Welcome to the Department of Geography at the University of Kansas!

Contact KU Geography with questions or comments at: Department of Geography 1475 Jayhawk Blvd 213 Lindley Hall University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045-7613 kugeog@ku.edu (785) 864-5143 Fax (785) 864-5378

Greetings! We welcome your interest in the faculty, students, and activities of the Department of Geography at KU, and hope that our Web site provides you with a comprehensive sense of the things that interest us and the things we do. For those things that pique your interest or intrigue you, we invite you to contact us directly - we will be happy to respond personally.

Mission Statement

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News and Events

Congratulations to the Atmospheric Science Program on receiving the Cooperative Observer Award from the National Weather Service for the University's weather station near Lindley Hall. The station is one of the oldest of Kansas' stations. Pictured, left to right, are Richard McNulty, Johannes Feddema, Curtis Hall, Bill Newman of the National Weather Service, David Mechem, Donna Tucker and Terry Slocum. To read more, please click here.

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, Liza Rauch, 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.

Announcements

• The following graduate students recently received academic appointments:
  
  Lucius F. Hallett, IV - Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Wyoming
  Sarah Smiley - Assistant Professor, Department of History and Geography, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland
  John Kostelnick - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography-Geology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
  Jared Beeton - Adams State College, Alamosa, Colorado
  John Bauer - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Earth Science, University of Nebraska-Kearney
  Chris Post - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography; Geography Program Coordinator, Kent State University - Stark Campus
  Matt Ramspott - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Frostburg State University
  Brian Wardlow - Assistant Research Professor, National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Also note that Matt Koeppe is now a senior project manager at the AAG and an Assistant Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University.
  

TOPONYM

Chancellor E.H. Lindley spent two years fussing with Gov. Jonathan M. Davis and the Board of Administration over matters large and small. After his defeat by Republican Ben S. Paulen in November 1924, Davis fired Lindley, but Paulen reinstated him as soon as he took office in mid-January 1925. Lindley retired in 1939 and died soon after; the mineral resources building was named for him when it opened in 1943. For more, visit www.buildings.ku.edu.

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