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physical nature/society gisciences human

Summer/Fall 2008 Newsletter (Volume 6, Issue 2) www.geog.psu.edu

2 From the Head3 Undergraduate Student News4 Graduate Student News; S.W.I.G. Wins Award5 Faculty and Staff News; Professor Holdsworth Named Teaching Fellow6 Food for Thought7 Penn State Climate Change Mitigation Strategies8 Scholarships, Endowments, and Award Funds; Students Return from Honduras; AAG Recap9 Introducing Brian King; Calendar10 Alumni News11 Alumni News; CPGIS Graduates12 Faculty Research Profile: Alexander Klippel13 Professor Yapa Wins Award, Delivers Commencement Address; Alumnus Set to Return from Iraq14 Who We Are15 Who We Are; Focus the Nation

Contact us:The Pennsylvania State UniversityDepartment of Geography302 Walker BuildingUniversity Park, PA 16802

Telephone: (814) 865-3433Fax: (814) 863-7943E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.geog.psu.edu

Table of Contents:

FROM THE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT

[email protected]

Dr. Karl ZimmererHead of Department

Congratulations to our spring graduates!

B.A.Kyle R. Dornich Francisco J. Lopez Carly S. PhelpsDouglas B. SchochJacqueline E. Slagle Michelle L. Witmer

B.S.Daniel K. Addyson Gabriel A. Akec Bradley J. Austin Robert W. Drone Alexa J. Dugan William J. Fertsch Carolyn S. Fish Allen W. Funk Nicholas M. Giner Jarrod D. Grim Thomas A. Huber Peter G. Kloehn Nicholas A. Kraynok Gregory W. Kuleba Evan D. Lawley Jessica S. Lehman Gregory T. Maynard William G. Melville III Daniel P. Morath Robert H. Phillips Erin E. Pierce Alexander E. Pratt Daniel G. Reese Mark R. Salvatore Caitlyn M. Sawyer Elizabeth A. Shope Ryan L. Stahl Kylee K. Straw

Design/Writer/Editor: John MurphyAdditional Editors: Jodi Vender, Karl Zimmerer Summer/Fall 2008, Vol. 6, Issue 2

First there are the titles; examples include “Games geographers play,” “Cities,” “Consumer space preferences,” and “Environmental control and environmental contamination.” The calendar dates are not much of a clue: November 14, etc…(the calendar year is not given). More valuable as a source of information is the name: Peter Gould, Roger Downs, Roger Downs (again), and Charles Hosler, respectively, go along with the above titles. Some or perhaps many readers will have recognized these as announcements, drawn randomly from the department archive. Each referred, of course, to a presentation in the department’s Coffee Hour series. This speaker series is a venerable tradition, not only within Geography but also in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, across the University Park campus, and beyond. Indeed, the Coffee Hour series in the department easily ranks among the most storied and stimulating speaker series in departments of geography worldwide.

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of our Coffee Hour. So what is the current status of Coffee Hour? It is, quite simply, an ongoing vital activity that is at the center of department life. Socially and intellectually it is a chance to gather and engage with colleagues in the Penn State Geography community. The event begins by sharing conversation and refreshments in the cozy quarters of room 319 Walker. Department graduate students procure food and beverages, and supply their culinary skills (i.e., buy some “good groceries” and, also, cook some tasty treats). Coffee and tea are had in generous quantity. Shortly before 4:00 p.m. one of the Coffee Hour organizers—a pair of faculty serves each year as chairs of the Coffee Hour Committee—makes the call for migration to the talk room. There, in room 112 Walker, the organizer begins with “this week’s announcements” of department news, noting the most recent professional successes of students and faculty. Then follows an introduction of the Coffee Hour speaker. Sprinklings of faculty humor are known to leaven the comments.

The speakers and their talks are the heart of Coffee Hour. Speakers are selected by the faculty organizers of Coffee Hour—last year (2007-2008) they were Associate Professor Melissa Wright and Professor Greg Knight. The volunteered and requested talks of our local talent are combined with a handful of

invited speakers from outside Penn State. The latter are courtesy of an endowment that the department is actively seeking to build expressly for this purpose. Department faculty are regular volunteers as presenters in the Coffee Hour series. This past year included the talks of William Easterling (now Dean of the College), Amy Glasmeier, David DiBiase, Alex Klippel, Alan Taylor, Rob Brooks and Gianluca Rocco, Rob Crane, and myself. A full list of speakers is available on the department Web site (http://www.geog.psu.edu/coffee_hour/). Stimulating question-and-answer and “post-game” discussions are an important part of the mixture of activities that make up Coffee Hour. Innovation is integral. For example, Cindy Brewer and David DiBiase have endowed the Web-based podcasting and vodcasting of Coffee Hour presentations, with the clever label of “Coffee Hour to Go.” In addition to the recording, their endowment has covered the costs of custom-designed “Coffee Hour to Go” mugs that are gifted to each speaker in the series.

Special recognition and a festive celebration will commemorate this year’s fortieth anniversary during the forthcoming fall semester; some historical uncertainty, which is slight but nonetheless significant, shrouds the determination of the exact anniversary date. The special celebration and planning are under the able direction of this year’s Coffee Hour chairs, Professor Andrew Carleton and Assistant Professor Petra Tschakert. The plan is for a special afternoon and evening celebration on a certain Friday, probably in mid- or late-October or early November. We are hoping to hold this Coffee Hour celebration, with a reception to follow, at the Nittany Lion Inn. The details of scheduling and celebration will be posted soon on the department Web site. Our goal in celebrating the fortieth Anniversary is to commemorate the rich past and storied success, while we seek to ensure the vibrant and secure future of Coffee Hour. All members of the department community, most broadly defined, are welcome to attend. I look forward to seeing you there.

Please visit http://www.geog.psu.edu/coffee_hour/fortieth.html for more information about the special Coffee Hour celebration, scheduled for fall 2008.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

Summer/Fall 2008 | 3


B.A.Kyle R. Dornich Francisco J. Lopez Carly S. PhelpsDouglas B. SchochJacqueline E. Slagle Michelle L. Witmer

B.S.Daniel K. Addyson Gabriel A. Akec Bradley J. Austin Robert W. Drone Alexa J. Dugan William J. Fertsch Carolyn S. Fish Allen W. Funk Nicholas M. Giner Jarrod D. Grim Thomas A. Huber Peter G. Kloehn Nicholas A. Kraynok Gregory W. Kuleba Evan D. Lawley Jessica S. Lehman Gregory T. Maynard William G. Melville III Daniel P. Morath Robert H. Phillips Erin E. Pierce Alexander E. Pratt Daniel G. Reese Mark R. Salvatore Caitlyn M. Sawyer Elizabeth A. Shope Ryan L. Stahl Kylee K. Straw

O’Shannon Burns, U.S. Census Bureau, Suitland, MDO’Shannon is a population distribution automation clerk in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. She works on a variety of projects, including analyzing fluctuating populations in micropoli-tan and metropolitan areas, making appropriate county/city/town boundary changes for the 2010 census, and helping the office fulfill various requests for maps either using given data or gener-ating the needed data.

Matthew Calamito, ESRI, Vienna, VAMatthew works on various demos for ESRI’s ArcMap9.3 soft-ware. He is spending seventy percent of the summer working with the Federal Defense Department and thirty percent of the summer working with the Federal Civilians Department.

Ashley Grohal, BAE Systems, Pittsburgh, PAAshley is a geospatial technology intern. She works with feature extraction from stereo imagery and works with topographic line maps.

Sean McGrath, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PASean was selected for the internship through the National Sci-ence Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU). His goal is to use changes in target diatom species to quantify the amount of environmental change that took place in study lakes, identify its potential sources, and to assess the extent and regional variation in the eastern United States.

Matt Popek, Upper Merion Planning Department, King of Prussia, PAMatt works on various GIS-related projects for Upper Merion Township. His duties include scanning development plans from the last twenty years—to add to the township’s GIS—as well as using a GPS to plot stormwater features and road signs through-out the township.

Emma Prince, Resource Technologies Corporation, State College, PAEmma is using MapInfo Professional to digitally correct aerial photographs of Fayette County, Pennsylvania land ownership grid-work.

Kaitlin Walsh, Department of Geosciences, Penn State UniversityKaitlin is a research assistant working on image analyses of ice cores to determine ice grain size and bubble density as they re-late to paleoclimate.

Tim Yuskavage, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Washington, D.C.Tim uses GIS software to improve estimates of economic activity in metropolitan areas. For his first project, he used GIS software to map out locations of heavy infrastructure (railroads, pipelines, oil rigs, etc.) to figure out the corresponding economic output of those things. Part of the overall goal is to account for the differ-ence in where economic activity takes place and where earnings are reported.

Summer 2008 InternshipsMany of our students supplement their education with internships, usually undertaken during the summer months. Internships help prepare students with practical knowledge and workplace experience. If you would like to recruit students for internships, please contact [email protected] or [email protected] to post an announcement on the department Web site. Here are a few students who are interning during summer 2008:

Arielle Hesse and Matthew Popek were each awarded a People for the Ameri-can Way Foundation “Young People For” 2008 Fellowship.

Jessica Lehman won the Gerard A. Hauser Award—the top entry over-all—at this year’s Penn State Under-graduate Exhibition, an annual event which communicates and celebrates the participation of undergraduate students from across the University in research and creative endeavors. She also won the University Libraries Award for In-formation Literacy, which recognizes scholarly work based on a foundation of careful background research and litera-ture review.

Erin Pierce won the second place in the undergraduate of the Pennsylvania Geo-

graphical Society’s Elaine F. Bosowski Student Paper Competition. Mark Salvatore received the Evan Pugh Scholars Award. Evan Pugh scholars are juniors and seniors who are in the upper 0.5 percent of their respective classes and have completed at least for-ty-eight graded Penn State credits at the end of the fall semester of the academic year the award is given. Mark was also awarded the National Council for Geographic Educa-tion-Association of American Geographers Award for Excellence of Scholarship.

Kaitlin Walsh received the College of Earth and Mineral Science’s Ellen Stei-dle Achievement Award and a H. Her-bert and Mary B. Hughes Travel Award.

Abena Sandra Yeboa received the Col-lege of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Wil-liam Grundy Haven Memorial Award.

Some spring 2008 graduates and summer walkers: From left to right: 1st row: Erin Pierce, Allison Day, Nick Kraynok, Kylee Straw; 2nd row: Jessica Lehman, Carly

Phelps, Mark Mohney, 3rd row: Carolyn Fish, Evan Lawley, Jacqueline Slagle; 4th row: Alexa Dugan, Jarrod Grim; 5th row: Dan Morath, Douglas Schoch, Alexander Pratt.

E. Willard Miller Award in GeographyThe E. Willard Miller Award in Geography is given to outstand-ing undergraduate and graduate students in Geography in honor of Penn State Department of Ge-ography founder E. Willard Miller. Winners receive a cash award and a plaque. Award winners’ names are also added to a wall display housed in Walker Build-ing. Submissions may include a written paper, cartographic work, graphics, or software.

This year’s winners are:UndergraduateJessica Lehman (first)Douglas Schoch (second)Matthew Popek (third)

M.S.Nicole Laliberte (first)Darrell Fuhriman (second)Craig McCabe (third)

Ph.D.Kate Driscoll Derickson (tie-first)Robert Roth (tie-first)

GRADUATE STUDENT NEWSShaunna Barnhart was awarded a Department of Geography’s Alumni Scholars Graduate Student Award.

Seth Baum won a Journal of Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics Ethics of Climate Change (Economics/Business section) essay contest.

Jamison Conley was co-winner of a best paper award from the Association of American Geographers Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group.

Kate Driscoll Derickson was awarded a Department of Geography’s Alumni Scholars Graduate Student Award.

Tim Frazier was awarded a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) Grant. He was also awarded a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant.

David Fyfe was awarded a Department of Geography’s Alumni Scholars Graduate Student Award.

Peter Howe received a second-place best paper award from the Association of American Geographers Communication Specialty Group.

Andrei Israel received the E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Distinguished Graduate Fellowship.

Rui Li received a best paper award from the Association of American Geographers Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group. He was also awarded second place in the graduate division of the Pennsylvania Geographical Society’s Elaine F. Bosowski Student paper competition.

Brent Moats was awarded first place in the graduate division of the Pennsylvania Geographical Society’s Elaine F. Bosowski student paper competition.

Anthony Robinson was awarded the Department of Geography’s Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award. Melissa Rock was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct Ph.D. research in China.

Wesley Stroh was awarded the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ James T. Meyer Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.

Brian Tomaszewski was awarded a United States Geospatial-Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) Scholarship.

S.W.I.G. Wins University’s Outstanding Student Organization of the Year AwardThe Department of Geography is pleased to an-nounce that Supporting Women in Geography (S.W.I.G.) has won Penn State’s Outstanding Stu-dent Organization of the Year Award. This is a Uni-versity-wide award that recognizes student organi-zations in good standing that have demonstrated excellence in:

• collaborating with other student organizations, faculty, and staff; • programming a variety of purposeful events; • positive promoting of mission/purpose of organization to the University community; and • building a sense of community.

S.W.I.G. regularly participates in various outreach activities such as Supporting Young Women in Ge-ography (SYWIG) day and book sales. Recently, the group organized the collection of care pack-ages for overseas soldiers. Also, S.W.I.G. recently drafted a new child policy for female and male grad-uate students wishing to have children and remain in school. Originally designed for only the Depart-ment of Geography, the policy promptly circulated to University officials, who are now in the process of implementing the policy University-wide.

S.W.I.G. members, from left to right: (front)Tina Cummings, Maureen Biermann, Katie Dietrich, Mamata Akella, Carolyn Fish, (back) Marina Viola, Nicole Laliberte, Amber Baghe-ian, Kristen Hychka, Greg Lankenau, Raymond Tutu

4 | www.geog.psu.edu

E. Willard Miller (1915-2002) reads over a book in his office

FACULTY & STAFF NEWS


Dr. Deryck Holdsworth Named One of Three University Teaching FellowsDr. Holdsworth was named one of three Penn State Teaching Fellows for 2008-2009, selected from a University-wide pool of 2,100 tenured faculty members. The Teaching Fellow was established jointly in 1986 by the Penn State Alumni Association in consultation with the Undergraduate Student Government and the Graduate Student Association. Its purpose is to honor distinguished teaching and provide encouragement and incentive for teaching excellence at Penn State.

In addition to a cash award and plaque commemorating the award, the Department of Geography will receive a grant for the improvement of undergraduate teaching and learning.

Deryck intends to use the fellowship to deepen case studies for teaching the historical geography of North America and global urban histories. For introductory level classes, he will accumulate digital visual evidence from fieldwork and archives, and for advanced classes he will construct time-space data sets for student research projects. Projects will include:

exploring the historical geographies of Quaker spaces in northern England and Pennsylvania;

examining hotel registers, merchant invoices, and farmers’ diaries for a set of communities in Mid- Atlantic and New England states;

better understanding the Islamic city and northern England mill towns where recent Muslim immigrants have modified once-Coketown landscapes

Others named a Teaching Fellow include Dr. Philip Nash, associate professor of Liberal Arts at Penn State Shenango and Dr. Linda Null, associate professor of Computer Science at Penn State Harrisburg. Dr. Holdsworth, along with Drs. Nash and Null, were officially recognized at the Faculty/Staff Awards Program held on March 24, 2008 at the Nittany Lion Inn. Together, they join thirty other colleagues who have received this prestigious award.

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Professor Deryck Holdsworth receives his University Teaching Fellow plaque from Penn State President Graham Spanier at the 2008 Faculty/Staff Awards Program

Kary Blaschak joined the Department of Geography in March as the undergraduate staff assistant. Kary joins the department after working fourteen years for the State College School District.

Cindy Brewer, professor, was selected as a fellow for the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. Cindy, along with U.S. Census Bureau employees Trudy Suchan (Ph.D. 1998), James Fitzsimmons, Anika Juhn, and Alexander Tait of International Mapping Associates, completed the Census Atlas of the United States. The atlas has won two awards: Best of Show, CaGIS/ACSM Map Design Competition,

awarded by the Cartography and Geographic Information Society and the 2007 Association of American Geographers Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography.

Frank Hardisty, research associate, and Anthony Robinson (Ph.D. 2008) received a Keystone Innovation Grant for “Development of software to enhance the use of spatially-oriented public health data in visualization and analytic tools.”

Alex Klippel, assistant professor, was awarded a best paper award at the Conference on Spatial Information Theory, a best paper award at the Spatial Cognition Conference, and was awarded a grant by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, along with Professor Alan MacEachren.

Greg Knight, professor, was awarded the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Gladys Snyder Education Grant.

Donna Peuquet, professor, was awarded the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Wilson Award for Excellence in Research.

Petra Tschakert, assistant professor, was awarded the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ George H. Deike, Jr. Research Grant. Petra was also awarded a National Science Foundation-Office of International Science and Engineering Grant.

Melissa Wright, associate professor, received a College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Wilson Travel Grant.

Lucky Yapa, professor, was awarded the University’s Africana Research Center Grant. Lucky also received the Northeast Region McGrath/Kellogg Engaged Scholarship Award (see page thirteen).

Brent Yarnal, professor and associate head, received a College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Faulty Mentoring Award.

Staff members Rosie Long, John Murphy, Pam Stauffer, Sue Spaugh, and Jodi Vender received Department of Geography Staff Outstanding Achievement Awards (staff not pictured on right).

The “Census Atlas of the United States” is the first general population and housing statistical atlas published by the Census Bureau since 1925.

Faculty/staff photos shown in sequential order of news entries

Note from the Newsletter EditorAfter two years working in the Department of Geography (five if you count my undergraduate years), I will be leaving the department and relocating to Seattle. It has been a pleasure communicating with all of our alumni. I am always amazed to hear about all of the accomplishments and contributions our alumni make to society. I implore you to continue communicating with my successor; the [email protected] e-mail address will remain valid.

Resources:

National/GeneralSustainable Table http://www.sustainabletable.org/

Local Harvest http://www.localharvest.org/

Eat Wild http://www.eatwild.com/

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service http://attra.ncat.org/

Localvore http://www.localvore.net/

Food Routes http://www.foodroutes.org/ 100 Mile Diet http://www.100milediet.org/

Slow Food USA http://www.slowfoodusa.com

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculturehttp://sustainableagriculture.net/

PennsylvaniaBuy Fresh, Buy Local (PA) http://www.buylocalpa.com/

Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculturehttp://www.pasafarming.org/

Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network http://wagn.cas.psu.edu/

State CollegeState College Farmers Market http://www.statecollegefarmers.com/

Penn State Veggie Cellar Markethttp://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/dept/veggie-cellar/index.html

Slow Food Central PA Conviviumhttp://www.slowfoodcentralpa.com/

6 | www.geog.psu.edu Photo Credit: Used under the guidelines of Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/funadium/913303959/sizes/l/

Undergraduate organizes Earth Day event on HUB lawn to raise awareness of our food choices

Food for Thought

The average pound of food in the United State travels 1,300 miles before it reaches the table. Americans throw

away one hundred billion plastic bags a year. There are 3,091 active landfills in the United States. High fructose corn syrup can be found in many unassuming foods, like peanut butter. Forsaking a nutritious diet for convenience and affordability is but one consequence of our modern culture. Consequently, our food choices can wreak havoc on the food system, our landscapes, and our bodies.

Alarmed? Undergraduate Kyle Dornich (B.S. 2008) sure was. So much so that he decided to do something about it: educate. Inspired by his final project for GEOG 20 (GS, US, IL) Intro-duction to Human Geography, Kyle decided to put on a knowledge-festival of sorts that strove to educate about the impacts of food choices.

Collaborating with the Penn State student group Eco-Action, Kyle helped to set up an educational spread on the Hetzel Union Build-ing (HUB) lawn in conjunction with Earth Day activities. Information stands touched on the history of agriculture, industrial/processed foods, large-scale organic production, and local/permaculture/bio-intenstive mini farm-ing; each stand showed how each of these food systems affect the health of our bodies and the health of earth. The goal was to create an inter-active educational experience that would shed light on the global effects of our diets.

In addition to the more obvious personal health issues, our food choices have far-reach-ing political, cultural, economical, and eco-logical consequences. From potentially carci-nogenic pesticides sprayed on produce to the long distances required for much of our food to get from farm to table, “food choices have many implications,” Kyle says. “As a modern culture, we feel entitled to whatever we want, whenever we want.” Hankering for a fresh strawberry in January? Sounds tasty, doesn’t it? But, as Post-Doctoral Research Associate Amy Trauger (M.S. 2001, Ph.D. 2005) states, this type of desire is problematic. Often times

these “off-season” crops are grown with pes-ticides that are banned in the United States. Unfortunately, these pesticides are produced in the United States and then shipped to countries where the chemicals are allowed in agricultural production. The foods, sprayed with the very pesticides banned in the United States, are then sent back and sold in grocery stores across the country. As Amy points out, “this is not really sustainable on any level, and why would we want to sustain it?”

These issues are exactly what Kyle was hop-ing to bring to light. “I wanted to share these ideas with my community and address how our dietary choices affect everything. But most importantly to offer ways that we can take action so that our lifestyle choices may have a positive impact on our planet and our bodies instead of a negative. Hopefully our efforts this year will be built upon for a similar activity next year.”

Kyle’s proactive work was intended to foster a culture of sustainability, and, rightly so, sus-tainable agriculture was at the forefront of the production. As Amy points out, sustainable agriculture “typically finds a balance between making a good living and not damaging the environment.” Sustainable agriculture allows residents to become more informed, educated consumers of food, to increase the health of community members, and, ultimately, create stronger, more sustainable communities. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :There are many ways to get involved. Luck-ily in Central Pennsylvania there are many opportunities to shop and eat consciously. Meyer Dairy, Stone Soup at Webster’s, The Granery, Nature’s Pantry, Harner Farm, Way Fruit Farm, and Tait Farm all offer organic and/or locally produced products. The farm-ers markets are also a great way to eat fresh and healthy food as well as support the local economy. The Downtown State College farmers market (on Locust Lane) is now held two days a week: Tuesday and Friday; the Boalsburg Farmers market (at the PA Military Museum) happens every Tuesday; and the Bellefonte Farmers market takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Kyle Dornich (B.S. 2008) organized the ‘Path of Food,’ held on April 20, 2008. Kyle organized the project after speaking with GEOG 20: Introduction to Human Geography Instruc-tor Jairus Rossi (M.S. 2007). Kyle graduated in May and plans to do some traveling before possibly joining the Peace Corps or pursuing a career in environmental education.


Penn State Climate Change Mitigation Strategies

Trieste Lockwood is an undergraduate in the Department of Geography. She was the public relations intern during fall 2007 and interned with the National Geographic Society in spring 2008..

With the green revolution sweeping the nation, it is more important than ever to look at what our own University is doing to understand and adapt to climate change

Photo Credit: NASA (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13148); Greg Grieco, Penn State

While a hurricane such as Rita (2005) may not pummel Bea-ver Stadium, it is important to assess and understand all the implications of climate change, especially at the local level.

By Trieste Lockwood

Climate change is happening. It is more important than ever to take progres-sive steps in reducing greenhouse gas

(GHG) emissions at a local and global level. Penn State is proud to be one of the world’s first universities to inventory GHG emissions. Due to the large student population, complex infra-structure, and personnel needed to support the town-like campus of University Park, campus emissions have increased 21% from 1990-1999. Penn State climate scientists also project further growth of GHG emissions at University Park of 35% over 1990 emissions levels by 2012. Upon learning of present GHG emissions as well as projected increases, University Park administra-tors strongly supported developing mitigation policies.

An important part of developing Penn State climate change mitigation policies was a com-prehensive inventory of University Park’s GHG emissions. This initial step was taken when former Geography graduate student Steve Lachman (M.S. 1999, Ph.D. 2003) produced a campus inventory for 1997 GHG levels. Build-ing on that trailblazing work, former graduate researcher Chris Steuer (M.S. 2004) compiled annual emission inventories for 1990-1999, which he later extended through 2003. From those annual inventories, Steuer developed projections of future University Park emissions

using various campus energy use scenarios. He based the inventory model on methods used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Environmental Protection Agency’s Emission Inventory Improvement Program, and Clean Air-Cool Planet—a non-profit envi-ronmental organization. The GHG emissions inventory project inspired former Geography graduate student Brandi Nagle (M.S. 2005) to work with the University to develop a mitiga-tion plan that considers reduction techniques relying on not only technological changes, but also effective behavioral changes by students, staff, and faculty. In addition to University Park inventories, Nagle was also responsible for cre-ating inventories for all Penn State campuses.

Steuer and Nagle conducted much of their research through the Center for Integrated Regional Assessment (CIRA), which is directedb y Professor Brent Yarnal. CIRA is an inter-College and inter-University community dedi-cated to research and education on the local and regional dimensions of global change, especially as it relates to climate. The efforts of CIRA faculty and student researchers, along with the Penn State Office of Physical Plant and other campus units, were fundamental to the compila-tion of the emissions inventories and mitigation plans.

University Park’s inventory techniques and cli-mate change mitigation strategies are benefiting other universities, counties, and cities nation-wide. For example, former Geography graduate student Sarah Knuth (B.S. 2004 Earth Science, M.S. 2006 Geography) helped Montgomery County, a suburb of Philadelphia, apply the GHG emission inventory methods and mitiga-tion planning tools to reduce GHG emissions and mitigate climate change at the county level

The growth of climate change awareness and mitigation planning has continued through out-reach programs such as GEOG 493: The Cen-tre County Community Energy Project. Goals of this service-learning course are to reduce energy consumption, develop renewable energy projects, and ultimately decrease GHG emis-sions in Centre County. Through GEOG 493, Penn State students have the opportunity to be involved at the local level by helping the Bor-ough of State College develop mitigation plans. The Centre County Community Energy Project

is a prime example of how students are contrib-uting to society by applying the lessons learned and developed by Penn State geographers.

Penn State’s climate change mitigation efforts are products of a growing global awareness of climate change. This became apparent when former vice-president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October. The Department of Geography was excited about the news because not only did it signify a growing consciousness of climate change issues, but also because several geography faculty and alumni were part of the IPCC work. Current faculty involved with the success of the IPCC include William Easterling (coordinating lead author of an IPCC report), Greg Knight and Brent Yarnal (reviewers), as well as alumni Netra Chhetri (M.S. 1999, Ph.D. 2007), Bruce Hewitson (M.S. 1990, Ph.D. 1991), Karen O’Brien (Ph.D. 1995), and Russ Vose (B.S. 1987) (authors), and Ben DeAngelo (B.S. 1992) and Colin Polsky (M.S. 1998, Ph.D. 2002) (reviewers).

This international recognition of the IPCC and Penn State Geography’s involvement in climate change science is invaluable. In addition to international accolades, faculty, students, and alumni are contributing regionally and locally. Regionally, many current and former geogra-phy faculty, staff, and students were partici-pants in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment (MARA), which was a key element of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Cli-mate Change, published in 2000. Others were key contributors to the Association of Ameri-can Geographers’ Global Change in Local Places project, which addressed local GHG emissions and mitigation potentials at four U.S. locations. Still, others carried out Pennsylvania’s GHG emissions inventory. Locally, the dedication of faculty and students has made University Park’s GHG emission inventory and mitigation plan-ning a successful example for others to follow.


Students Return From Honduras

Undergraduate Erin Rudegeair with a Honduran child. Erin and other Penn State students traveled to Honduras as part of the Global Medical Brigades. Not only was Erin able to help others but it helped put her own life into perspective: “The trip really made me look at my life and see all the little things that I take for granted. These people have the most basic problems...we need to think simply. I cannot wait to return next year.”

We extend our deepest gratitude to all alumni and friends who have given financial support to the department during the past six decades. Without these generous contributions, many scholarships, research experiences, and awards would not be available to our students and faculty. We especially wish to recognize those who contributed to the department between January 1 and June 30, 2008. If you would like to contribute, please consider donating to one of the funds listed at right. For more information, please contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Scholarships, Endowments, and Award Funds

Mr. Bruce M. BalmatMrs. Ruth BalmatBank of America FoundationMrs. Kristie Wilkeson BiernackiMs. Sarah E. BontragerDr. Cynthia BrewerMrs. Rebecca BrooksDr. Robert P. BrooksMr. C. Mark CowellMr. David DiBiaseMs. Alexa J. Dugan

Ms. Emily E. DuxDr. Rodney A. EricksonMrs. Shari L. EricksonMs. Carrie Kleinman EscritorFidelity Investments Charitable FundMr. Maury H. Hendler Jr.CDR Robert W. KraftMr. Keith MillerMs. Carrie A. MuenksMr. Bret W. RodgersMrs. Denise G. Rodgers

Mrs. Debra Vincer SipeMr. Ronald Lee SipeMrs. Helen StolinasMr. Raymond J. Stolinas Jr.Mr. Phil A. SwingleyMrs. Sheryl A. SwingleyMr. John T. Titzel, Jr.Ms. JoAnn C. VenderMrs. Sherry Johnson WillMr. Thomas E. WillDr. Brenton M. YarnalDr. Careen M. Yarnal

Erratum:In the Winter/Spring 2008

Newsletter (Volume 6, Issue

1) the Balmat Family Fund in Geography for

Honors Scholars was incorrectly

listed.

Balmat Family Scholarship in GeographyBalmat Family Fund in Geography for Honors ScholarsC. Gregory Knight Endowment in Geography‘Coffee Hour to Go’ EndowmentDepartment of Geography Enrichment FundErickson Fund in GeographyE. Willard Miller Award in GeographyG.D. Richardson Scholarship in GeographyGeography Alumni Scholars AwardGeography Student Scholarship FundGlenda Laws Memorial FundJeff Gockley Memorial AwardPeter R. Gould Memorial FundPhiladelphia Field Project FundRobert P. and Rebecca P. Brooks Endowment for the Cooperative Wetlands CenterRonald F. Abler Award in GeographyRuby S. Miller Endowment for Geographic ExcellenceSupporting Women in Geography (S.W.I.G.) Fund

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•••

During the 2008 spring break, thirty-five Penn State students traveled to Honduras as part of a Global Medical Brigades group. The group worked with medical clinics within communities to help people who do have not have regular access to health care. The Penn State contingent was led by Geography students Alexa Dugan (B.S. 2008) and Trieste Lockwood who, throughout the fall and spring semesters, helped to raise money help offset the cost of their trip. In addition to their fundraising activities, Geography students Erin Rudegeair, Ian Smith, and Alexa Dugan, who also attended the service trip, received generous funding from the Department of Geography. The geography students are proud to say they made a difference during their week in Honduras. Ian Smith elaborates: “The world cannot sustain a human population that sees the United States’ way of consumption as ideal, nor can it sustain large, uneducated populations who have little understanding of

their effects on the natural world. It is my hope that I can spread this message to Latin America, that there are alternatives to the United States model of development. I have no doubt that this trip has helped me along that road. Thank you for your support.”

Giving Opportunities in the Department of Geography

AAG Recap Reception a Success, Team Wins World Geography BowlThis year’s Association of American Geographers (AAG) Reception, held at The Guild of Boston Art-ists in Boston, was a re-sounding success. Penn State Geography and Col-lege of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends enjoyed a night away from the convention atmosphere with food, beverages, and insightful comments from Department Head Karl Zimmerer and Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Professor of Geography William Easterling.

While the reception was in full-swing, the Middle States Geog-raphy Bowl Team—consisting of geography graduate students Jamison Conley (Ph.D. 2008), Andrei Israel, and Tom Auer, along with students from Temple, Kutztown, and West Point—won the World Geography Bowl. This is the same team that won the regional Geography Bowl at the Middle States AAG meeting in October.

Mark your calendars: next year’s AAG Meeting will be held March 22-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada!


Fall/Winter 2008-2009 Calendars of Events

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8/13 Summer classes end8/16 Commencement8/19-8/22 TOTEMS8/19-8/22 Graduate Student Orientation8/24 Undergraduate Program Meeting8/25 Fall Classes Begin

9/1 Labor Day, no classes9/15-9/19 Fall Career Days9/20 GEMS Tailgate (vs. Temple)

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10/3-10/5 Parents and Families Weekend10/18 Homecoming (vs. Michigan)10/31-11/1 PA Geographical Society Meeting, ClarionUniversity

11/7-11/8 Middle States Division of the AAG meet-ing, Millersville, University11/16-11/22 Geography Awareness Week11/19 GIS Day11/24-11/28 Thanksgiving break, no classes

12/12 Fall classes end12/20 Commencement12/24-12/31 University offices closed

1/1 University offices closed1/12 Spring classes begin1/19 MLK Day, no classes

Dr. King grad-uated with

honors from Buck-nell University in 1995 with a degree in environmen-tal studies. After working for two years as a legislative assistant for Clean Water Action and as an environmen-tal educator, he re-

ceived his M.A. in geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1999. He then received his Ph.D. in geography with a certificate in development studies from the University of Colorado in 2004. Prior to arriving at Penn State in August 2008, Dr. King was an assistant profes-sor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. King will teach a number of courses that concentrate upon human-envi-ronment relations, political geogra-phy, and environmental justice.

Dr. King’s research concentrates upon human-environment interac-tions, conservation planning, and the impacts of de-velopment processes upon local populations. The bulk of this work has been completed in South Af-rica, with particular attention to understanding how the democratic transition is reshaping demographic

patterns, livelihood decision-making, and the insti-tutions of environmental governance within rural areas. This work demonstrates how historical and contemporary geographies shape the trajectories of environmental and developmental change for local populations. Within South Africa, space and the con-struction of borders have been utilized by national governments to justify racial segregation and control over diverse landscapes. As one example of this, the apartheid construction of the bantustans was intend-ed to manage African populations by linking them to specific locations and social institutions. The removal of these borders following the democratic elections has resulted in social and economic change, but this

research also shows how these bound-aries remain persistent in the contem-porary era. More recently, Dr. King is examining the impacts of health and disease upon social and environmental systems with the intention of under-standing how local environments are transformed by HIV/AIDS.

Although Dr. King’s research has con-centrated upon South Africa, he is extending this work into other areas. Working in collaboration with re-searchers in the United States and Bo-tswana, he is working to assess the so-cial and ecological dynamics associated with seasonal flooding in the Okavango

Delta. The environmental uncertainty in terms of the location and intensity of the flooding has significant implications for human populations dependent upon various resources for livelihood production.

Introducing Brian KingBringing research emphases on environmental resource manage-ment and cultural geography, Brian King will join the Department of Geography as an assistant professor in the fall

Left to rigth: Brian King, Thoralf Meyer, and Amy Neuenschwander observe a fire that preceded the flood-ing of the Okavango Delta, Botswana (May 2007)

Photo Credit: PSU Sports.com and Penn State Department of Public Information


M.S.Darrell N. Fuhriman Nicole J. Laliberte Kelly J. Vanderbrink

Ph.D.Tawan Banchuen Jamison F. Conley David A. Fyfe

M.GISWilliam B. Dickinson Jr. Janet Fabian Jeremy J. Hruska Nasrin M. Letterman Gregory Michael Andrew H. Murdoch Masood A. Shaikh Geney E. Terry

ALUMNI NEWS


1970sMark Monmonier’s (Ph.D. 1976) new book, Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change, was published in May by the University of Chicago Press. On May 30, Mark presented “Persuasive cartography in the era of the internet,” in Barcelona, Spain where he served as the closing keynote speaker at the Second Catalan Geographic Conference.

Joseph L. Scarpaci (M.S. 1978) was named Geographer-Scholar of the Year 2008 by the Virginia Social Science Association. He was also appointed to the editorial board of the

Southeastern Geographer. In the summer 2008, he was awarded a Senior Fulbright Award to teach and conduct research at the Urban Institute of the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago.

1980sChris Anderson (B.S. 1986), planning director for Jasper County, Georgia, helped to usher in a new rezoning request for a residential, equestrian subdivision. The concept is planned for 900 acres and will plan for 285 homes and amenities such as a stable, restaurant, club house, walking/bike/horse trails, and new lakes. As planning director, it will be Chris’s job to coordinate with county departments (road, sheriff, school, EMS) and regional and state entities to ensure that the rural nature of the county is preserved while simultaneous welcoming new citizens to the community.

Arlene Campoli Anderson (B.S. 1984) joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Program as team lead for Geothermal Strategic Planning and Analysis. Arlene is part of a small team kicking off a new geothermal program at the U.S. DOE whose new focus is to provide baseload power from enhanced or engineered geothermal systems (EGS). This year, the DOE’s geothermal program is announcing funding opportunities for teams to develop EGS field projects and undertake research to lower the cost of EGS reservoir stimulation and development. Another program goal is to sponsor the development of a national geothermal database.

Penny L. Richards (B.S. 1988) recently had a chapter published in a historical geography collection: “Knitting the Transatlantic Bond: One Woman’s Letters to America, 1860-1903,” in Geography and Genealogy: Locating Personal Pasts (Ashgate 2008).

1990sFritz Kessler (M.S. 1991) recently coauthored the third edition of Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization. He was also named editor of Cartographic Perspectives in January 2008.

Karen O’Brien (Ph.D. 1995) and Robin Leichenko (Ph.D. 1997) are co-authors of a new book titled Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures (Oxford University Press 2008). Robin and Karen have been working together for more than ten years. Their mutual interest in how large-scale processes of global change affect vulnerable populations, regions and ecosystems emerged, in large part, from their dissertation research at Penn State. Robin’s work at Penn State focused on the effects of international trade on regional economies in the United States, while Karen worked on climate change and deforestation in southern Mexico. The book explores the connections between two of the most transformative processes of the twenty-first century, namely climate change and globalization. In the book, Robin and Karen

present a conceptual framework for analyzing the interactions between these two processes, and, as they illustrate through case studies, how these interactions create situations of “double exposure.”

Anthony Greulich (B.A. 1996) and wife, Christine, are the proud parents of Genevieve (GiGi) Aubree Greulich born on March 4, 2008. The Greulichs currently reside in Richmond, Virginia, where Anthony is a County

Planner II with Henrico County. GiGi should be attending Penn State in fall 2026.

Elaine Dennehy (B.S. 1998) relocated to Arlington, Virginia from Honolulu, Hawaii for a new job as a senior planner/project manager for The Onyx Group—a planning, architecture, and IT firm in Alexandria, Virginia.

2000sSamuel Billioni (B.S. 2000) married the former Christie Moravec, a geography graduate from Texas A&M University (Class of 2000) on April 5, 2008 in Houston, Texas.

Brad Stratton (B.A. 2000) continues working as a GIS analyst with The Nature Conservancy in Albany, New York, where he has been working for five-and-a-half years. His current job involves mapping natural communities and species

for conservation purposes. His work involves measuring atmospheric deposition in the Catskill Mountains, mapping the watersheds of Lake Ontario, locating Bog Turtles with GPS in the Berkshire Taconics, and managing an enterprise geodatabase in Albany. This spring Brad was given the unique opportunity to work on exchange with the Central Savannas program of The Nature Conservancy in Brasilia, Brazil. He will be there for three months supporting GIS mapping and analysis for the science staff. He is primarily working in the Cerrado—the most biologically diverse tropical savanna in the world. Of the five-hundred million acre extent,

Fritz Kessler is a coauthor of “Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization”

Dean AndersonSpencer Aycock

Adam BaghettiJohn Balliette

Jared BeermanDominick Bellizzie

Jill BernhardAlicia Cyrus

Allison DeanJoshua DeWees

Kathleen DunsmoreDaniel Efroymson

Ann FlageCarolyn Ganner

David GaskeAlison GeeTim Gibbs

Tammy GilchristJo Hayes

David HeerschapStephen Hellen

Samantha HerreraThomas HeutteBrandi Howard

Cynthia HullChristopher Jaggie

Lindsay JalbertTamara KeefeMegan Kendle

Christopher LoweKari Marcell

Justin MartinAndrew Massena

Duane MeansThu-Huong Nguyen

Darragh O’KeeffeDouglas Parsley

Sara PeelLogan PorterSusan Reese

Eugene ReyesBrian RichterJason Rose

Richard SandersJames Schreiber

Heather SummerlinAshley Talley

Susan Westhouse

First quarter, 2008

Congratulations to our Recent Certificate Program in Geographic Information Science (CPGIS) GradsFor more information about the CPGIS program, Certificate Program in Geospatial Intelligence, or the Master of Geographic Information Science programs, please visit gis.e-education.psu.edu

Jonathan AltmanJoshua AmosScott AndersonEric BakerSamuel BarrickAmy BasnageTobi BaughWilliam BrownScott ByronCatherine CacciolaChristopher ClintonRoy CoxMark DanielJames EarwoodKirk FistickBonnie HendricksonBarbara HutchingsMeghan KiefferDaniel KowalskiEric LawlerJoann LawlerJonathan MadillMatthew MarinoTim MosbacherJon NielsenLoren PfauMario PorcelliMatthew ReedCharles RepathSoren RundquistNahum-Obed SanchezKelli SchonherLinda SchroettingerAlexander ShermanKent StantonSteven StorieErica ThoeleMatthew TremonteDaniel UhrhanKyle ValkenburgPablo VarelaJoseph WackleySamuel WallaceMarsil Zook

Second quarter, 2008

A model of the mixed-use residential and equestrian plan that is slated for development in Jasper County, GA.

Baby GiGi Greulich, born 3/4/08


Dean AndersonSpencer Aycock

Adam BaghettiJohn Balliette

Jared BeermanDominick Bellizzie

Jill BernhardAlicia Cyrus

Allison DeanJoshua DeWees

Kathleen DunsmoreDaniel Efroymson

Ann FlageCarolyn Ganner

David GaskeAlison GeeTim Gibbs

Tammy GilchristJo Hayes

David HeerschapStephen Hellen

Samantha HerreraThomas HeutteBrandi Howard

Cynthia HullChristopher Jaggie

Lindsay JalbertTamara KeefeMegan Kendle

Christopher LoweKari Marcell

Justin MartinAndrew Massena

Duane MeansThu-Huong Nguyen

Darragh O’KeeffeDouglas Parsley

Sara PeelLogan PorterSusan Reese

Eugene ReyesBrian RichterJason Rose

Richard SandersJames Schreiber

Heather SummerlinAshley Talley

Susan Westhouse

First quarter, 2008

Congratulations to our Recent Certificate Program in Geographic Information Science (CPGIS) GradsFor more information about the CPGIS program, Certificate Program in Geospatial Intelligence, or the Master of Geographic Information Science programs, please visit gis.e-education.psu.edu

Jonathan AltmanJoshua AmosScott AndersonEric BakerSamuel BarrickAmy BasnageTobi BaughWilliam BrownScott ByronCatherine CacciolaChristopher ClintonRoy CoxMark DanielJames EarwoodKirk FistickBonnie HendricksonBarbara HutchingsMeghan KiefferDaniel KowalskiEric LawlerJoann LawlerJonathan MadillMatthew MarinoTim MosbacherJon NielsenLoren PfauMario PorcelliMatthew ReedCharles RepathSoren RundquistNahum-Obed SanchezKelli SchonherLinda SchroettingerAlexander ShermanKent StantonSteven StorieErica ThoeleMatthew TremonteDaniel UhrhanKyle ValkenburgPablo VarelaJoseph WackleySamuel WallaceMarsil Zook

Second quarter, 2008

only three percent of the Cerrado is currently protected. The Nature Conservancy in Brazil is using GIS as a major tool in setting priorities and monitoring change. Brad has been involved in several projects there, including developing a GIS model for identifying areas for government protection, delineating a portfolio of critical ecosystems, and using satellite imagery to measure areas under pressure from cattle and soy farming. Brad has learned much about the obstacles and opportunities involved in international conservation that he never would have learned by working remotely. He hopes that his short time in Brazil will help to protect some of these areas in desperate need.

Pete Vaughn (B.A. 2000) joined his father, Glenn, in private practice in January 2008—forming The Vaughn Law Firm LLC—after serving more than three years as a prosecutor in the York County District Attorney’s Office.

Andrew Jones (B.A. 2002) is in Bolivia conducting research for his Ph.D. dissertation.

Adam Bender (B.S. 2004) continues to work as a zoning officer with Ludgate Engineering in Reading, Pennsylvania. He recently received the “Berks County

Master Planner” certification. The Center for Community Leadership of Berks County holds three courses (zoning administration, subdivision and land development review, and community planning) in cooperation with the Berks County Planning Commission, Berks County Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Municipal Planning Education Institute (PMPEI) for elected officials and appointed planning and zoning officials. Individuals completing all three courses (twenty-seven hours) receive their Master Planner Certification from the Center for Community Leadership and the Berks County Planning Commission. Eighty-six individuals from a variety of municipal and development backgrounds have now been certified since the program began in 2000. Also, Adam recently got engaged while on vacation in Ireland. He looks forward to continue his career, plan for the wedding, and build a new house!

Kristen Wilson (B.S. 2004) recently graduated from Clark University with a Masters in Community Development and Planning. Kristen was also promoted to senior planner at Beals and Thomas, Inc., where she has been

employed for four years.

Alice Yahner-Moose (B.A. 2004) is the proud mother of Sydney Ann Moose, born on January 30, 2008.

Dave Jansson (Ph.D. 2005) is in the second year of a two-year research project. He is studying migration from the Åland Islands—a self-governing, Swedish-speaking province of Finland—to Sweden and to the Finnish mainland. The project is supported by foundations in Sweden, Finland, and Åland. He is being hosted by the Department of Geography at Uppsala University. After the project is finished Dave is hoping to stay in Scandinavia.

Wanda Stanley (CPGIS 2005) obtained her professional GIS certification from the Geographic Information System Certification Institute (GISCI). GISCI is the only institute to recognize professionals in the GIS world. As such, Wanda is honored and proud of her accomplishment and encourages those who seek a career in GIS to pursue obtaining their own certification. She attributes her success to the education she attained at Penn State.

Allen Huber (B.S. 2007) works as a programmer for Iron Compass Map Company (http://www.ironcompassmap.com) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He works on On-Scene Xplorer (http://www.onscenexplorer.com/), their mapping and spatial data-intensive software package for emergency responders.

Nick Kraynok (B.S. 2008) works at KLST-TV in San Angelo, Texas where he is temporarily doing the weather for the 5, 6 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts until the chief returns. When he returns, Nick will do the weekend weather and reporting three days a week.

SEND US YOUR NEWS

Don’t wait for an email. Send your news to [email protected]. Don’t forget to send images (high-resolu-tion, 300 dpi preferred).

If the news does not make it into the next newsletter, look for it on the Department of Geogrphy Web site.

www.geog.psu.edu


Faculty Research Profile: Alexander Klippel

The Human Factors in GIScience Laboratory is directed by Dr. Alexander Klippel and is part of the Penn State’s

Geographic Visualization Science, Technology, and Applications (GeoVISTA) Center. The Human Factors Lab researches the interface between humans and computers, focusing upon visual displays of spatiotemporal information such as maps and visualizations of multivariate data. Current research goals include: improving the accuracy and efficiency of wayfinding, developing and improving location based services (LBS), understanding how a sense of place is created via map-like representations, understanding and analyzing dynamic spatial phenomena, visualizing multivariate spatial data, and visual analytics. The Human Factors Lab personnel and associated Penn State faculty from other departments are currently leading a diverse array of research projects oriented toward the aforementioned goals.

Dr. Klippel is the organizer of a workshop at the Spatial Cognition 2008 Conference in Freiburg, Germany addressing ‘You-Are-Here Maps’ and how they create a sense of place. With the omnipresence of location based services (e.g., mobile navigation devices), our dependence on these gadgets has increased. Because of this, we are not generating survey knowledge necessary for full awareness of our geographic surroundings and instead relying upon location based services to guide us step-by-step through the environment. The impeding nature of such spatial information provision is a primary focus in current research and will be a central topic of the workshop. The workshop is also a springboard for fostering research in spatial cognition at Penn State as Professor Lynn Liben from the Department of Psychology has accepted the invitation to present the keynote.

Rui Li, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography, is leading behavioral experiments that bridge wayfinding and location based services. He will evaluate different map styles such as mobile and static maps, as well as topographic and schematic maps and how different styles influence wayfinding performance. A special focus is placed on representing landmarks in maps to increase wayfinding performance.

Dr. Klippel and Rui Li are teaming with Dr. Luke Zhang and his Ph.D. student Anna Wu from the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) to investigate the influence of map scale on wayfinding performance. Of particular interest is the identification of salient landmarks across multiple geographic scales. For example, how are the multiple scales provided by Google Maps™ or Google Earth™ cognitively integrated into a single, consistent mental image of our environments and how do we mentally record each scale-specific map or satellite image and the difference among them? This research group is seeking to provide answers to these questions by injecting insights from geography and giscience about the crucial aspect of scale into approaches in information technology.

The creation of a sense of place does not only take place outdoors, but also indoors. The Human Factors Lab is working with Penn State University Libraries to provide students with wayfinding assistance for locating books in the often-difficult-to-navigate Paterno and Pattee libraries. In this project, we are combining insights from our research on schematic map representations for wayfinding with a behavioral analysis of the problems in the two libraries. The goal is to advise a map-based information system that fosters wayfinding in the library.

Sen Xu, an incoming Ph.D. student to the Department of Geography, will be joining GeoVISTA’s Geographic Contextualization for Accounts of Movement (GeoCAM) project (http://www.geovista.psu.edu/GeoCAM/index.html) in the fall as a representative of the Human Factors Lab. The GeoCAM project is concerned with representing, extracting, mapping, and interpreting movement references from text. Such extraction provides a cognitive conceptualization of the concept of movement for the automated extraction of linguistically characterized movement patterns found on the web. Sen Xu will be specifically focusing on developing artificial intelligence approaches to linguistic movement analysis.

Finally, Dr. Klippel is teaming with other GeoVISTA researchers to improve approaches to visual analytics. Visual analytics has grown into

a central field of research driven by the need to analyze ever larger and more complex datasets. While literally thousands of different tools have been implemented in recent years that support analysts, the evaluation of these tools from the perspective of cognitive adequacy (i.e., are these tools both usable—drawing from research on human-

computer interaction— and useful—supporting the requisite reasoning and sensemaking processes) has not kept pace with the developments. The Human Factors Lab is making a contribution to increase our knowledge on how to design visual interfaces for the analysis of geographic data. Experiments have been completed in collaboration with GeoVISTA Research Associate Dr. Frank Hardisty on the use of star plots for visualizing

large, multivariate datasets, specifically analyzing the effect of variable assignment to different rays in the star plot on analysts’ interpretation of both the star plot and the variable.

In close, the Human Factors Lab is addressing a variety of research questions important to the interface between humans and computers embedded in a geographic context.

More information can be found through Dr. Klippel’s Web site: http://www.personal.psu.edu/auk23.

Assistant Professor Dr. Alexander Klippel researches spatial cognition, geographic event conceptualization, wayfinding, location based services, multimodal communication, and conceptual modeling. Along with a team of colleagues from the Department of Geography and Information Sciences and Technology, Dr. Klippel is developing the Human Factors in GIScience Laboratory.

From left: Ph.D. student Anna Wu and Dr. Luke Zhang of the College of Information Sciences and Technology join Department of Geography Assistant Professor Dr. Alexander Klippel and graduate student Rui Li in the Human Factors in GIScience Lab

A star plot map; screenshot from Dr. Hardisty’s GeoViz tool.

By Dr. Alexander Klippel

Over the years, the people of West Philadelphia helped us identify three concepts that they care about the most: health, dignity, and community. So instead of asking why so-called poverty households do not make more income, “Rethinking Urban Poverty: The Philadelphia Field Project” asks direct questions about quality of life—why do poor households have prob-lems with health, nutrition, housing, transport, etc.? What does it take to live in a healthy body? What does it take to live, to love, and to die with dignity? What does it take to live in a supportive community? With the help of our community partners we discovered that there is no large single economic condition called poverty which can be corrected through pov-erty policy. Since 1998, in collaboration with our community partners, Penn State students have implemented a series of academic and practical projects related to topics such as community credit cooperatives, urban gardening and nutrition, access to public transport, building safe streets, youth esteem and consumption, youth sex education, and internet market-ing of inner city artifacts. In each case the student was challenged to find agency within his or her academic major at a scale which was correlated to the non-sovereign power they possess in the world. Through the project, our students undertake research activities to improve health though diet, nutrition, exercise, urban gardens, community supported agriculture, and education for preventive health care, targeting specific challenges such as Type II diabetes, atherosclerosis, and hypertension. These collaborations foster dignity indirectly by empowering community members to address the material challenges they face in health, nutrition, housing, safe streets, etc. Once the understanding of poverty is transformed in this manner, the link between the University and the community becomes obvious. The university is one of the most important institutions in the world, for it


Professor Yapa Wins Award, Serves as Commencement Speaker Dr. Yapa received the Northeast Region McGrath/Kellogg Community Engagement Award for his work on poverty in Philadelphia and his for course “Rethinking Urban Poverty: The Philadelphia Field Project.” As one of five regional winners, Dr. Yapa will advance to the national competition

and will compete for the McGrath/Kellogg Community Engagement Award, to be held in October. Dr. Yapa will represent northeastern universities and Penn State at the national competition.

The course “Rethinking Urban Poverty: The Philadelphia Field Project” began in 1998 as a service-learning project offered by Penn State, and has been implemented each subsequent year in a neighborhood of West Philadelphia. This initiative gave new meaning to the concept of partnership because the people in West Philadelphia help Dr. Yapa to rethink urban poverty in totally different ways.

Dr. Yapa was also featured as the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ commencement speaker, held on May 16, 2008 at Eisenhower Auditorium on the University Park campus. Below is an excerpt from his speech, as it relates to “The Philadelphia Field Project.” For Dr. Yapa’s entire address, please visit http://www.geog.psu.edu/ yapa_commencement.html

Alumnus Set to Return from Iraq

Lieutenant Commander Robert Kraft (B.S. 1989) of the U.S. Navy has spent the past ten months in Bagh-

dad, Iraq with the Multi-National Corps-Iraq staff in the Civil-Military Operations section. After five months of training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Robert traveled to Iraq to work as a civil affairs planner, reconciliation officer, and effects assessments analyst.

Civil-Military Operations generally refers to the mili-tary interaction with the civil environment. Unlike many conflicts, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM requires a tremendous level of interaction with all aspects of the civil environment. In Iraq, under the lead of the State Department, the focus is building civil capacity as it re-lates to economic development, governance, rule of law and reconstruction.

Robert’s job was on a higher echelon staff who is in charge of the approximately 150,000 coalition military personnel. The plans and initiatives they developed are executed by maneuver elements and Civil Affairs teams. He attended meetings, briefings and planning sessions looking at the operational level of war. He was given guidance from General Petraeus’ staff, broadly deter-mined the direction of civil-military operations for sub-ordinate combat units. He learned a lot and leveraged much of his geography education and naval experience in his time in Iraq. He states that it was wonderful to have a hand in the recon-struction and development of the Iraqi civil society. He was also able to meet with some high-level Iraqi officials

and attend a few unique events. However, as a geographer, Rob-ert states that it was very disappointing in that he was stuck in an office and not afforded many opportunities to see much of Iraq, meet their people, or enjoy their food.

Robert is anxious to get back home to his family in Alexandria, Virgin-ia. And rightfully so. The week he received his orders for this assign-ment was the same week he and his wife found out she was expecting. While on other side of the world, Robert experienced the birth of his son, Henry. Robert states that his wife, Brenda, has graciously cared for the family while he has been on assignment.

Where in the world indeed. LCDR Rob-ert Kraft proudly displays the winter/spring 2008 Department of Geography newsletter while on tour in Iraq.

alone has the capacity to challenge our imagination; it alone has the vast reserves of skills, competencies, and personnel; and it alone through its colleges, departments, and institutes has a unique organizational struc-ture to deploy non-sovereign power to make the world better. There is a very interesting one-to-one mapping between the disciplinary structure of the University and various aspects of our society. I have never in my life felt more hopeful about the power I possess as a teacher to harness the limitless non-sovereign power that is resident in the University, in our student body, and in our faculty.

It is often important to evaluate who you are. In this case, who we are. Here is the rundown on the Penn State Department of Geography:

Department of Geography MissionThe mission is to inspire the highest levels of geographic teach-ing, learning, and mentoring while engaging in the scholarly pursuit of geographic knowledge, and to apply this knowledge toward understanding the ever-changing interplay of human so-cieties and physical environments.

We focus on understanding changing human societies and physi-cal environments and their interactions on Earth as:

subjects of inquiry in the natural, social, information sciences, and humanities;

sources of concern that will drive the discipline of geography to new levels of understanding and better methods of prediction;

a way of appreciating the interdependency of people and environments;

a motivation for fostering efficient and ethical use of resources;

a means to critically examine values and principles for organizing human activities based on social equality, economic equity, and respect for cultural diversity; and

sources of wonder, curiosity, and inspiration.

Who is a typical geography student?Students are often interested in relationships among people, places, and environments; look at the big picture and make con-

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nections across widely ranging ideas; are technology-savvy; are problem solvers; enjoy the outdoors, like to travel, and interact with others.

Where do geographers work? Recently, geographers have gone on to work at MapQuest.com, National Geographic Society, National Park Service, U.S. Cen-sus Bureau, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Dew-berry (among other organizations) holding positions such as en-vironmental consultant, geospatial analyst, photogrammetrist, urban/regional planner, and watershed manager.

Enrollment:Undergraduate: 160Graduate: 75M.GIS: 106

Degrees Granted:Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Master of Science (M.S.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Certificate in Geo-graphic Information Systems (CPGIS), Certificate in Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), Master of Geographic Information Systems (MGIS)

Research Foci:Physical Geography, Human Geography, Nature/Society, GIScience

Professors (faculty in tenure lines):Karl Zimmerer, Head of Department and Professor Human-Environment Interactions; Political Ecology; Agrobiodiversity, Food Security/Vulnerability, and Climate Change; Environmental Conservation, Development, and Globalization; New Models and Historical Ideas of Landscape Processes

Brent Yarnal, Associate Head and Professor Climatic Varia-tion and Change; Physical, Human and Policy Dimensions of Global Environmental Change

Cindy Brewer, Professor Cartographic Communication and Visualization, Map Design, Color Theory, Census and Epidemio-logical Mapping, Multi-Scale Mapping

Robert B. Brooks, Professor Ecology and Management of Wetlands, Restoration Ecology, Habitat Modeling

Andrew Carleton, Professor Climatology, Satellite Remote Sensing, Climatic Impacts of Jet Contrails

Robert Crane, Professor Remote Sensing, Climatology, Polar Studies

Lorraine Dowler, Professor Gender, Cultural Geography, Qualitative Methods, Nationalism, Hate Crime

Roger Downs, Professor Behavioral Geography, Environmen-tal Cognition, Geography Education

William Easterling, Professor and Dean of EMS Human Di-mensions of Global Environmental Change

Rodney Erickson, Professor and Executive Vice President and Provost of Penn State Human Dimensions of Global En-vironmental Change

Penn State > College of Earth and Mineral Sciences > Department of Geography

Who We Are

Vegetation Dynamics LabAlexa Dugan (B.S. 2008) and Professor and Director of the Vegetation Dynamics Lab Dr. Alan Taylor examine a tree ring in the Department of Geography’s Vegetation Dynamics Lab. Each year, several undergraduates accompany Dr. Taylor and graduate students to the western United States where they spend weeks in the field gathering tree rings and core samples. Upon returning to campus in the fall, they analyze their data and resurrect historical fire landscapes.


Photo Credit: Penn State Department of University Publications

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9:00 openingJeremy Cohen & Adam Rome

climate scienceElizabeth Crisfield, Lee Kump,& Robert Crane

climate impactsBrent Yarnal, Petra Tschakert,& Denice Wardrop

Water: past & presentA documentary by the children of the Himalayas

IPCC panelWilliam Easterling, Klaus Keller,& Anne Thompson

global solutionsFan Zhang, James McCarthy,& Nancy Tuana

local solutionsAndy Lau & Dorothy Blair

9:45

9:35

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2:15

2:30

3:45

4:00

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pennstatefocusthenation.org

co-sponsors:Rock Ethics Institute;

College of Earth & MineralSciences; Penn State Institutes of

Energy & the Environment; UPAC; WPSU;Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy;

Sustainability Coalition; UnderDoGs; Eco Action; Engineers for a Sustainable World; Dept. of Geography

Dorothy Blair, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Science, Technology, and Society: Sustainable food choices.Jeremy Cohen, Professor of Media Studies, Associate Vice President, Senior Associate Dean for Undergradu-ate Education, and founder of the Penn State Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy: Civic engagement.Robert Crane: Professor of Geography, Director of AESEDA: Multi-scale climate modeling.Elizabeth Crisfield: Presenter in Al Gore's The Climate Project: Climate change fundamentals.William Easterling, Professor of Geography, Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Coordinat-ing Lead Author of IPCC AR4 WGII (Chapter 5): Climatechange impacts on agriculture.

Klaus Keller, Assistant Professor of Geosciences, Contributing Author of IPCC AR4 WGII (Chapter 19):Abrupt climate change and climate-economy modelling.Lee Kump, Professor of Geosiences: Climate change in Earth history.Andy Lau, Associate Professor of Engineering: Sustainable design.James McCarthy, Associate Professor of Geogra-phy: Political ecology and environmental governance.Adam Rome, Associate Professor of History:History of environmental movements.Anne Thompson, Professor of Meteorology, Contributing Author of IPCC AR1 WGI: Atmospheric chemistry and global change.

Petra Tschakert, Assistant Professor of Geogra-phy: Rural livelihoods and sustainability.Nancy Tuana, Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Rock Ethics Institute: Ethical dimensions of climate change. Denice Wardrop, Associate Director of Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center: Ecosystem fitness.Brent Yarnal, Professor of Geography, Director of CIRA: Natural hazards and vulnerability assessment.Fan Zhang, Assistant Professor of Energy Policy and Economics: Market-based climate policy.Water: past & present, produced by The Moun-tain Project: Chris Hoadley, Sameer Honwad, and Ken Tamminga.

Speakers and topics

Focus the Nation: Faculty and Students Initiate Climate Change Teach-InLast fall, graduate student Seth Baum caught wind of the grassroots climate change teach-in, Focus the Nation—an event scheduled for January 31, 2008, at over 1,900 locations across the country. Fortunately for Seth, at Penn State he has access to world-class faculty, especially in the Department of Geography, who offer much breadth of knowledge in the field of climate change. Planning kicked into high gear as January neared, ensuring the speak-ers—meteorologists, ecologists, geogra-phers, philosophers, historians, geoscien-tists, nutritionists, and engineers—were cohesively scheduled into the day’s event.

Geography faculty Brent Yarnal, Petra Tschakert, Denice Wardrop, William East-erling, James McCarthy and graduate stu-dent Elizabeth Crisfield served as panelists

during the day. Other panelists joined the geographers on stage to discuss climate sci-ence, global solutions, and local solutions. William Easterling, along with Klaus Keller and Anne Thompson were featured as part of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) segment.

Throughout the day, an estimated 750 peo-ple—students, faculty, staff, and commu-nity members—attended the event in the Hetzel Union Building. A dozen students from State College High School also partic-ipated in a lunchtime discussion with Brent Yarnal, Jodi Vender, and several geography undergraduates.

The entire event can be viewed on http://pennstatefocusthenation.com.

The poster for the 2008 Penn State Focus the Nation event, designed by geography graduate student Peter Howe.

VEGETATIONDynamics

COOPERATIVE WETLANDS CENTERPENN STATE

GeoVISTACenter

Amy Glasmeier, Professor Economic Geography, Regional and Development Economics, Public Policy and Urban Planning

Deryck Holdsworth, Professor Historical Geography of North America, Urban and Historical Geography, Cultural Geography

Alex Klippel, Assistant Professor Spatial Cognition, Geo-graphic Event Conceptualization, Wayfinding, Location Based Services, Multimodal Communication, Conceptual Modeling

C. Gregory Knight, Professor Resource Management, Water Resources, Global Change, Africa, Bulgaria

Derrick Lampkin, Assistant Professor Cryosphere Processes, Remote Sensing, Snow Hydrology

B. Ikubolajeh Logan, Professor African and Third World de-velopment, Human Dimensions of Environmental and Resource Analyses, Globalization

Alan MacEachren, Professor GIScience: Geovisualization, Geocollaboration, Cartography

James McCarthy, Associate Professor Political Ecology, En-vironmental History, Political Economy, U.S./American West

Donna Peuquet, Professor Geographic Information Systems, Spatio-temporal Data Models, Environmental Cognition

Erica Smithwick, Assistant Professor Landscape and Ecosys-tem Ecology, Disturbance Ecology and Disturbance Synergies, Ecosystem Simulation Models, Climate Change and Ecosystem Carbon Storage, Fire and Soil Nitrogen, Microbial Community Composition and Function, Spatial Statistics

Alan Taylor, Professor Vegetation Dynamics, Biogeography, Environmental Management, Landscape Change

Petra Tschakert, Assistant Professor Rural Livelihoods, Po-litical Ecology, Resilience, Sustainability, Development, Partici-patory Research and Methods, West Africa

Melissa Wright, Associate Professor Political Economy, Gen-der, Urban and Economic Geography, Mexico, The Mexico-U.S. Borderlands

Lakshman Yapa, Professor Third World Development, Dis-course Theory, GIS and Social Theory

Research Centers/Labs

Research conducted by the Penn State Cooperative Wet-lands Center (CWC) is directed at understanding how wetlands function and how they are perturbed by human activities. The CWC is a leading proponent of integrating waters rather than treating streams, wetlands and lakes as separate entities. The CWC produces and distributes objective and technically rigor-ous information about wetlands and related ecosystems and the issues surrounding their regulation and management to institu-tions, agencies, industries, and citizens. >Director: Dr. Robert Brooks >http://www.wetlands.psu.edu

The Geographic Visualization Sci-ence, Technology, and Applications

Center conducts and coordinates integrated and innovative re-search in GIScience, with strong emphasis on geovisualization. Their goal is to develop powerful human-centered methods and technologies that make it possible for scientists and decision makers to solve scientific, social, and environmental problems through computer-supported, visually-enabled analysis of the growing wealth of geospatial data. >Director: Dr. Alan MacEachren >http://www.geovista.psu.edu

Researchers in the Vegetation Dynamics Lab have shown that episodic fire was a prevalent and dynamic ecological process in northern and east-central California before fire was excluded beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. It is known that fire worked in concert with the regional climate and topography to influence both vertical and horizontal forest

structure and that fire frequency and intensity modified species composition as well. Research on dendroecology, dendroclima-tology, and dendroarchaeology helps fill the gaps in the data and helps to visualize and understand the forested landscape. >Director: Dr. Alan Taylor >http://www.geog.psu.edu/vegdyn/index.php

The Peter R. Gould Center for Geography Education and Outreach supports the University’s mission of instruction, re-search, and service by designing and producing custom maps and other information graphics for print media, including Penn State campus maps. >Director: Dr. Deryck Holdsworth > http://www.geog.psu.edu/gouldcenter/

Landscape Ecology at Penn State (LEAPS) is devoted to un-derstanding how spatial patterns of carbon storage and nitrogen availability—which can feedback to affect carbon storage—may change with disturbances and climate change. >Director: Dr. Erica Smithwick >http://www.geog.psu.edu/leaps

Organizations/ColloquiumGamma Theta Upsilon (GTU): Alpha Tau chapter of the inter-national honor society for geography.

Supporting Women in Geography (S.W.I.G.): S.W.I.G. pro-vides regular opportunities for women and supporters of women to come together for intellectual, professional, and personal sup-port, and to develop a network of information and resources.

Undergraduate Students in the Department of Geography (UnderDoGS): The UnderDoGS represent the commitment of the students in the Department of Geography to not only excel in their studies, but also to contribute to their fellow students and to society.

Coffee Hour: A weekly colloquium offering stimulating presen-tations from the field of geography and beyond.


Who We Are

Vegetation Dynamics LabAlexa Dugan (B.S. 2008) and Professor and Director of the Vegetation Dynamics Lab Dr. Alan Taylor examine a tree ring in the Department of Geography’s Vegetation Dynamics Lab. Each year, several undergraduates accompany Dr. Taylor and graduate students to the western United States where they spend weeks in the field gathering tree rings and core samples. Upon returning to campus in the fall, they analyze their data and resurrect historical fire landscapes.

Photo Credit: Penn State Department of University Publications

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 affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce. U. Ed. EMS 09-02

Photo Credit: Used under the guidelines of Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/opacity/280201167/sizes/l/ and the Penn State Department of Public Information

PERSONAL UPDATES / ADDRESS CHANGES?

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(Please note: to ensure that your information is up-to-date with the Penn State Alumni Association, please visit http://www.alumni.psu.edu/faq/address.htm)

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