance Analysis

Ph.D. students Sarah Smiley and Angela Gray both recieved Fulbright Scholorships to support their ongoing research in Africa.

Spring 2005

Senior James Dietrich received an Undergraduate Research Award to support his research on beach nourishment projects on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Professor David Braaten is part of a team of scientists at KU who will study the melting of polar ice caps. The new Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets is funded by the National Science Foundation.

• Lawrence Journal-World Article

2005 AAG Faculty and Student Awards

AAG Participation by Faculty and Graduate Students, 2005

The Department won the 2004 Excellence in Undergraduate Advising Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Professor Kevin Price works with distinguished national and international research teams to study the impacts global change on natural and agroecosystems. Since 1995, he has led efforts to develop a national vegetation monitoring program called the GreenReport. Bill Woods, of Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, joined our faculty and will serve as the Director of the Environmental Studies Program starting January, 2005. He is a world expert on prehistoric settlement and agricultural systems at Cahokia and on the so-called ancient "black earths" of Amazonia. Feature on Radio Netherlands Professor Bill Johnson is a part of a multidisciplinary team that procured a $492,000 from the Keck Foundation which, together with NSF and KU awards, is being used to develop a state-of-the-art stable isotope facility. GIS Day was a Tremendous Success Hundreds of students, professors, professionals, and other visitors from on campus and off participated in making this year's GIS Day a stimulating venue for new important research in the field of Geographic Information Science (GIS). Globe-O-Mania Results Twenty-four teams participated in the event including 100 players. Winning teams were: " I (heart) France" in first place, "Team Egbert" in second place, and "Team Ramrod" in third place. Thanks to all who participated in the event! Community Outreach: The department hosted 250 South West Junior High students and their teachers on Nov 11-12. Geography undergraduate and graduate students met with the visitors and demonstrated some of the department's geographical visual applications.