News
Today's Kansas City Star front page article, "Advocates of geoengineering work on man-made fixes for global warming," features Geography Professor Johan Feddema.
Johan Feddema will be a featured speaker at the upcoming Linda Hall Library Climate Change Symposium to be held Friday, October 16, 2009.
Please join us in congratulating Pete Shortridge who has been selected as the 2009 Chancellors Club Teaching Award recipient. The formal award will be presented at a reception in the Kansas Union prior to the football game and again on the field during the game on October 10th. Pete has been a great contributor and example to our Department, and is very deserving of this unique award. We can be proud to have such an outstanding colleague, teacher and friend. Please congratulate Pete the next time you see him.
Congratulations to our 2009 Geography and Atmospheric Science Graduates!
Photo used with the permission of Stephanie Meador
Congratulations are in order for Dave Mechem who received the J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award for 2008-2009 in the Natural Sciences Division of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences! The award honors exemplary advising by a faculty member in each of the three divisions of the college.
The following are some grants, awards and honors that our graduate students have received during the past couple of months:
- Eric Weber was awarded a Lortz scholarship for graduate research by the ASPRS Central Region.
- Mark Bowen won a 2009 Summer Research Fellowship from the University of Kansas.
- Josh Campbell received a Vespucci Fellowship.
- Brett Chloupek received a summer FLAS Fellowship to Poland and a Boren Fellowship for dissertation research next year in Slovakia.
- Andy Hilburn won the 2009 Conference of Latin Americanist Field Research Award.
- Megan Holroyd received a summer FLAS Fellowship.
- Hilary Hungerford received a Fulbright to conduct her dissertation research in Niger. Hilary also received a summer FLAS Fellowship.
- Aubrey Jones won the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 2009 Outstanding Thesis Award.
- John Kelly was runner-up in the 2009 KU Latin Americanist Graduate Research Competition.
- Heather Putnam received the 2009-2010 Pruitt Fellowship for Dissertation Research from the Society of Women Geographers. Heather also received the 2009 Howard Baumgartel Peace and Justice Award.
- Jamie Shinn received a year-long FLAS.
- 2009 Tinker Foundation Field Research Grants were awarded to Andy Hilburn, John Kelly, Andrew Norris, Heather Putnam, Aida Ramos Viera, and Lisa Rausch
- Trish Jackson was invited to make a presentation at the 2009 IGERT Principal Investigators Meeting in Washington, DC.
Congratulations everyone!
Congratulations to Jerry Dobson on being named Jefferson Science Fellow by U.S. State Department
Congratulations to Kees van der Veen on his promotion to Full Professor.
Dan Hirmas, Bill Johnson and Steve Bozarth launch a new Soil Geomorphology Research Group website.
See who came to the Atmo Reunion.
Congratulations to Jerry Dobson on his receipt of the 2009 AAG GISSG Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award.
Congratulations to Garth Myers for being named a Hall Center Fellow for one semester during the 2009-2010 academic year.
Lawrence Journal World announces public version of Globe-O-Mania
CLAS ACTS presents Globe-O-Mania for the public on Sunday, December 7th. Register online at www.clas.ku.edu/outreach/clasacts or at the Lawrence Public Library.
Congratulations are in order for Andrew Allen -- Andrew was a member of the University of Wyoming World Geography Team, which won the Association of American Geographers (AAG) regional geography bowl competition for the second consecutive year.
Congratulations to Dan Rose, who, (on behalf of the City of Topeka ) recently received KAM’s ( Kansas Association of Mappers) prestigious 2008 ‘Outstanding Kansas Mapping Project Award’!
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| Attending a reception for KU Kemper award winners for 2008 is (l to r) Geography Department Chair Terry Slocum with former Kemper winners Garth Myers (2000), Steve Egbert (2005), Chris Brown (2006), and this year's winner Shannon O'Lear. |
GIS Day @ KU is November 19th!
KU Geography is proud to be a key sponsor of GIS Day. Sign up now and check back for a detailed schedule: http://www.gis.ku.edu/gisday/2008/index.shtml
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The GIS Day Student Presentation Competition is open now! Prizes total $500 and include an undergraduate award: http://www.gis.ku.edu/gisday/2008/studentcomp/index.shtml.
| Congratulations to Prof. Shannon O'Lear on her Kemper Fellowship! The Kemper fellowships recognize outstanding teachers and advisers at KU as determined by a seven-member selection committee. Now in their 13th year, the awards are supported by $650,000 in gifts from the William T. Kemper Foundation (Commerce Bank, trustee) and $650,000 in matching funds from KU Endowment. |  |
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Geography Professor Bill Johnson is involved in trying to unravel the playa phenomenon in Lane County, Western Kansas. Click here to read article. |
Geography welcomes new faculty members Dan Hirmas, Jay Johnson, and Barney Warf to the department.
Upcoming event: Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, Houston, TX, October 3-9, 2008.
Papers will be presented by Dan Hirmas, Bill Johnson, Mark Bowen and Alan Halfen.
See titles here.
Congratulations to Ava Dinges and Andrew Oberthaler who have won American Meteorological Society Undergraduate Scholarships! Congratulations also to Sylvia Davison who has won an AMS Minority Scholarship and plans to come to KU.
Student juggles family, education without getting lost along the way
By Christine D'Amico (Contact)
R.J. Rowley has four kids, a wife and is working on his Ph.D. in Geography. Days like Father’s Day are a break from his hectic schedule.University Daily Kansan, Weekly Summer Edition, Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Terry Slocum has been named a 2008-2009 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. Read more here.
Jerome E. Dobson, professor of geography, has received the 2008 CaGIS Award of Distinction.
Dobson is well-known for his tenure at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1975-2001), where he established himself as an advocate for maintaining a tight bond between GIS and geography. He has also helped found the Association of American Geographers GIS Specialty Group and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, subsequently holding leadership roles in both organizations.
Quote from June 9, 2008 issue of Oread, KU People page.
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Research Matters broadcast features Geography Professor Johannes Feddema speaking about Landcover and Climate Change. |
photo courtesy of University Relations |
LAWRENCE — On May 20, David Braaten and Johannes Feddema, both professors of geography at the University of Kansas, met for the first time with other members of the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group in Wichita. Earlier in the month, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius named the two KU experts to the panel that is tasked with exploring how the state could cut greenhouse gas emissions. Click for entire article.
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Congratulations 2008 Geography and Atmospheric Science Graduates! |
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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:
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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!
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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..
- 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.
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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.
