Document

Departments change in many ways: we add courses, build new computer labs, offer new awards and fellowships, and add research centers. These changes are structural and important, but I want to focus on the people—staff, students, and alumni–who steadfastly keep the department going, keep it a great place to work and to study.

Of course, some of the changes involve people leaving for other opportunities. Jerry Shue and his wife Barb have moved to Moab, Utah. They want to enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle in a part of the world that is beautiful and fascinating, especially to a physical geographer.

We’ll miss Jerry, and we wish Jerry and Barb every success in the future. Jerry has built the undergraduate major over the past eight years. It is a building process, one person at a time. As you know well, you didn’t come here expecting to major in geography. We get only two to three freshman majors per year. Geography is a discovery major, and that discovery owes much to Jerry’s patience, knowledge, and accessibility. For refugees from other disciplines, Jerry offered good advice and honest information. He patiently explained what was possible, and he was creative in fi nding ways around problems of scheduling and meeting course requirements.

People like Jerry work behind the scenes to keep things going, to make the place work through all of the changes. And so I want to thank another person, one whom I sincerely hope is not planning to leave! He’s

part of our past, present, and future.Bob Hibbert is our computer

systems administrator, a position which, like Jerry’s position, didn’t exist until a few years ago. Now we cannot remember what it was like to open shrink-wrapped boxes and try to load a piece of unintelligible software, to open the back of a computer and add memory. Bob does more than that because technological change has left those sorts of things behind. Bob keeps our teaching labs running. He keeps the administrative computing network, the research computing network, and the back-up systems running. He patiently explains complicated steps to those of us who seem unable to learn how to upgrade software.

We change as people change. Jodi Vender is returning home to the department, taking over part of Jerry’s responsibilities and picking up the responsibility of working with alumni. Another aspect of change is growth, and we hope that we can develop better connections with all of our alumni.

Jerry, Bob, and Jodi have helped us and will help us to change for the better. Underlying all of the changes, the department relies on people quietly and effi ciently doing their jobs and doing them well. People help each other to enjoy life in a stimulating environment. So this letter is a thank you to everyone who makes this place work: to staff, faculty, students, and alumni. Thanks to them and to you,

Roger Downs, Department Head

Contact us:The Pennsylvania State UniversityDepartment of Geography302 Walker BuildingUniversity Park, PA 16802Telephone: 814-865-3433Fax: 814-863-7943E-mail: [email protected]

In this Issue:New Geography Graduates.........2Job Placement.........................3Graduate Student Honors........4-5

Hellos and Goodbyes............3, 6Undergraduate News.................7Alumni News........................8-9

Remembering Jeff Gockley.......10

Staff Profile: Bob Hibbert.........11Population Growth..................11Faculty News..........................12

Research in Geography from:Lorraine Dowler......................13Derrick Lampkin.....................14Greg Knight/Marieta Staneva....15

Calendar of Events..................16

Volume 3, Issue 2Summer/Fall 2005

From the Head

DEPARTMENT OF

EOGRAPHYCOLLEGE OF EARTH AND MINERAL SCIENCES

G

B.A. Degree (Spring 2005)Travis Crilly Christina LarwillM.S. Degree (Spring 2005)Steven CurranTimmy FrazierJennifer MapesAnthony Robinson

Ph.D. Degree (Spring 2005)Issac BrewerTracey FarriganDavid JanssonCorene MatyasWilliam PikeAmy Trauger

New Geography Graduates…Congratulations! Please Keep in Touch. B.S. (Fall 2004)Joseph Kochendarfer (GIS)Scott Kubisiak (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Olusegun Ogunkua (GIS)Zachary Reska (General)Douglas Rodriguez (Phys./Envr.)Stephanie Shepherd (Phys./Envr.)William Smith (General)Derek Swingley (GIS)Christopher Taraska (General)Elizabeth Yost (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Timothy Zimmerman (Phys./Envr.)B.A. (Fall 2004)David GainesTimothy GoodmanM.S. Degree (Fall 2004)Biliang ZhouPh.D. Degree (Fall 2004)James O’BrienHenry RademacherB.S. (Spring 2005) Samuel Ascah (General)Sean Ayers (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Jonathan Bausch (General)David Beausang (GIS)

John Boffenmeyer (General)Stacy Burdette (Phys./Envr.)Andrew Carson (GIS)William Chavan (GIS)Ross Cherry (General)Timothy Cooley (GIS)Bryan Cope (Urban/Reg. Dev.)John Dooris (GIS)Stefan Gaston (GIS)Steven Gates (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Eric Harmon (GIS)Willie Harris (General)Katherine Hess (Phys./Envr.)Nathaniel Howard (GIS)Jennie Karalewich (Phys./Envr.)Kevin Kulick (GIS)Jeffrey Lasitter (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Robert Lavelle (GIS)William McLain (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Irene McKenna (Phys./Envr.)Kathryn Mullen (Phys./Envr.)John Murphy (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Jamie Oberlin (GIS)David Pierce (Urban/Reg. Dev.)Anna Pronczak (GIS)Matthew Riggle (General)Robert Rouleau (Phys./Envr.)Anthony Scardino (GIS)Dana Young (General)

Some of our new alumni at the Spring 2005 commencement ceremonies for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences on May 13, 2005 in Eisenhower Auditorium (from left to right): Willie Harris, Stefan Gaston, Eric Harmon, Katie Mullen, Sean Ayers, Stacy Burdette, Dana Young, Katie Hess, Anna Pronzak, and Steven Gates.

College of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni happily toss their caps after the Spring 2005 commencement ceremonies.2 Penn State Geography Summer/Fall 2005

CONGRATULATIONS to our Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 graduates of the Department of Geography! Best of luck to all of you in your future endeavors, and please keep in touch! Send your updates to Jodi at [email protected].

Baltimore County, Department of Geography and Environmental Sys-tems, Baltimore, MDJohn Sakulich (M.S. ’04) Senior Research Staff Assistant, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Colum-bia University, Palisades, NYAnthony Scardino (B.S. ’05) Sum-mer Internship, PennDOT, Philadel-phia, PADavid Schmidt (M.S. student) Ecological Restoration Technician, Red-Tail Restoration, Iowa City, IAGary Sheppard (M.S. ’05) Tech-nical Marketing Representative, Federal Technology Center, ESRI, Vienna, VAAmy Trauger (Ph.D. ’05) Post-Doctoral Position, Penn State Uni-versity, Department of Rural Soci-ology and Agricultural Economics, State College, PA

Summer/Fall 2005 Penn State Geography 3

Job PlacementGina Bloodworth (Ph.D. ’05) Assistant Professor, University of Central Washington, Department of Geography and Land Studies, El-lensburg, WAJohn Boffenmeyer (B.S. ’05) High School Teacher of Geography and History, MSJohn Dooris (B.S. ’05) To attend Graduate School for Urban Geogra-phy, University of Utrecht, Nether-landsJen Fluri (Ph.D. ’05) Assistant Pro-fessor, Dartmouth College, Depart-ment of Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Hanover, NHEric Harmon (B.S. ’05) GIS Ana-lyst, Dewberry Engineering, Fair-fax, VAKatie Hess (B.S. ’05) Hazard Map Analyst, Federal Programs Depart-ment, Dewberry Engineering, Fair-fax, VAJennie Karalewich (B.S. ’05) To attend Graduate School for Natural Resource Management, University of Utrecht, NetherlandsKevin Kulick (B.S. ’05) Floodplain Manager, Dewberry Engineering, Fairfax, VA

Jennifer Mapes (M.S. ’05) To pur-sue Ph.D., University of Southern California, Department of Geogra-phy, Los Angeles, CACorene Matyas (Ph.D. ’05) Assis-tant Professor, University of Florida, Department of Geography, Gaines-ville, FLHans Meyer (M.S. ’05) To pur-sue Ph.D., Cornell University, De-partment of Science & Technology Studies, Ithaca, NYIrene McKenna (B.S. ’05) Ele-mentary School Teacher, New York, NY; To pursue M.S. in Education, City University of New York, New York, NY Katie Mullen (B.S. ’05) Education and Grants Coordinator, Watershed Council, Lowell, MARobert Neff (Ph.D. ’05) Assistant Professor, University of Maryland,

Steven Gates (B.S. ’05)Steve has received two prestigious awards: the E. Willard Miller Award in Geography and the William Grundy Haven Memorial Award in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences for his research paper about his grandfather’s hometown of Freeland, PA. He has accepted an invitation to attend the Film Scoring Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA this fall. Steve is an accomplished pianist of 15 years and a skilled geographer. We wish him all the best. A full story is available online; please access: www.geog.psu.edu/news/gates.html.

New Public Relations Coordinator, Newsletter EditorOur Public Relations Coordinator and newsletter editor, Anna Brendle, is moving to California, where she will begin her Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning at the Unviersity of California, Irvine. The Department of Geography welcomes Jennifer Driver, who is replacing Anna. Jennifer will create our newsletter, handle Web site maintenance, photography, and graphic design. Jennifer graduated with high distinction from Penn State in May 2005 with a bachelor of arts degree in public relations and minors in business and sociology. She has worked as an intern for the American Lung Association, the YMCA, Ketchum New York, and the Division of Development of Alumni Relations at Penn State. As a student, Jennifer was the captain of the Penn State Lionettes Dance Team, and actively participated in the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON). We wish Anna all the best in graduate school and welcome Jennifer to our community!

We welcome Jen-nifer Driver, as our new Public Rela-tions Coordinator.

We say goodbye to Anna Brendle and wish her success in graduate school.

4 Penn State Geography Summer/Fall 2005

Graduate Student Awards and Honors

Jennifer Fluri (Ph.D.) Jen won the Out-standing Graduate Student Award in Women’s Studies from Penn State. She researches Afghan feminist activism and resistance, focusing on the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and their social and political use of space and scale in resisting gendered oppres-sion.

David Jansson (Ph.D.) David received the George H.K. Schenck Teaching Assistant Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He has also recently accepted a visiting assistant professor positon in the Department of Geography at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY.

Max Andrucki (Ph.D.) Max won the Col-lege of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Anne C. Wilson Graduate Student Research Award and a Penn State Graduate Fellow-ship, both awarded to top incoming gradu-ate students. Max is a fi rst-year Ph.D. stu-dent interested in transnationalism, ethnic-ity, identity, and Africa.

Sarah Knuth (M.S.) Sarah won an Anne C. Wilson Graduate Student Research Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. She is researching the human dimensions of global change, climate change impacts, and adaptation. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published an article (June 9, 2005) about her research in Montgomery County, PA.

Steve Gardner (M.S.) Steve won the Illustrated Paper competition at the 2005 Association of American Geographers (AAG) from three specialty groups: Cartography, GIS, and Remote Sensing. He presented the results of his thesis research, map-reading experiments with color-vision impaired and normal color vision individuals. We also congratulate Steve on his recent engagement!

Matt Kelly (Ph.D.) Matt re-ceived a grant from Penn State’s Africana Research Center to fund the cre-ation of a community asset database for three of the most economically distressed neighborhoods in West Philadelphia. Matt will collect GPS data in these neighbor-hoods and associate the data with images and qualitative data using GIS.

Alistair Geddes (Ph.D.) Alistair was awarded a Centennial Graduate Research Award from the College of Earth and Min-eral Sciences. He is completing his Ph.D. researching agrarian change through criti-cal analysis of statistical data, especially agricultural and population censuses.

Jamison Conley (Ph.D.) Jamison was awarded an Arnulf I. Muan Graduate Fellowship and an Academic Computing Fellowship, both from Penn State. Jamison is a fi rst-year Ph.D. student with research interests in geocomputation, visualization, and climate.

Netra Chhetri (Ph.D.) Netra will par-ticipate in the International Institute for Applied System Analysis’ 2005 Young Scientists Summer Program, with sup-port from the National Academy. He won both the E. Willard Miller Award in Geography and a 2005-2006 Centen-nial Research Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State.

Tania del M. Lopez (Ph.D.)

Tania recently received the Sloan Scholarship from the Alfred P. Sloan Founda-tion. The scholarship will help her to complete her Ph.D. and associated re-search on vulnerability and adaptive capacity to tropical storms in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Her dissertation—tenta-tively titled, Atlas of Population, Resources, and Envi-ronment in Puerto Rico—relates human activities and the state of the environment in Puerto Rico through the inte-gration of maps, tables, graphs, and explanatory texts and includes such diverse topics as: population, economy, en-ergy, risk, land cover change, waste production, agricul-ture, air, water, coastal resources, and conservation.

Cindy Brewer, Deryck Holdsworth, and Brent Yarnal of the Penn State Department of Geography have advised on the design and content of the project. Tania’s former geography professor, Nancy Villanueva, at the Univer-sity of Puerto Rico, is coauthoring the atlas.

Tania (right) and Nancy Villanueva are publishing an atlas of Puerto Rico.

Reuben Rose-Redwood (Ph.D.) Reuben won a 2005-2006 Centennial Research Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and a travel grant from the Penn State Department of Geography. He will use the travel grant to return to New York City to fi nish archival research for his dissertation, which explores how the Carte-sian grid has transformed both modern thought

and the spatial practices of everyday life. Reuben wants to understand how the ordering of urban space provided the spatial foundation for the production of governmental knowledges and facilitated the circulation of capital. He is writing a critical spatial history of street and house numbering in the gridded cities of the United States, from the 18th cen-tury to the present.


Graduate Student Awards and Honors

Hans Meyer (M.S.) Hans won a Sage Graduate Fel-lowship to fund his Ph.D. research in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell Univer-sity. He also participated in a collaborative project en-titled MapHub: Shared Urban Geographic Storytelling (www.maphub.org) as part of his associate fellowship at the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Morgan Windram (M.S.) Mor-gan won a research grant com-petition sponsored by the Quali-tative Research Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) to conduct qualitative research with Jamai-can female drug mules in Brit-ish prisons. She will travel to London to work with a non-governmental organization that educates the im-prisoned Jamaican women about their rights and helps them maintain contact with their families in Jamaica. Morgan plans to interview the women in an effort to share their stories.

Kari Jensen (Ph.D.)Kari received a Pruitt National Fellowship for Dissertation Research from the Society of Wom-an Geographers, a Centennial Research Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and a research grant from Save the Children’s Research Fund. Kari researches the life, work, and education of children working as servants in private homes in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Michael Stryker (M.S.) Mi-chael received an Anne C. Wil-son Graduate Student Research Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Mike is a fi rst-year M.S. student research-ing wireless applications for GIS and geographic visualization.

Anu Sabhlok (Ph.D.) Anu, a dual-degree Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography and Women’s Studies Program, received the Soc-iety of Woman Geographers Fellowship. She also received an AAG Dissertation Research Grant for her research based on fi eld work she completed in India studying women’s relief organizations and the role of ideology, service, and nationalism in their work.

Anthony Robinson (M.S., incoming Ph.D.) Anthony won the M.S. level of the E. Wil-lard Miller Award in Geography for his paper, Geovisualization Design for Epidemiology: A Framework and a Centennial Travel Award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sci-ences. He also won a travel grant from the In-ternational Cartographic Association to attend and present his research in La Coruna, Spain.

Corene Matyas (Ph.D.) Corene won the 2005 AAG Climate Specialty Group Student Paper Competi-tion for her paper, A Set of Shape Measures to Track Changes in the Precipitation Patterns of Landfalling Tropical Cyclones.

Undergraduate Students Win ScholarshipsThe Department of Geography commends these students on their academic achievement in 2005.Geography Department Scholarships: • G.D. Richardson Scholarship: Devin Yeatman • Balmat Family Scholarship: Gillian Hay, Vanessa Massaro, Elizabeth Shoup • Jeff Gockley Memorial Scholarship: Adrian CoxDean’s Freshman Scholarship:Timothy Johnson, Jonathan KistlerCollege of Earth and Mineral Sciences Scholarships:(for the sophomore through senior year, awarded on the basis of academic excellence)Alyssia Church, Stephen Cline, Rosemary Daley, Alexa Dugan, Emily Dux, R. Barry Evans, Nicholas Giner, Raya Guruswamy, Gillian Hay, Kristina Herz, Adam Heyler, Katheryn Holmes, Allen Huber, Susan Kaleita, Nick Kapinus, Ashley Leasure, Vanessa Massaro, Morgan Masterman, Derek McGeehan, Jason Miller, Donald Mosteller, Adam Naito, Mark Salvatore, Elizabeth Shoup, Ian Smith, Matthew Spinelli, Matthew Sudac, Romare Truely, Lisa Voghel, Robert Wiley, Devin Yeatman


Jerry Shue Heads West…Jodi Vender Returns

Jerry Bids his Students Farewell:Fellow Geographers,

If you haven’t already heard, I will be leaving the department at the end of this semester. My wife Barb and I are moving to Moab, Utah. I can’t say that we are moving to greener pastures (it’s serious desert out there!), but we do seem to be in-evitably drawn to the blue skies, red rock cliffs, and empty spaces that en-gulf that small town on the Colorado Plateau.

I’m more than a little sur-prised to fi nd myself giving up this position, because I have genu-inely enjoyed working with all of you, whether in the classroom or in my offi ce, and I don’t take my decision to leave lightly. It hasn’t been an easy choice. I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of students. My daily work with you has been an invigorating gift, and probably (paradoxically) helped me to reach this decision, because you have reminded me of the pos-sibilities that life offers if you keep a fresh attitude and an open mind.

I will miss you, and I hope many of you will visit. —JerryP.S. Pay attention in class! I fi rst heard about the southeast Utah deserts in a physical geography class. When my wife and I went there, we found we had red rocks and sand in our veins. You never know what you might learn about yourself in a geography class!

Canyonlands National Park is near Jerry’s new home in Utah.

Jerry explains the geomorphology of Nittany Valley to students atop Jo Hays Vista.

Students Say Goodbye to Jerry:“Jerry has opened countless pairs of eyes to geography, including

my own. He stayed with us, helping us navigate through scheduling, class selection, and landform geomorphology. His advising and teach-ing styles embody Audre Lourde’s famous quote, ‘Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.’” —Jennie Karalewich (B.S. 2005)

“Jerry made the department inviting for undergraduates. It’s reassur-ing to know that someone so dedicated to their job and to their students was there for us. He always met each individual with the same zeal and warmth as the next. Jerry helped and guided us. We would have been lost without him.” —John Murphy (B.S. 2005)

Jerry Shue has left the Geography Department for the red rocks of Moab, UT, and Jodi Vender has replaced him in the position of Undergraduate Advisor.

Welcome Back, Jodi!Jodi Vender hit the ground running

when she took over as Coordinator of Undergraduate Advising and Alumni Relations with the De-partment of Geography this May. In two weeks, she fi nished teaching at the Community Col-lege of Philadelphia, rafted down the Grand Canyon, helped a fi rst-year geography student schedule his fall classes at Penn State, attended the National Geographic Bee fi nals in Washington, D.C., and moved to State College.

Jodi received her B.A. in Spanish from Penn State in 1991. She declined an offer to stay at Penn State for her M.S. in Geography because two of her most infl uential professors, Peirce Lewis and Glenda Laws, convinced her to broaden her horizons beyond Pennsylvania.

She went to the University of Texas at Austin for her M.A. in Ge-ography, but returned to Penn State to pursue a Ph.D. in Geography with Roger Downs, her former colleague at the National Geographic Society. Jodi had worked there from 1993-1996, in magazine research, communications, and geography education.

She is active with the National Council for Geographic Education, has been the Coordinator of the Penn-sylvania Geographic Bee since 2001, and is investigating geography and homeschooling for the Geography Education National Implementation Project. Jodi served as Coordina-tor of Student Programs and Service Learning for the Penn State Schreyer Honors College, is an affi liate of Penn State’s Public Scholarship Associates, and was a founding member of the Department’s Supporting Women in Geography chapter. She is pleased to have been invited to advise the group this year. The faculty, staff, students, and alumni join in welcoming Jodi.


Our Students Are Going Places!2005 REU Students Investigate Climate Change Across the U.S.

Over the past four years, the Human-Environment Regional Observa-tory (HERO) project has given undergraduate students at four universi-ties across the United States a unique research opportunity. The National Science Foundation provides funding for the Research Experience for Un-dergraduates (REU) program. Sixteen undergraduate students at Arizona State University, Clark University, Kansas State University, and The Penn-sylvania State University are studying how local climate change impacts the ability of local communities to adapt to possible changes, through vari-ous interviews with local stakeholders including farmers, ranchers, com-munity water system managers, and researchers. Here, each team refl ects on their experiences:

Arizona State University Team: “In Arizona’s study area, this year interviews will be conducted in the Mexico border county of Cochise. Thus, the nature of this investigation will transcend borders. This region proves to be extremely complex since water does not stop at the border, creating problems for allocation, treatment, and mitigation.”

Clark University Team: “Though each of the Clark University team members had different reasons for par-ticipating in the HERO program, we all shared the same interest in studying human-environment interactions. Being the youngest of the HERO sites, we were intimidated by the challenges demanded of us by the program, but with the help and guidance from the wonderful faculty and the assistants at Penn State we were able to learn what we needed to know and do what we needed to do. It is amazing how so many people with such a diverse set of backgrounds and interests can come together and work toward a common goal.”

Kansas State University Team: “HERO has been a great experience for us here at Kansas State. It has given us a hands-on idea of what geographers do. Getting to work in the fi eld as an undergraduate is an invaluable op-portunity that has given us an idea of what is going on in our community. A few of us are thinking about going on to graduate school. Getting to work with the HERO team defi nitely helped us refi ne our areas of interest, espe-cially for those of us that were undecided.”

The Pennsylvania State University Team: “We will be concentrating on the Penns Valley region, located in Centre County and Penn’s Creek Watershed. Penns Valley is a rural community which struggles to escape glo-balization. But as population increases in surrounding regions, such as State College, development threatens this agriculturally-dominant community.”

Dr. Chris Benner Leads 2005 CAUSE Trip to South AfricaSixteen Penn State students and their professor departed from U.S. soil in

late June on an ambitious research adventure to South Africa. That country has been the focus of an intensive, two-semester course offered through the Center for Advanced Undergraduate Study and Experience (CAUSE) in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Dr. Chris Benner, assistant professor of Geog-raphy and Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, is leading this year’s course entitled, EM SC 470W “Environmental Justice in South Africa.” The course explores the implications of environmental resource management practices on equity in a country with a history negligent toward both.

“All of the students in the course are interested in questions of social equity and justice.” says Dr. Benner. “I think what attracted students to the program was linking environmental issues with people’s livelihoods in a country that concentrates the extremes of global inequality in a small, manageable space.”

The course focused on the environmental and socio-economic context of South Africa and put Penn State stu-dents in direct contact with students at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The students gathered weekly to hold discussions via video conferencing and will conduct research collaboratively during a three week long intensive fi eld trip to various coastal communities in South Africa.

Dr. Benner and his students left the U.S. on Friday, June 24 and plan to return to State College on Sunday, July 17. We look forward to hearing more about their exciting journey!

Rob Neff, Morgan Windram, and Ola Ahlqvist led this year’s REU group during their research methods training course at Penn State.

The rocky coast of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula. Students will spend a week in Cape Town studying urban vulnerability.

been a really great experience to work with the Afghan sol-diers, locals, as well as others from vari-ous countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, and India. I’m slowly learning Dari, Pashto, Arabic and a little Turkish. It’s very rewarding to be able to attempt to build the facilities necessary to maintain a stable country, as well as get to know the people here. Almost every-one is welcoming the U.S. and are grateful for our help. It’s amazing that these children live in such pov-erty but are still kids at heart. Ev-ery time our truck passes them they drop what they’re doing and give us the thumbs up!Gareth E. John (M.S. 1997)I just had a sec-ond article pub-lished from my master’s thesis entitled, “Benev-olent imperialism: George Catlin and the practice of Jeffersonian ge-ography”, in the Journal of Histori-cal Geography. This summer I also received a Minnesota Humanities Commission NEH-funded Works-in-Progress grant. John Krygier (Ph.D. 1995) I am now an Associate Professor of Geography at Ohio Wesleyan University, having received tenure and promotion in 2003/4. I am in-volved in the mapping and GIS ini-tiative of the National Institute for

Technology and Liberal Education, and am help-ing to develop a GIS curriculum for Liberal Arts colleges. Making Maps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS, co-authored with Denis Wood, will be published by Guilford Publications in August of 2005. Life at home in Columbus is pleasant: we live in a 1920s neighborhood where people still sit on front porches and we can walk to stores, restau-rants, movies, and pubs. James E. Landing (M.S. 1963, Ph.D. 1967)I am still teaching Ge-

ography at the University of Illinois at Chicago (since 1968) but only on a part-time basis. I am a Professor Emeritus of Environmental Geogra-phy. My latest book was Black Ju-daism: Story of An American Move-ment (Carolina Academic Press, 2002). I remain very active in local environmental matters. Emilie Lorditch (B.S. 1998)My fi rst job after Penn State was with the AAG. I wrote the “Geog-raphers At Work” series (www.aag.org/careers/geogwork/intro.html).

Tara (Schmitz) Aims (B.S. 1999)I am a Project Manager at Dewber-ry, an engineering fi rm in Fairfax, Virginia. I work primarily with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the State of North Carolina on a multi-year pro-gram to revise all fl ood hazard maps in the State of North Carolina (for more information, access www.nc-fl oodmaps.com). I also just got mar-ried in April of this year. Steve Curran (M.S. 2005)

I’m getting married on July 16th, in Greendale, WI to Katie Irish. Also, I’m fi -nally graduat-ing with my M.S. degree; my thesis is en-titled, Vegeta-tion Boundary

Effects on Summertime Tornado-Genesis in the Midwest U.S. ‘Corn Belt.’David Gaines (B.S. 2004)I’ll be starting graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara this fall. Erin (Heithoff) Greb (B.S. 1999)This summer my husband Chuck and I are moving back to State College, and I am very happy to be closer to the Penn State Geography commu-nity once again. I will be building a freelance cartography business and am also embarking on a personal re-search project, mapping the histori-cal migration of music and dance forms around the world, concentrat-ing on the music and dance of West Africa. Jay Hershey (B.S. 1997)I’m currently deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan with the Army Corps of Engineers for six months. My primary job is the Project Engineer for the construction of the Afghan National Army base camp here. It’s


Alumni News…Thanks for staying in touch.

Jay Hershey (far left) with members of the Afghan National Army and U.S. Army soldiers in Kanda-har, Afghanistan.

Steve Curran and his fi ancée, Katie Irish.

Making Maps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS, by John Krygier and Denis Wood.

Doug Argall

Senior Project ManagerGeoDecisions1st Graduate (1999)


Alumni News

This link is useful for students that are interested in learning: “What can I do with a degree in Geogra-phy?” My job now is in science writing and I use my geography and skills from those intensive writing courses every day.Richard Murphy (B.S. 2004) I am currently serving a Student Conservation Association internship at West Hill Dam and Charles River Natural Valley Storage located in Uxbridge, MA. Alissa Shirk (B.S. 2002)I have been working in Higher Edu-cation in Student Affairs as a Resi-dence Life Coordinator at The Art Institute of Portland in Oregon. I will fi nish an M.S. in Higher Educa-tion from the Postsecondary, Adult, and Continuing Education program at Portland State University this coming winter. I hope to move to Boone, NC with my partner after I fi nish my M.S. and he fi nishes his O.D.Vaclav Smil (Ph.D. 1972)My latest book, Creating the Twentieth Century Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact, came out in June. Elizabeth Wentz (Ph.D. 1997)I am an Associate Professor at Arizona State University. I was promoted with tenure last year and I’m expecting a baby boy in July.

www.geog.psu.edu/alumni: Please access our alumni pages online where you can:* Update your contact information* Send us your news* Reconnect with friends

* Sign up for our new e-mail service for job announce- ments and general news

Elizabeth Spencer

Harmonization Advisor United Nations

Development Program 500th Graduate

(2005)

1st and 500th Graduates of the Certificate in GIS ProgramAs the Department of Geography’s World Campus Certifi cate in GIS Program enters its seventh year, we mark the numerous grand achievements of the program with profi les of its 1st and 500th graduates, testaments to the diversity and excellence of the program training.

My introduction to GIS came when my company obtained the services of a consultant to implement the mapping component in our fi rst Windows prod-uct. As one of Market Metrics’ lead de-velopers, I managed that development. I began to learn the GIS, but I had no for-mal training. When I saw that Penn State was coming out with Internet-based GIS training, I jumped on the opportunity.

Much of my work in the last few years has entailed using geographic data and is centered on international issues. I spent the summer of 2003 in Dubai working with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) preparing for the UN’s re-entry to Iraq and spent a lot of time poring over maps. I had been contemplating a second master’s degree in geography for some time, and that ex-perience pushed me even closer to it!

My experience with the program was extremely positive. I found the courses to be interesting, contain good content, and not a lot of fl uff. I also found the learning exercises to be valuable. The instructors were both knowledgeable and helpful. I was pleasantly surprised how accessible they were considering that this was Web-based learning. I did get an opportunity to interact with other students and found the group projects to be particularly enjoyable.

Even with work and travel obligations, I thought the program was great. It was very involving, and the professors were always available for feedback and encouragement. I was really inspired by the way in which we understand, gather, and display information and how that infl uences meaning. The math got me a bit in the end, but was an excellent challenge, even if I did struggle mightily over the hieroglyphs (to me) of kriging equations!

I had hoped the course would pro-vide me with a much broader exposure to GIS. It did that by strengthening my understanding of cartographic elements and presentation. I hadn’t fully realized the benefi t of this training until several years later when I found myself looking for new employment. David DiBiase, in fact, put me in contact with the State College offi ce of GeoDecisions. I’m now employed with them as a senior project manager and head a GIS development team on site at PennDOT’s central offi ce in Harrisburg. My coursework not only helped me land the job, but gave me the experience necessary to be productive in that job. GIS has now become the central focus of the applications that I develop and will continue to be the focus of my professional career. The World Campus provided me with a foundation of learn-ing to help launch that career.

I initially intended to focus on geographically-based information for emergency response, needs assessments, weather, local infrastructure, food availability, population movement, and information management in general through my work with the WFP in Rome. My work has changed signifi cantly in the last six months, as I have been transferred to the United Nations Development Programme in New York. My new role is much more administrative and less hands-on one in a sense, as it relates to fi nancial and budget streamlining and reform across UN agencies. Human behavior and erudition in relation to space and surroundings and the way in which we express that through maps still fascinate me though. For the foreseeable future, I think we’re going to express that as best we can through GIS.

Why did you choose Penn State’s Certifi cate Program in GIS?

What was your experience with the Certifi cate Program in GIS?

How had you hoped to apply your GIS training to your career before entering the program and does it apply to your work now?

Jeff went on to work with the Crime Analy-sis Mapping Unit of the Philadelphia Police De-partment before deciding to pursue a M.S. degree in GIS at the University of Denver. He persisted in his studies even after his diagnosis and cou-rageously completed his degree work before pass-ing away. The University of Denver posthumously awarded his degree.

The passion and drive that fueled Jeff’s profes-sional life exemplifi ed his personal life as well. He was an avid outdoors-man, an ardent skier, and competitive cyclist, reg-ularly riding in distance races for charity. “He did so much in such a small amount of time. One pursuit wasn’t good enough for Jeff—he wanted to do it all,” Mau-rie Kelly recalls.

His authentic, casual nature, and charming charisma endeared Jeff to those whose lives he touched. In Jeff’s memory, the Gockley and Kelly families have pledged funds to

install a commemorative bench that will be placed outside Walker Building. Additionally, an anony-mous donor has estab-lished a student award in Jeff’s memory, which has been awarded to Adrian Cox. The Department of Geography will present the award annually to an exceptional undergradu-ate student in the fi eld of GIS.

If you would like to make a gift in memory

of Jeff, please send checks, pay-able to Penn State, to: EMS Offi ce of Development, 116 Deike Build-ing, University Park, PA 16802. You may contact Jennifer Theiss at 814- 863-2289 or [email protected] with any questions.

The department extends its heartfelt condolences to the Gock-ley family.

Jeff Gockley pursued his pas-sions up until the very end. After being diagnosed with brain cancer just a month earlier, Jeff strapped on his skis this past January to confront the slopes near Denver, CO in sup-port and in memory of a young vic-tim of the same disease. Just weeks after his fi nal fundraiser, Jeff passed away in Denver. He was 29.

A native of Lansdale, PA and an alumnus of the Penn State Depart-ment of Geography, Jeff worked with the Penn State Institutes for the Environment as both a student and as a member of the Pennsylva-nia Spatial Data Access (PASDA) staff. During his tenure at PASDA, he fostered relationships with local watershed and conservation groups to assist them in developing GIS capabilities. He also spearheaded a federally-funded grant to develop an interactive Web-based GIS appli-cation for watershed organizations called the PA Watershed Explorer.

“He was so good with people,” remembers Maurie Kelly, former colleague and close friend, “you could send him anywhere, and he could speak with anyone; he was easy-going, intelligent, and dedi-cated.”

Remembering Alumnus Jeff Gockley


Endowments & Scholarships: supporting students and faculty

Ronald F. Abler Award in Geography: to assist outstanding undergraduate and graduate students in presenting the results of their research at a scholarly geographical society meetingBalmat Family Scholarship in Geography: supports outstanding undergraduate sophomores and juniorsErickson Fund in Geography: to enhance the DepartmentPeter R. Gould Memorial Fund: supports the Peter R. Gould Center for Geography Education & Outreach Geography Alumni Scholars Award: to assist undergraduate and graduate students who have exhibited exemplary achievementC. Gregory Knight Endowment in Geography: supports research, faculty, and student travel, equipment, and lec-tures

E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Lectureship in Geography: supports lectures by outstanding geography scholars and professionals who are not currently Penn State faculty or studentsRuby S. Miller Endowment for Geographic Excellence: improves the quality of the Department by providing fi nancial assistance to graduate studentsG.D. Richardson Scholarship: annual award for outstanding undergraduate students enrolled in the Department Glenda Laws Endowment: to provide general support for the Geography DepartmentJeff Gockley Memorial Scholarship: to support an undergraduate student in the area of Geographic Information Science

Please consider donating to one of our endowments. If you would like to make a gift, please send checks, pay-able to Penn State, to: EMS Offi ce of Development, 116 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802. You may contact Jennifer Theiss at 814- 863-2289 or [email protected] with any questions.

“A map in the hands of a pilot is a testimony of a man’s faith in other men; it is a symbol of confi dence and trust. It is not like a printed page that bears mere words, ambiguous and art-ful, and whose most believing reader must allow in his mind a recess for doubt. A map says to you, ‘Read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not.’ It says, ‘I am the earth in the palm of your hand. Without me, you are alone and lost.’”-- from “West With the Night” by Beryl Markham

puter programming languages from his educational training, Bob is most certainly not a programmer.

“I studied programming in school but it was too much of staring at the same line of code all the time,” Bob admits. “I’m a hardware guy—I like to hack on hardware. Whenever I get a new computer in I have to take it apart to see what’s inside.”

The offi ce and hallway space in and around his offi ce can attest to this love of hardware. Rarely will you fi nd it devoid of computer equipment that is in line for repair or storage. Surplus monitors, faulty motherboards, or mis-fi t keyboards from anywhere within the Department inevitably fi nd their way to 230 Walker Building.

Bob dedicates a lot of time to his job, but he also fi nds time for the Uni-

versity community. Dur-ing home football games, Bob works the student ticket window at Beaver stadium.

“JoePa should be al-lowed to coach for as long as he wants—I guess be-lieving that makes me a diehard Penn State fan,” Bob says. “We’re gonna do good this year. The season hasn’t started so

we’re undefeated.”The long hours he

logs and his behind-the-scenes efforts keep our rigorous geography program running smoothly. His affable nature, quirky sense of humor, and fl air for the unusual add a unique blend of person-ality and professionalism to an already diverse Department.

To learn more about computer sys-tems in the Penn State Department of Geography, access:www.geog.psu.edu/computing/.


Staff Profile: Bob HibbertA “Terrible

Towel” hangs from a ceiling tile across from spent Jolt Cola cans arranged precisely in for-mation amidst an

otherwise disorderly array of con-traptions. Reams of stacked docu-ments, computer cables and casings, and monitors occupy desk and fl oor space. Patches of wall peer out from behind a Middle-Earth map, Dilbert comic strips, and a plug for the an-cient Order of the Illuminati.

Bob is the Computer Systems Administrator for the Department of Geography at Penn State.

“Everything that has to do with computers—that’s what I take care of: the computer labs, the research labs, faculty computers, updating and patching the servers, network-ing, you name it,” Bob explains.

For over fi ve years, Bob has saved the day on countless occa-sions. Without him, the daily work of faculty, re-searchers, and students would quickly grind to a halt.

Bob is a State College native who received a B.S. in Com-puter Science from the Penn-sylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA, an affl iliate of Penn State. He worked as a com-puter systems administrator with the Penn State Industrial Engineer-ing Department, where his daily re-sponsibilities included juggling the computing needs of over one thou-sand undergraduates. Bob worked there for several years before fi nd-ing a home in the Department of Geography—and he has no plans of leaving anytime soon.

Though he’s well versed in com-

“My job is a lot like getting new toys all the time. Working in geogra-phy, you have to have good comput-ers to run ArcGIS and other ESRI software; we’re on the cutting-edge of computers.”

The department is growing with three births this spring!

Anu Sabhlok, Ph.D. student, gave birth to her second son, Aman, on April 7, 2005. Aman weighed in at 5 pounds, 4 ounces and measured 19.5 inches. “A bundle of joy,” his Mom says. Anu, Jitesh, and big brother Umang are doing well.

Dr. Melissa Wright, assistant professor in geography and women’s studies, gave birth to 7 lbs. 7 oz. 21-inch Elana on February 15, 2005. Mom and Elana are traveling in Mexico this summer.

Congratulations to Noelle Cap-parelle, graduate staff assistant in the department, and her hus-band Toby on the birth of their son and fi rst child, Jaydon, on April 6, 2005. Jaydon measured in at 6 lbs. 10 oz. and just over 20 inches long.

Population Growth

Bob’s offi ce: the perfect work en-vironment for a hardware hack.


News from our FacultyCindy Brewer Receives the G. Montgomery and Marion Mitchell Award for Innovative Teaching

Cindy, associate professor in the Department of Geography, received the G. Montgomery and Marion Mitchell Award for Innovative Teaching at the 2005 Wilson Banquet & Awards Presentation. Cindy is one of the most innovative cartography educators in North America and one of the fi rst educa-tors to teach cartography using design tools that were newly implemented in GIS soft-ware. Cutting-edge tools, techniques, and problems encountered in her consultancies appear in her classes and seminars, chal-lenging students to develop the skills and self-reliance that set them apart from peers graduating from other university geography programs.

Dean Barron presents Dr. Cindy Brewer with the G. Montgomery and Marion Mitchell Award for Innovative Teaching.

2005 Wilson Banquet & Awards Presentation

Mark GaheganMark is a profes-sor of GIScience and the former graduate offi cer of the department. He was recognized

with the Faculty Mentoring Award in the College of Earth and Miner-al Sciences for the fair, thoughtful, and responsible manner in which he serves as graduate offi cer.

Deryck HoldsworthDeryck is a his-torical geographer in the department and was awarded a Gladys Snyder Education Grant

for a digital catalog of data layers for historical inquiry. The grant hon-ors excellence in teaching.

David DiBiase Receives the 2005 UCGIS Education AwardDavid DiBiase has been selected as the 2005 University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Educator of the Year. The UCGIS Education Award is made annually to a person who has had an important impact on GIScience education. David’s merit for this award extends from excellence in traditional classroom teaching, to leadership of the standard setting on-line Penn State World Campus Certifi cate in GIS, to active participation in many of the key GIS education initiatives in the past and current century. David is recognized for his leadership, exceptional achievement and meritorious service around a coherent theme of innovation and effectiveness in education. He has, by the force of his inspiration, commitment, and persistence, brought a new mode of education to his department, college, and the University. He leads by example, showing how to do it and encouraging others to try. The award was presented at the UCGIS 2005 Summer Assembly in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, June 28-July 1, 2005. For more information, please access: www.ucgis.org/summer2005/educator-award.htm.

Saying Goodbye to Colin Flint As of July, we say goodbye to Colin Flint who is mov-ing to the Univer-

sity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Colin has contributed so much to the department over the past seven years. We will miss Colin, Court-ney, and the family, and wish them every success.

Amy Glasmeier Publishes Atlas of American PovertyDr. Amy Glasmeier, professor of geography and regional planning, recently pub-lished An Atlas of Poverty in America: One Nation, Pulling Apart, 1960–2003. The Atlas is one of numerous projects developed under the One Nation project, a research program aimed at providing a new understanding of the causes and meaning of enduring economic distress in the United States. A central theme of the Atlas is the enduring character of poverty in America; it conveys the message that America’s poor are people who work or who are dependents of people who work and face limited opportunity, often due to living in places that are seriously disadvantaged because of geography or history or both. An expanded version of the Atlas will be published by Routledge Press this fall.

For a free copy, please con-tact Amy Glasmeier at Penn State, 302 Walker Building, University Park, PA 16802, [email protected].


By Dr. Lorraine DowlerThe Wom-

en’s Studies Program at Penn State has thrived in re-cent years. I took over re-sponsibilities as director of the program in July of last year when Carolyn Sachs, profes-

sor of rural sociology and women’s studies, stepped down after fi ve years in that position. Though we had been operating as a department for nearly three years (offering ten-ure to faculty and dual-degree pro-grams to graduate students), we were only just recently granted de-partmental status this past May. We offer undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees (one of only ten departments in the country to grant doctoral degrees) as well as dual-degrees, not only in geography, but in English, art education, curricu-lum and instruction, French, his-tory, philosophy, political science, and rural sociology. The department consists of sixteen faculty members, ten of whom are full-time equiva-lent faculty in Women’s Studies. We display all the vitals of a department but are not satisfi ed with the status only—we are determined to be a stellar department.

As a cultural geographer, one of the reasons I wanted to assume leadership responsibilities in the Women’s Studies Program was to strengthen the ties between the Col-lege of Liberal Arts and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. The Department of Geography is the only one of its kind in the country to offer a dual-title degree in women’s studies and geography both at the master’s and doctoral levels. The dual-degree program straddles two outstanding programs with some of the greatest minds in their respective

fi elds; this standard of excellence combines to offer students a high-ly-regarded and rigorous program. Right now we’re seeing that the fi rst wave of graduates from the program is fi nding excellent jobs. Jen Fluri, a recent Ph.D. graduate, accepted an assistant professor position at Dart-mouth College in their Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies Departments. Risa Whitson, an-other recently graduated Ph.D. stu-dent from the program, accepted a similar position as an Assistant Pro-fessor of Women’s Studies and Ge-ography at Ohio University. Our graduates, largely due to the diver-sity and breadth of their education from the dual-de-gree program, are fi nding that they have a leg up in the job market.

I have two specifi c goals as Head of the Women’s Studies Department: to increase under-graduate enroll-ment and to en-courage fi nancial development. At-tracting new stu-dents and donors is a challenge that requires a fl uid department able to adapt and develop as new opportunities arise. Among our many initiatives, we are currently advancing the social sci-ences, expanding the roles of ser-vice-learning and distance-learning in the department, and furthering our ties to international programs. Dr. Lakshman Yapa’s Philadelphia Field Project has been a model for our department’s study abroad pro-gram in Arusha, Tanzania. Students in the program work closely with a community development center in

Arusha that offers artwork and Eng-lish classes, computer training sem-inars, supports inner city children, and hosts sporting events. The de-partment would like to develop on-line courses to women in Philadel-phia homeless shelters as part of a collaborative effort with Dr. Yapa’s service-learning projects in those areas. We are creating an Institute for the Global Woman to further our study of the international status of women and we recently won a com-petition sponsored by the United Na-tions to host the Beijing: Ten Years

Later North American Regional Conference, next May 2006 (www.womenstudies.psu.edu). The department is con-stantly developing and the combined energies of our faculty and staff, all enthusiastic pro-ponents of our depart-ment’s mission, prom-ise to propel us forward into even more diverse directions.

Whether it’s stapling something onto a bulle-tin board or organizing a study abroad program, I like everything about my work to include some aspect of feminist activism. My teaching, research, and service projects across the De-partment of Geography

and Women’s Studies refl ect that drive. I am currently researching issues facing women in war. I am working on a book which looks at spatial driving forces and pulls to-gether three cases studies, women in Northern Ireland, women in the Fire Service, and the recent impris-onment of anti-nuclear nuns.

For more information about Dr. Dowler’s research, please access:www.geog.psu.edu/people/dowler.

Research in Human Geography:“Women’s Studies and Geography: An Intuitive Collaboration”

Dr. Dowler’s most recent pub-lication, Gender and Land-scape (Routledge, 2005). The book was co-edited by Jose-phine Carubia and Bonj Szc-zygiel.


Research in Physical Geography:“Monitoring the Cryosphere: Assessing Rapid Changes in Cold Regions”

By Dr. Derrick LampkinUnfor tuna te ly

this quote from a well-known science- fi ction series written over fi fteen years ago, characterizes our

current reality. Human-infl uenced emissions of greenhouse gases have the potential to alter our climate and planetary system. Within the last decade, the view regarding Earth’s climate system response to natural and human-induced processes has shifted from one characterized as gradual to one with potential for rapid change. Global mean temperatures have risen over the past 100 years by about 0.6°C. Over half of the increase has occurred in the last twenty-fi ve years. Temperature records have been assembled from thousands of land and ocean observation sites covering a large, representative portion of Earth’s surface and carefully controlled for possible biases arising from station and instrument changes. The range of natural variability in global temperature is about plus or minus 0.2°C, so that it is only after the late 1970s that global mean temperatures emerge from the noise of natural variability. How does the cryosphere respond in a changing climate?

The cryosphere, or regions where water is found in solid form (snow cover, glaciers, permafrost, sea ice, and ice shelves), is among the most sensitive to temperature change. Average temperatures in snow and ice-covered areas typically remain below 0°C much of the year. Unlike other substances found on Earth, ice and snow exist relatively close to their melting point and may fre-quently change phase from solid to liquid and back again. Consequent-ly, consistent and prolonged warm-ing trends should result in observ-able changes to Earth’s cryosphere. My research interests are concerned with the use of remote sensing

tools, from the ground to satellites, to monitor rapid or high frequency changes in the extremes of the cryo-sphere on short-term scales in mid-latitude seasonal alpine snow cover and polar continental ice sheets such as Antarctica and Greenland.

Alpine snow cover is an integral component of the hydrosphere and critical in the management of wa-ter resources in the western United States. Snowmelt in the Rocky

Mountain basins can account for as much as 90 percent of annual runoff.

Variability in regional climate can affect snow-covered area, and the amount and timing of water release from the snow pack into stream fl ow. My work focuses on extraction of snowmelt dynamics using imaging systems that have suffi cient spatial and temporal coverage to monitor conditions at basin-scales.

During the 2002 Antarctic sum-mer, over 3,000 km2 of the Larsen B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated. The rapid destruction of large fl oating ice masses such as this occurred at the end of one the warmest summers on record in this region. An international group of polar scientists has been investigat-ing ice-shelf breakup and agrees that regional climate warming is at the heart of these changes. The role that surface melting and ponding plays in the promotion of ice shelf

disintegration is an active area of research. I am concerned with con-ditions that promote pond formation and persistence. I am interested in determining if annual or antecedent sea ice concentration acts to modu-late melt pond formation through sea ice-ocean-atmosphere albedo and latent heat transfer mechanisms. An analysis of these relationships across all ice shelves throughout the Antarctic system using historical passive microwave data sets could be useful in understanding how re-gional changes in the southern polar system are augmenting inter-system feedbacks.

An understanding of global and regional changes in climate and the assessment of water resources re-quire that we monitor temporal and spatial variability of snow cover from local to global scales. Alpine snow cover data have been collected using fi eld-based methods. Applica-tion of wireless sensor technology could improve acquisition of snow accumulation data in mountainous terrain. Networked micro-sensors can enable long-term data collec-tion at optimized resolutions across a large area while providing the ability to communicate information and control. The spatially distribut-ed network can be used to perform more complex tasks, such as sta-tistical sampling, data aggregation, and system status monitoring. Such a network seeks to monitor: snow accumulation height, onset of melt, onset of melt infi ltration, and track internal dynamics of snow pack.

Dr. Derrick Lampkin joined the Penn State Department of Geogra-phy faculty in July 2005. Please join us in welcoming Derrick! For more information, please access: www.geog.psu.edu/news/lampkin_intro.html.

Fieldwork conducted near Berthoud Pass, CO, to understand the relation-ship between snow surface optical properties and spring snowpack melt.

“At no other moment in history have humans displayed enough power to infl u-ence the dynamics of an entire planet...It truly requires not only great knowl-edge of how planetary systems function, but great wisdom to convert our power into a constructive, not destructive force.” -Frank Herbert, author of Dune.


Research in Nature/Society Geography:“Assessing Regional Consequences of Climate Change”

By Dr. C. Gregory Knight and Dr. Marieta P. Staneva

‘Global warm-

ing’ has become increasingly sa-lient in the public media. With news of the rapid loss of glaciers, dis-ruptions to arctic human and ani-mal ecology from sea ice loss, and deaths from heat waves, concern about climate

change is widespread. Climate re-searchers have been joined by a larger community in the human and ecological sciences, many govern-ments (at scales from community through nations to global alliances), non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Although there are uncertainties about the de-tails of ‘global warming’ (and some skeptical views), it is reasonable to assume that even if human activi-ties driving climate change were to abate, effects in coming decades are unavoidable. How does one explore potential consequences so that action can be taken to minimize adverse impacts, as well as exploit new potentials?

‘Integrated regional assessment’ refers to interdisciplinary scientifi c knowledge as applied to answer-ing questions about region-specifi c consequences of climate change. Several assessment approaches might be taken, based on scenarios for future climate as suggested from downscaled, region-specifi c results of global climate models. One po-tential is to simulate environmental processes altered by climate change, such as changes in the hydrologic cycle and consequences for water resources or agricultural productiv-ity. Then, through social and eco-nomic analysis, suggest cascading impacts of resource changes (many

national climate change assess-ments proceed in this way). An-other direction is to compare a place of interest with another place that has the anticipated climate, examin-ing the directions and magnitude of environmental and socio-economic changes that could occur (this direc-tion is often helpful in suggesting future forest patterns). A third approach is to examine how past climate similar to projected future cli-mate might impinge on the contempo-rary situation (one study in this mode looked at today’s Great Plains in light of 1930s drought conditions). A fourth alternative is more intuitive: examining the his-tory of societies af-fected by climate change and general principles behind human ability to cope with or be destroyed by such changes (the outcome of Norse set-tlements in Iceland and Greenland are examples). During the past sev-eral years, we assembled an interna-tional group of scholars to explore a fi fth approach.

For a specifi c region, we asked what might be learned from a pro-longed period of contemporary cli-mate anomaly that is similar to pro-jected future climate? The case that presented itself was the drought that occurred in Bulgaria from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s (and sporadically thereafter). The results of our investigations were pub-lished last December as Drought in Bulgaria, A Contemporary Analog for Climate Change with co-editor and head of the Bulgarian team, Ivan Raev, who is now president of the Scientifi c Coordination Center

for Global Change in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The results of our work emerged at two levels: the specifi cs for Bul-garia on the one hand, and the stra-tegic level of using contemporary drought as an analog on the other. For Bulgaria, the research team

scrutinized the drought period in terms of its climate determinants and impacts on wa-ter resources and on natural and managed ecosystems. Social, economic, and health dimensions were also examined, as well as the transition from impacts to crisis as exemplifi ed by water management confl icts, politics, and the media. This analysis led to fi fty recommendations to the Bulgarian com-munity, the most im-portant of which con-cern the importance of understanding climate change impacts for the

nation and of incorporating climate change dimensions in planning, es-pecially in such sensitive sectors as agriculture, water resources, and energy.

The community of researchers on climate change impacts, as well as offi cials facing policy decisions, are best positioned to judge the value of the analog approach we developed for our Bulgarian work. Evidence of the importance of our work comes from Bulgaria where demand for the Bulgarian language edition of the book has been sub-stantial and where ministries and agencies have requested informa-tion and workshops on climate change.

Penn State contributors to the Bulgarian research included Victo-ria Wesner, Chris Steuer, Liem Tran, and Laura Carnes.

Drought in Bulgaria, A Con-temporary Analog for Cli-mate Change (Ashgate Press, 2004).

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY302 WALKER BUILDINGUNIVERSITY PARK PA 16802-5011

This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is committed to affi rmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.U.Ed.: EMS 06-06

ESRI International UserConference............................

TOTEMS (Total Orientation ToEarth and Mineral Sciences).....

Graduate Student Orientation...

Fall Classes Begin......................

GEMS Tailgate (vs. Central Michigan)................................

Fall Career Days.....................

Parents & Families Day...............

AAG Middle States Division Fall2005 Meeting.......................

PA Geographical SocietyAnnual Meeting.....................

Homecoming (vs. Purdue).......

Geography Awareness Week (GIS Day 2005)........................

Fall Classes End.....................

Fall Semester Final Exams........

.................................July 25-29

.............................August 23-26

.............................August 23-29

...................................August 30

.............................September 17

........................September 20-22

.............................September 24

............................October 14-15

............................October 28-29

.................................October 29

..November 13-19 (November 16)

................................December 9

........................December 12-16

Summer/Fall Calendar of Events

@@ Penn State2003 - 2004partme of Geography

GeographyGeography

@ Penn StateDepartment of Geography

ECONOMIC

HUMAN

GIScience

NATURESOCIETY

PHYSICAL

political

land use

water

environmentalstudies

social

planning

resources

education

qualitativemethods

remotesensing

CLIMATE

medical

culturalecology

BIOGEOGRAPHY

quantitativemethods

DEVELOPMENTurban

historicalcartography

GEOVISUALIZATION

environmentalcognition

Physical Nature-Society Human GIScience

energy

geomorphology

hazards

coastalregional

agriculture

gender

locationtheory

GLOBALCHANGE

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LANDSCAPEECOLOGY

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