From the Department HeadWelcome to our 2008 K-State Geography Alumni Newsletter, an opportunity for us toshare with you…our alumni and friends…the news of the past year. We interact withthe alumni in several ways besides this newsletter. We are building a GeographyAlumni listserv to better notify you (if you care to provide us with your email address)about events on campus and the achievements of Geography faculty and students. Wemaintain a website where our weekly newsletter, The Seaton Globe, is published.Please take a look at the department’s web site (www.ksu.edu/geography) and click on“K-State Geography in the News” for links to multiple news releases. In recent years,we have hosted a reception for K-State Geography alumni, students and faculty at the

AAG Annual Meeting. Starting in 2006, we have been presenting a Distinguished KSU Geography AlumniAward (to Patricia Solis is 2006 and Milton Rafferty in 2007). We have now formed a KSU GeographyAlumni Board to meet with us and provide support for department initiatives. Finally, I am pleased toannounce that a wonderful updated history of Geography at Kansas State University has been printed. Threeof our emeritus faculty co-authored the volume: Drs. Chuck Bussing, David Kromm, and Steve Stover. Acopy will be sent to all KSU Geography alumni on our mailing list. I think you will enjoy the written history,the historical photos, and tables of data listing student accomplishments.

In Fall 2007 we welcomed Dr. Kendra McLauchlan to the faculty. Kendra completed her Ph.D. at theUniversity of Minnesota, then worked as a post-doc at Dartmouth College where she was part of a teamexamining the sustainability of New England landscapes. She will teach courses in environmental geography,biogeography, and soils. We are converting department storage space into a lab where Kendra will be able tostudy environmental change as recorded in soils, sediments, and wood. In January 2008, Marcellus Caldas isjoining the department, fresh from doctoral studies at Michigan State University. A native of Brazil, withextensive research experience in Amazonia, Marcellus’ teaching and research interest’s center on land coverchange using GIS, remote sensing, and field surveys. In Fall 2008, we will be joined by Dr. Melinda Daniels(currently at the Univ. of Connecticut) and by Dr. Kevin Price (currently at the Univ. of Kansas), the latter ofwhom will be employed 20% in Geography and 80% in Agronomy. These new teaching-research scholars willallow us to better serve our undergraduate and graduate student programsand bring the size of our faculty in-line with what is considered nationallycompetitive for a doctoral program in Geography.

Aside from teaching, advising, and mentoring, we support our students infinancial ways through teaching assistantships, research assistantships,department and college awards, and travel to professional meetings. One ofour biggest needs remains to attract funds (largely through donations) tosupport our student travel, student awards, and student development. LastApril in San Francisco, a student whom I supervised 25 years ago (atanother university) came to see my AAG Past Presidential Address. Aftermeeting some of our K-State Geography students, he surprised me bymaking one of largest donations that our department has ever received,stating his wish for it to be used wherever most needed. The donor wishesto remain anonymous, but I think it is noteworthy that someone with nodirect ties to KSU was impressed enough with our Geography students to

Inside this Issue PagesFaculty News 2-11From the Dean 12From the Provost 12Emeritus News 13-14Geography on the Web 15Student Activities Report 15-16Geographic Info. System 17Graduate Student Profiles 18-23Scholarships and Awards 23Sy Seyler Scholarship 24Lecture Series & Brown Bags 25-27List of Contributors 27Alumni News 28-29In the News 30-33Faculty & Staff 34

KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY January 2008

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make a donation that will fund more of our students to attend the 2008 AAG meeting.

We are continually trying to upgrade our teaching and research labs, as well as our hallway displays. In exitsurveys of alumni who have graduated five years ago give consistently high marks to their experience in K-State Geography. Our graduating students have been successful gaining employment or continuing foradvanced studies.

Our faculty and students are addressing major challenges in rural landscapes and sustainability. Geographyfaculty continue to be very successful in research…obtaining funding support, employing students in researchprojects, presenting papers and posters at national and regional meetings, and publishing in high-qualityforums. You will read about some of the highlights in the pages that follow.

We continue to enjoy an excellent reputation on and off campus for our teaching and research productivity,service on campus and to the profession, and the number and quality of students. Our program is evaluated inmany ways: Student Learning Outcomes Assessment, M.A. and Ph.D. Program Reviews, Exit Interviews andstudents who graduated 5 years ago, Assessment of First-Year Instructors, Assessment of University GeneralEducation Courses, Teaching Evaluations for faculty and graduate students, annual faculty evaluations,annual reappointments of untenured faculty, mid-tenure reviews, and of course tenure and promotion. Interms of productivity per faculty member, KSU Geography ranks high among the Ph.D. programs inGeography at land grant universities without medical schools…our comparator institutions. Moreinternational GTU Graduate Student scholarships have been awarded to KSU students than at any othergeography program in the country. Our faculty are editing highly visible geography journals and receivingnational recognition for their scholarship.

We continue to attract and retain talented and motivated students from around the country and beyond ournation’s borders. Geography is currently the academic home for 39 graduate students, 20 of whom arepursuing the Ph.D. degree. Nine of our 20 doctoral students have advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D., whichmeans they have finished coursework and passed their comprehensive exams. We have 75 undergraduatestudents majoring in Geography plus 22 students pursuing the minor. Over 4,100 KSU students enrolled inGeography courses in 2007. In 2007, 29 geography majors graduated with a B.A. or B.S. degree (up from 18in 2006), 5 graduate students earned the M.A. degree, and John Harty earned the 14th Ph.D. degree from ourdepartment. In Fall 2007, six students were enrolled in the Undergraduate GIS Certificate program (13 havecompleted it), and 14 are enrolled in the Graduate GIScience Certificate Program (19 have completed it).

Based on the news from our alumni, we are confident that your K-State experience has placed you in aposition to succeed. Our graduates are gainfully employed in business, industry, government, and academia.Please continue to send us reports of your achievements; we are proud of our alumni! Take satisfaction inwhat you and your fellow alumni have accomplished. Our biggest asset is our shared passion for geography.

Thanks for all you do for K-State Geography!

Faculty News

Kevin Blake: Greetings to all WildcatGeographers! During this past calendar year I taughtWorld Regional Geography (GEOG 100) in thespring and fall, Geography of the American West(GEOG 510) in the spring, and Western Landscapes(GEOG 870) in the fall. I appreciate the assistance

of Patrick Abbott and James Barker as GTAs forGEOG 100. I look forward to offering MountainGeography (GEOG 600) in spring 2008, along withGEOG 100. I’ve advised five graduate studentsduring the past year as they work toward completingtheir degrees: Scott Deaner, Jacob Sowers, and Jim

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Wells (doctoral); and Patrick Abbott and TravisSmith (masters). I also have served on thegeography committees of Matt Gerike and JeremyAber in the past year. Professional meetings led meto visit San Francisco, Payson (Arizona), andDenver in 2007. I completed research fieldwork onmountain geography in Colorado, Arkansas, andGeorgia; fieldwork on literary geography in NewMexico; and fieldwork on lighthouse symbolism inFlorida. Published “Lighthouse Symbolism in theAmerican Landscape,” FOCUS on Geography,50(1). Published essays on “Superman and HisKansas Roots” and “Jayhawk” in The AmericanMidwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, IndianaUniversity Press. “Zane Grey and Images of theAmerican West” (published in 1995) was named asone of the 76 “most significant” articles in thehistory of the Geographical Review (over 3,100articles from 1916-2006). In the department Icontinue to serve as graduate program director.

Deborah Che: 2007 has brought multipleadventures on the prairies. I have been involved inresearch projects with PI Bimal Paul and withgraduate and undergraduate students that have beenfunded by the Natural Hazards Center. The firstproject examined the emergency response to theblizzards and impact on cattle that struck the HighPlains at the end of 2006. We traveled to westernKansas (Colby, Oakley, Goodland, Syracuse, andTribune) and to eastern Colorado (Burlington, Eads,and Lamar) to speak with emergency responsemanagers, extension officers, and ranchers. InFebruary, when snow was still on the ground, Iattended a livestock sale in Oakley with graduateand undergraduate students Vicki and Julie Tinnon,from which we went out to isolated feedlots andcow-calf operations and saw the damp, cold, andmuddy conditions leading to problems getting feedto the animals. Our second Natural Hazards projectinvolved the emergency response to the devastatingtornado that destroyed Greensburg, Kansas. Thelatter report, which incorporated data collected onfield visits in May, July and October 2007, wasrecently completed.

As I believe strongly that getting out into the field isa core part of geography, I incorporated studentfield and service learning experiences closer toManhattan, Kansas into an agritourism seminarclass I taught this spring. The field trips were linked

to readings and discussions on local/regional foods,tourism alliances, and wine tourism and routedevelopment. One involved visits to businesses inLawrence, Kansas that emphasized local foodproduction and consumption (i.e., the CommunityMercantile, Free State Brewery, Central Soyfoods,Local Burger). The photo shows our class at Local

Burger with owner/chefHilary Brown after weenjoyed burgers madefrom locally-producedlamb, beef, and elk.The second field tripfocused on wine andgrape production, in

which we visited the Wyldewood Cellars tastingroom in Paxico and Vinyard de la Cairns outsideTopeka that produces fruit for Kansas wines. Wealso visited tourism-oriented businesses in Paxico(antique stores) and Maple Hill (lodge/retreat)which work closely with the local agritourismoperations so as to create a destination that visitorsspend more time and money in. The final exam forthis course involved applying lessons from theliterature, discussions, and field trips in coming upwith adaptive reuse (for tourism) of a shutteredschool building in Dover, Kansas which was locatednear some of the vineyards and antique stores. Thisservice learning exercise, in which studentscontributed their ideas for the building, providedfresh ideas that will assist its owner in decidingwhat to do next.

In addition to traveling in Kansas, I went to theAssociation of American Geographers’ National andRegional Meetings in San Francisco and Denver. Iwas also able to combine going to a number ofconferences with seeing places I haven’t been to inthe U.S. Over the summer, I presented at the SixthQuadrennial Conference of British, Canadian, andAmerican Rural Geographers in Spokane,Washington, which combined academic paperpresentations and field trips in eastern Washingtonand the Idaho Panhandle. We visited current miningoperations, mining towns reinvented for residentialand recreational uses, wineries, and NativeAmerican sacred sites and current casinodevelopments. I was able to spend time in Spokane,which has grand buildings dating back to themining wealth that flowed there. It is a wonderful

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and walkable city, with a lively arts scene. Perhaps itis somewhat overlooked due to the prominence ofSeattle within the state. This fall, I attended andpresented at the National Council for GeographicEducation Meeting in Oklahoma City. I visited thesite of the memorial on the site of the bombing ofthe federal building there. It was very powerful andmoving, particularly at night when the chairsrepresenting the victims, the gates with the timesright before and after the bombing, and thereflecting pool in between were illuminated. Thememorial also highlighted art by children aroundthe world for the children of Oklahoma City and amajestic tree nearby that withstood the bombing - atestament to survival.

Karen De Bres:Hello to everyone from Karen! 2007 was a very

eventful year for thedepartment, with theaddition of two morewomen on the faculty(Deb and Kendra). Forme, it was a year to getmyself "back on track"since I had medicaltreatments during most

of 2006. As you may remember, I spent Fall 2005on a Semester Abroad program in London. Takingthe best from that experience, I organized a twoweek program for May, 2007. With a colleague fromthe English department, we ran a dozen KansasState students almost into the ground-----five plays,four field trips, etc, etc. This year I am hoping torun a similar program, but for three weeks this time!At the beginning of the Fall, 2007 term I organizedour first alumni weekend, which is now in the handsof the alumni board and promises to be very activein the future. Patty Drews, an old friend and a newboard member, stayed with me and managed to putup with my curious cats. Later in the year I hostedanother chili cookoff for the geography students. Interms of research, I published another paper on thesubject of Great Plains immigration, and received agrant to work on a historical geography of Plainsland grant colleges.

Doug Goodin: As usual, I found it hard to believethat another year has gone by. 2007 stands out as ayear of transition and change for me, but also as thebeginning of what I believe will be an exciting time

in Geography at KSU. As usual, research has keptme quite busy over the past year. Most of my efforthas been focused on the on-going project to studyhantavirus in Paraguay. This project is now in itsfinal year, and most of my current effort is aimed attrying to evaluate what we’ve learned and determinehow to take the next steps. Working in Paraguay hasbeen challenging and fun, but also difficult. I’vemade so many trips to South America that the flightattendants actually recognize me now, which is a bitof a dubious distinction! Along with my colleagues,I am exploring sources of new funding to continuethis line of research. However, with the currentscience funding climate following a “temperaturetrend” in opposition to that of the real climate, thisis becoming continually more difficult. I hope thatby next year at this time, I’ll have good news toreport.

Among the events of 2007, two emerge asespecially exciting for me. The first of these is theaddition of new members of our department. Overthe past year, we hired three new faculty members,all of whom will provide new areas of strength andexpertise to our department. It is gratifying to bepart of a department that continues to move forward,and I am eager to interact with new colleagues. Thesecond noteworthy event for me was the funding ofa new project to study the effects of rangelandburning in the Flint Hills on air quality in theKansas City, Omaha, and Tulsa, metropolitan areas.This project, a collaboration with the KSU KCARECenter and Department of Agronomy, along withscientists from the Southern High ResolutionModeling Center in Athens, Georgia, is funded bythe US Department of Agriculture.

John Harrington: Highlights for the past yearinclude: the multiple times I’ve been able to give

professional presentations on thetopic of rapid global change, a weekin the remote northwest corner ofGlacier National Park, Lisa and Icelebrating our 20th weddinganniversary, hosting the visit of RuthDeFries to K-State, a chance to see

the Blue Man Group in Chicago, the visit by ESRI’sJack Dangermond to K-State, a couple of studentswrapping up their MA degrees, and the addition of anumber of new faculty colleagues in the areas ofhuman dimensions of global change and GIScience.

The Reichstag, BerlinParliment Building

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As each year passes, I grow more concerned aboutthe lack of a global commitment to make the neededchanges to our human relationship with the planet.J.R. McNeill’s ‘Something New Under the Sun’provides a very good environmental history for the20th Century. Bill McKibben’s ‘Deep Economy’makes some excellent suggestions regarding waysthat local communities can move forward in aresponsible manner. I am always looking for goodbooks that provide new insights regarding globalchange.

In 1966, the Harringtonfamily took a trip acrossthe northern part of theU.S. I was 16 at the time ofmy first visit to Glacier NP.Since I wanted to take mysons [Ian is 16 and Colin is14] to Glacier before the

ice was all gone,arrangements were madeto spend a week in a solarpower ‘cabin’ near thePolebridge entrance to thepark. My sister and herhusband joined us. It was atremendous experience ofhiking, sightseeing, good food, and good company.

Unfortunately,the NPS seemsto be missing ateachablemomentregardingclimate change.

The good work on glacier loss in the park is beingdone by USGS scientists and the NPScommunicates other themes, like bears and forestfires, in their visitor centers.

What a great experience it was to help host twooutstanding individuals during their visits toManhattan and K-State. The Provost and theGIScience Steering Committee hosted ESRIPresident, Jack Dangermond, in March and it waswonderful have a chance to speak individually withhim. Lisa and I hosted an evening reception for Jackthat was well attended. Jack left town after a good,but long day with a much better appreciation of allthe good things that are happening in GIScience at

KSU. In September, Dr. Ruth DeFries [University ofMaryland] came as a speaker in the Provost’sExcellence in Scholarship series. Ruth got a nicetour of the Konza and gave an excellent talk on landchange science issues in the tropics. The Mondayfollowing her departure, we learned that she was aMacArthur Award winner. A number of uscommented about how good it felt to be so close togenius.

I continue to have some success in obtainingextramural funding. It feels really good to be able toprovide support for and work with quality studentsat both the undergrad and grad levels. And extrabonus is working with them to obtain success in theresearch tasks. Topics that students worked on thispast year include: ecosystem services for the FlintHills, watershed modeling scenarios for differingfutures, development of a GIS database for theAntilles, and surveys of stakeholders regardingpossible land use change across northern Kansas.

My teaching this past year involved five geographyclasses: Climatology and Human Dimensions ofGlobal Change in the spring, a GlobalEnvironmental Change seminar in the summer, andHistory and Philosophy and a seminar on GreatPlains Climate Variability and Change in the fall. Ialso helped with the NRES Capstone class in thespring; the student teams that I supervised workedto characterize the ecological footprint for campusand for Manhattan. This past year, I also enjoyedworking with a number of students who earnedindependent study hours with me. As a life-longlearner who still has a lot to grasp, it is gratifying tosee the final result of good students workingindependently to accomplish a self-directed learningtask.

Lisa Harrington: The (for fun!) family tripsincluded the annual retreat to southwesternWashington and northwestern Oregon, a week inGlacier National Park (!) In an-off-the-grid (butvery comfortably solar electric and propane) cabinwith wonderful views, and a quick trip to Chicagoto spend Thanksgiving with family. The week in theGlacier environs included a whitewater raft trip (thehighlight for Ian and Colin), multiple hikes in thepark, and a trip across the border to Waterton LakesNational Park. The last morning in the cabin wewere renting, Colin spotted a moose coming

Jackson Glacier, GlacierNational Park

St. Mary’s Lake, GlacierNational Park

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through. My professionaltravels this year included theAAG meeting (SanFrancisco); the Quadrennialinternational ruralgeographers meeting (inSpokane and northernIdaho), and Denver, Indianapolis, and Champaign-Urbana (IL) for the GP/RM regional AAG meeting,the Applied Geography Conference, and the WestLakes and AAG Council meetings, respectively.

Ian is a junior in highschool now, withthoughts of going toKSU (maybe inengineering). Colin is afreshman in high school

(they ride the same bus, but Colin is at MHS EastCampus’). He’s considering architecture, but we allknow it’s early to really know what either of themwill settle on.

I occasionally (2-3 times / year) make it out tocompete in agility with the dogs, in AKC and NorthAmerican Dog Agility Council (NADAC) events.Seamus is now at AKC ‘excellent’ level; Wolf hasno titles yet, but has started to have qualifyingrounds and ribbons in NADAC. We normally go toevents in Lawrence, held in a horse barn on thefairgrounds–if Wolf weren’t so close to the groundand interested in the great ‘smells,’ it would beeasier to keep him on course. The big problem withSeamus is keeping him from going so fast that hetakes the wrong obstacle or becomes a dog in flighton obstacles other than jumps (or gives me a heartattack trying to keep up with him).

J.M. Shawn Hutchinson: After being back at K-State for seven years now, I’ve come to theconclusion that the pace at the university simplydoes not slow down! While I have improved mymulti-tasking skills, the GISSAL staff ensures thatwe make progress despite my managerialshortcomings. The department remains anintellectually challenging and fun place to workwith an excellent group of students and facultycolleagues. I’ve enjoyed getting to know our twonewest faculty members, Drs. Kendra McLauchlanand Marcellus Caldas, and hope they find their firstyears at KSU good ones. I also look forward to

working with yet another new faculty member, Dr.Melinda Daniels, when she arrives from theUniversity of Connecticut this fall.

With the addition of these new faculty members, wenow have the ability to re-shape the GISciencecurriculum within the department. Expect to hear

about exciting changesand additions in theupcoming months andyears as we continue toincrease undergraduateenrollments in thefields of GIS andcartography, while

expanding the number of graduate course offeringsin areas such as geocomputation and geographicvisualization.

I’m also pleased to report that GISSAL continues tothrive. We have already outgrown our renovatedspace in Seaton Hall with a full compliment ofstudents, university staff, and federal scientistsworking on a variety of important, unique, andinteresting geographic research projects withresearchers from across campus and the nation. TheGISSAL staff also organized their own specialposter section in the Map Gallery at the 2007 ESRIInternational User Conference in San Diego.

Children Mitch (6) andMarleigh (4) are as busy asever and fully occupy mytime after work and onweekends. Both seem tohave natural geographical

inclinations given theirinterest in maps andreading about othercountries. Mitch lovessports and excelled atbasketball camp andWildcat League soccer last

year and Marleigh isknown throughout theManhattan area as the“little girl who jumps offthe high dive” at CICOPool.

Last summer found the

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Hutchinson family in Yellowstone, for acombination vacation and meeting of the UniversityConsortium for Geographic Information Science,then on to Montana for a couple of weeks of restand relaxation. Mitch and Marleigh becameYellowstone Junior Rangers and I, as is usual, couldgenerally be found fly-fishing in one of the manyworld-famous trout streams found throughout thatregion. Our Montana cabin survived the largeSawmill Complex forest fire last fall, but theadjoining Welcome Creek Wilderness area sawextensive burns.

Max Lu: One new thing I would like to report isthat I have been involved in thedevelopment of an East AsianStudies program at K-State, with itscurrent focus on China and Japan.The raison d'être of the program isof course the increasingsignificance of East Asia,particularly China, in the world.

While faculty members in several departments havelong been doing research and teaching courses inEast Asian-related topics, an East Asian Studiesminor program was developed only very recentlywith the support of a Title VI grant ($250,000) fromthe U.S. Department of Education. I was invited in2003 to be an Assistant Director of the grantproject. In addition to establishing the EAS minor,we also hired a new Chinese language instructorand developed a number of new courses. Theenrollment in the Chinese language classes hasregistered an impressive growth, from a coupledozen students to over 80 people. It reflects thegrowing interest among K-State students in theancient, yet fast-changing country. Building on themomentum, a historian, a Chinese languageinstructor and I applied for and received a three-year (2007-2010) Targeted Excellence grant($210,000) this year. Not surprisingly in the nextthree years and possibly beyond, I will be workingwith the other project members to strengthen EastAsian Studies at K-State. I hope we will be doingour part to prepare K-State students for the flatworld (no pun intended). A related note is that K-State has been developing collaborativerelationships with Chinese universities and makinga concerted effort to attract more Chinese students.In 2007, about 60 Chinese undergraduate studentsjoin K-State.

Kendra McLauchlan: Hello, I am the mostrecent faculty addition to K-State Geography. I washired with partial support froma multidisciplinary NSF grantinvolving faculty at K-Stateand KU with the goal offorecasting ecological change.

This is a great challenge for the 21st century and Iam excited to bring my skills and experiences totackle this issue. I am a physical geographer trainedin paleoecology, although I have chosen to work insystems with strong agricultural impacts, making itnecessary to link human activities with thebiological systems. My research interests revolvearound reconstructing past ecosystems, anywherefrom decades to millennia. When I am standing atKonza Prairie in the Flint Hills, I wonder: "What didthis place look like ten years ago? A hundred yearsago? A thousand years ago? And why?" I amworking on starting several projects and grants thatwill refine our ability to reconstruct grasslandecosystems, including the roles of grazing, fire, andclimate change, over the past few millennia. Then,with this new knowledge grounded in history, wecan begin to detect modern change and forecastfuture changes that are occurring.

I have finished teaching two courses at K-Stateduring the fall 2007 semester. Both were verychallenging and rewarding in different ways. Onewas a larger class (GEOG 221, Introduction toEnvironmental Geography I) and one was a smallerseminar (GEOG 760, Human Impact on theEnvironment). I enjoyed getting to know thestudents and found many of them bright andcapable. I developed and taught GEOG 221(Introduction to Environmental Geography I) andGEOG 760 (Human Impact on the Environment)fall semester 2007. I finished up publishing mypostdoctoral research on the land use history,vegetation, and nutrient cycling of New Englandforests, and wrote an article published in theProceedings of the National Academy of ScienceUSA in May 2007. I also wrote an article publishedin The Holocene in December 2007.

The KSU campus in the fall, with the limestonebuildings and deciduous trees, is gorgeous! Myhusband, Joe (a grassland ecologist) and our 2-yearold son Micah moved to Manhattan in August. We

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were previously in Hanover, New Hampshire atDartmouth College. Joe and I were both born andraised in the Midwest, however, and are glad to beback. We are getting used to the community and feelreassured when locals tell us that catastrophicweather events like the ice storm that knocked outpower at our house for 7 days at the end of thesemester are "not normal!" We look forward togetting to know more people at K-State, inManhattan, and in Kansas.

I've started to work with some talentedundergraduate Geography majors, including IrisWilson and Johanna Burniston. I find theminvaluable assistants, preparing wood and sedimentsamples, helping with field work, and just generallykeeping my research program afloat. I am so gladthat I could meet and recruit them so quickly uponmy arrival at K-State.

Richard Marston:2007 was aneventful year formy family and I,professionally andpersonally, to saythe least. Now inmy 28th year as aprofessor, I taught Fluvial Geomorphology andEnvironmental Geography, plus presented five guestlectures in other classes. My last PhD student frommy years at Oklahoma State University finished hisdegree in Geography. I am advising two MAstudents and one PhD student in our program. At theApril 2007 AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco,I presented the Past President’s Address on “Land,Life and Environmental Change in Mountains” andreceived the Distinguished Career Award from theAAG Mountain Geography Specialty Group. Alsoin April, the Department of Geosciences at OregonState University presented me with the 2007Distinguished Alumni Award. Awards areappreciated, but at this point in my career I gaineven more satisfaction from successfullynominating students and faculty colleagues forawards and other forms of recognition. I continue tocollaborate with faculty and students on a 3-yeargrant to identify sources of sediment from the largeBlack Vermillion Creek watershed that drains intoTuttle Creek Reservoir. Many streams have downcutso much that an extension ladder is needed to get to

the bottom of the channel in this watershed. Ifinished my eighth yearas Co-Editor-in-Chief ofthe Elsevier journal,Geomorphology; over300,000 full-text PDFsof articles weredownloaded worldwidefrom this journal in2007. Linda and I celebrated our 30th weddinganniversary in July 2007. Linda is battling cancer,receiving treatment here in Manhattan, even whilecontinuing to work in Hale Library. We are verygrateful for the genuine and warm support fromfaculty, students, staff and administrators at K-State.Linda and I look forward to May 2008 when ourson, Bryce, will graduate with a bachelor’s degreein Geography from the University of Wyoming, andour daughter, Brooke, will graduate from ManhattanHigh School. Brooke plans to pursue a collegeeducation in oboe performance. Thus, it would beaccurate to say we have four “seniors” in ourfamily! I take great delight in the accomplishmentsof the 40 former graduate students whom I haveadvised over the years plus other former studentswith whom I have worked on the Juneau Ice field, inthe Himalayas, and elsewhere on geographicresearch problems.

Chuck Martin: I write this while sitting at thedesk of my small office inGiessen, Germany, where I amspending the Fall 2007 semesterof my sabbatical year. It is cloudyand grey outside – typical lateautumn weather in centralGermany – and the days arerapidly getting shorter. It hasbeen great to be back in a city

that has become, for me and my family, almost asecond home. Colleagues in the GeographyDepartment at Justus Liebig-University have comeand gone over the years, but there are still severalmembers of the staff and a couple of facultymembers who were here during my first visit in1994. This research stay, funded by the Alexandervon Humboldt Foundation of Bonn, involvedreturning to field sites where I collected soil andsediment samples for the analysis of heavy metals in1994/1995. The goal is to document changes inmetal storage over the last 10+ years and record the

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location of sites using a GPS. In addition toproviding the opportunity to return to somewonderful field sites (there is something about acastle looming in the background that tells youyou’re not in Kansas anymore), the research hasforged new ties with the Institute for Soil Scienceand strengthened my ties with geography. It has alsomarked the first time I’ve ever conducted field workusing a bicycle! Thanks to an extensive and well-maintained network of bike paths, I have been ableto reach field sites within ca. 15 miles of Giessenfaster on my bicycle than in an automobile. Factorin the savings on gasoline, no cheap commodity inGermany, and my used 10-speed, purchased at alocal outdoor market in August, has been a realbargain!

The stay has also given our two children, Nicholasand Christine, the chance to attend German schools,as Nicholas did in 2000/2001. After four months inthe classroom, they both speak accent-free Germanand appear to be as comfortable here as they are inManhattan. They have renewed acquaintances withold friends and, of course, made some new ones.And they have become accustomed to doinghomework every afternoon for at least a couple ofhours!

A sabbatical means no teaching, but I was active inthe classroom during the spring and summersemesters in 2007. I offered EnvironmentalGeography 1, Geography of Kansas, andGeographic Research Methods in the spring, andthen taught (for the first time in a decade) a summersession of EG1. A small section of GEOG 221 wasgreat, but I’d forgotten how short the 4 weeksummer session is! The first months of 2007 werevery busy with interviews for three positions in thedepartment. I served as chair of one searchcommittee, which ultimately led to the hiring ofphysical geographer Dr. Melinda Daniels. She willjoin the faculty in August 2008. I continued to serveas Director of the Natural Resources andEnvironmental Sciences (NRES) Secondary Majorin 2007. On June 30th my geography colleague Dr.Lisa Harrington took over as Director for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Bimal Paul: The year 2007 was a good as well assad year for me personally. I lost my father onOctober 15, 2007. Our eldest daughter Anjana

finally graduated from Kansas State University inMarketing. She is working full-time with USCellular in Manhattan. Our second daughterArchana just finished her third semester at K-State.Our son Rahul is in 10th grade.

Last summer I went to Bangladesh with a team of12 school teachers and two university faculties fromIowa for 28 days. The purpose of our visit toBangladesh was to develop geography standardsand issues based curricular materials for K-12grades focusing on how humans living inBangladesh cope with their many natural hazards.The project was funded by the Fulbright-HaysGroup Projects Abroad (GPA) Program. I went toSouth Korea in August to attend the 9th AsianUrbanization Conference. I also went to Bangladeshon December 25, 2007 to conduct a field survey onCyclone Sidr, which swept across coastal districtsBangladesh on November 15, 2007. The purpose ofthe survey was to examine Cyclone Sidr warningdissemination process, assess the nature of warningresponses, and explore the extent of compliancewith evacuation orders.

Last year I published three papers in refereedjournals plus couple of other non-refereedpublications including a Quick Response Report. Inaddition to the Fulbright-Hays grant, I also receivedthree Quick Response Grants (QRG) from theNatural Hazards Center, University of Colorado atBoulder, CO. Never in the past, have I receivedthree QRGs in a single year. Like last year Iparticipated in the Bengali-language program of theVoice of America (VOA). I presented more than tenpapers in professional meetings and reviewed nearly15 manuscripts for refereed journals, two grantproposals, and several book chapters. I sincerelyhope the year 2008 will also be a productive yearfor me and my students.

Jeffrey Smith: Happy New Year and I hope 2008is enjoyable and fruitful for you and your family.2007 was spent continuing to learn and get my mindaround the vast literature related to my research onimmigration and remittances between the U.S. toMexico / Central America. I have thoroughlyenjoyed this project and submitted multiplemanuscripts for publication consideration. We’ll seewhat falls out. This year I’ve been teaching WorldRegional Geography, Human Geography, Latin

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SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Kevin Blake:• Published “Lighthouse Symbolism in the American Landscape,” FOCUS on Geography, 50(1).• “Zane Grey and Images of the American West” (published in 1995) was named as one of the 76 “most

significant” articles in the history of the Geographical Review (over 3,100 articles from 1916-2006).• Published essays on “Superman and His Kansas Roots” and “Jayhawk” in The American Midwest: An

Interpretive Encyclopedia, Indiana University Press.

Deborah Che:• Connecting the Dots to Urban Revitalization with the Heidelberg Project. /Material Culture/39(1): 33-49.• Agritourism and its Potential Contribution to the Agricultural Economy/. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in

Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources/ 2(63) 1-7. • Culture/Resource Wars and Rural Heritage Tourism Development. The Global Rural: Rural Change,

Connections, and Scale: The Sixth Quadrennial Conference of British, Canadian, and American RuralGeographers, July 2007, Spokane, WA.

Karen De Bres:• Hooded my student John Harty in December after he successfully defended his dissertation.• Organized a successful London summer school program, teaming with the English department.• Used an ADVANCE grant to visit land grant colleges and to fund one graduate student over the summer.

Doug Goodin:• Received funding for a new project entitled: “Develop a Fire and Smoke Management Program to

Minimize Impact of Prescribed Rangeland Burning in the Central Plains” D.G. Goodin, PrincipalInvestigator, U.S. Department of Agriculture. $596,414.

John Harrington:• Gave the keynote address, “Global Warming and Other Dimensions of Human-Induced Global Change,”

at the annual Kansas Fall Geography Conference.• Gave an invited presentation, “Agriculture and Water Resources Issues,” in the special session, A Vibrant

Research Agenda for the Next 20 Years for Water Resource Geography, at the AAG Mtgs/SF.• Was selected by the National Geographic Society to be the Geographic Bee Coordinator for the State of

Kansas.

Lisa Harrington:• Harrington, L.M.B., and John A. Harrington, Jr., eds. 2007. Papers of the Applied Geography

Conferences 30. Applied Geography Conferences, Inc. 545 pp.• Kettle, N., L.M.B. Harrington, and J.A. Harrington, Jr. 2007. Groundwater depletion and agricultural

land use change in the High Plains: A case study from Wichita County, Kansas. The ProfessionalGeographer 59(2):221-235.

America, and the Senior Capstone seminar. I wasawarded a small research grant by the Center onAging for my research on the impact of remittancesin rural Mexico, and I presented the results of myresearch on the impact of remittances at the CLAG,AAG, and GP/RM Division geography meetings.Also in 2007 I was an invited speaker at thebiannual conference for the Center for Latino andLatin American Studies at the University ofNebraska, Omaha.

I can’t believe how quickly semesters seem to fly by.I was so pleased that a handful of former studentshave stopped by to see me. As I’ve always said ... ifyou find yourself on the K-State campus please stopby and say hello!

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• Harrington, L.M.B., M. Lu, and D.E. Kromm. 2007. Milking the Plains: Movement of Large DairyOperations into Southwestern Kansas. Presented at the Sixth Quadrennial Rural Geography Conference,July, Spokane & Cheney, Washington, and Wallace & Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

J.M. Shawn Hutchinson:• Co-authored manuscript published in Journal of the American Water Resources Association and a map

contained in the ESRI Map Book Vol. 22.• Four papers selected to appear in the forthcoming CRC Press book, “GIS Applications in Agriculture:

Invasive Species.• Authored or co-authored proposals that resulted in over $700,000 in new extramural funding in 2007.

Max Lu:• Received the “Making a Difference” award from the Women in Engineering and Science Program

(WESP) at K-State. • Kansas State University,Targeted Excellence Program. “East Asian Studies Enhancement Project,”

$210,000 (with David Graff of the History Department and Wei Wu of the Department of ModernLanguages).

• Assessing the Free Land Programs for Reversing Rural Depopulation. Great Plains Research/ 17 (1):73-86 (with Darci Paull).

Kendra McLauchlan:• Finished up publishing my postdoctoral research on the land use history, vegetation, and nutrient cycling

of New England forests.• Wrote an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA in May 2007;

wrote an article published in The Holocene in December 2007.• Developed and taught GEOG 221 (Introduction to Environmental Geography I) and GEOG 760 (Human

Impact on the Environment) fall semester 2007.

Richard Marston:• In 2007 I presented 11 papers/posters at professional meetings, including one in France at an international

workshop of geomorphologists who study large rivers. I was interviewed on French Television during theconference, speaking in my best Kansas accent.

• Co-authored 17 articles with former students for the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture; co-authored a chapter for Geological Society of America Special Paper 419 on the Himalayas; co-authoredtwo refereed journal articles on geomorphic controls on fish abundance; co-authored an article on anancient catastrophic landslide in the Franklin Mountains (TX)…a project I started 25 years ago.

• Co-authored a technical report for the National Park Service on the Washita Battlefield National HistoricSite (OK).

Chuck Martin:• Receiving a Research Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation and being granted a Sabbatical Leave

from Kansas State University.

Bimal Paul:• Paul, B.K. “Exploring Location in Introductory Human Geography: The Case of Kansas Towns and

Cities.” Social Studies, Vol. 98, No. 6 (2007): 28-34.• Three Quick Response Grants from the Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado at Boulder, CO.• Appointed Editorial Advisory Board Member – The Open Urban Studies Journal and Scientific Journals

International.

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FROM THE DEAN

Steve White: Each year, geography facultymembers have a group photo taken.They even let me and the provostjoin in. Four things stand out when Ilook at the most recent photo. Thegeography community hasexpanded significantly since mydays as a department head way backin the 1980s. With the addition of

three new assistant professors within the span of ayear the department has grown to 15 facultymembers. In 1980 there were seven. Secondly, theProvost and I are definitely getting older–enoughsaid. Thirdly, the geography professors lookyounger each year! Finally, and very importantly,the number of our emeritus professors continues togrow. Emeritus faculty members such as ChuckBussing, Steve Stover, Dave Kromm, and HuberSelf continue make appearances at lectures, socialfunctions and GTU events. They also show up forthe group photo. Others such as Sy Seyler and BillSiddall are less available but they made enormouscontributions to the culture of the department. Ithink of our emeriti as the true trail blazers. Theyprovided the early paths and formative directionsthat have led to the long-term success of thedepartment. The most recent photo brings backmany memories and reminds me of their importantcontributions. Many thanks go to Chuck Bussing,Dave Kromm, and Steve Stover for their work inwriting the newest history of the department.

At a personal level, I don’t have the opportunity tovisit the department as much as I would like. InFebruary, I began my seventh year as Dean of the

College of Arts and Sciences. My administrativereview went well and Provost Nellis has invited meto continue. Susan and I would like to do moretraveling. We do find time to visit with our twograndchildren; both of whom are predestined tobecome geographers like their fathers (Eric andBen), their grandfather (me), and in one case theirmother (Ben’s wife Kortney). Jaden lives in St.Louis and Ellie lives in San Mateo. Like many K-Staters, our extended family is scattered all overthe country: from Florida, California, Kentucky,New York, Washington, and Missouri. I am veryproud to be a geographer. I am also very proud ofour outstanding Department of Geography.

FROM THE PROVOST

Duane Nellis: As University Provost, I continue topromote progress on K-State's keypriorities that advance K-State asone of the premier land grantinstitutions nationally. Such effortsare made easier by the outstandinggroup of Deans and DepartmentHeads.

Steve White, Arts & Sciences Dean, and DickMarston, Geography Department Head, areexcellent examples of the outstanding leadership K-State has at the Dean and Department head level.Although Provost duties keep me fully engaged, Iam completing (with two other co-authors) a bookentitled “Handbook on Remote Sensing, “ havecontinued as a senior advisor to the NationalScience Foundation, and supported the AAG“EDGE” Grant that is resulting in a new book on“Aspiring Academics.”

Jeffrey Smith:• I was awarded a small research grant by the Center on Aging for my research on the impact of remittances

in rural Mexico.• I was an invited speaker at the biannual conference for the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies

at the University of Nebraska, Omaha• I presented the results of my research on the impact of remittances at the CLAG, AAG, and GP/RM

Division geography meetings.

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EMERITUS NEWS

Chuck Bussing: A K-State bowl game(disastrous) took us to Houston for Christmas andthe game with Greg’s family. Our plan was to drivefrom there for our traditional New Year’s Eve inAngel Fire, New Mexico; but geographer Chucklooked at the weather maps and said “No way.” Agood decision, as they had 36” of snow in 24 hoursand no roads were open.

We left in early February to begin our 50th weddinganniversary trip to Tahiti, New Zealand, where welived in 1970, and Australia. On the island ofMoorea, Sandy fulfilled a life time dream and swamwith dolphins. They have a cool, almost rubberyfeel, and have to be trained to allow touchingbecause dolphins interpret touch as either aninvitation to play or a threat.

Time has changed New Zealand. The Auckland skyline has zoomed from 4 story buildings to high risesincluding the Sky Tower, the tallest building in theSouthern hemisphere,

Primarily Anglo in ’70 immigration laws havechanged as evidenced by our taxi drivers from India,Bangladesh, China, Serbia, and S. Korea . Chuck’sparking lot on the University campus then is now amulti-story building. A motor way necessitated ourusing a map to find our old address, and the streetwhich was three blocks long has been cut in themiddle with a cross street and new housing. . On theSouth Island, we revisited Christchurch, walking thestreets and touring new art and historical museums.In Queenstown, we were amazed to find many ofthe sheep stations now irrigated and replaced byorchards and vineyards producing very pleasantwines. A Brazilian hotel worker told us that morethan 1,000 of her countrymen worked in the touristbusiness there. In 1970 we were the only boat on thelake on the opening day of fishing season; whereas,today a variety of water craft ply the lake. A newadventure was a visit to Stewart Island, a restfulplace to birdwatch for the kiwi in the wild and otherspecies and to spend some time on the water. Insum, the N.Z. quiet life style of the ’70s has in someareas changed to a vibrant, forward-looking way ofseeing the world.

On to Sydney where good friends tolerated us forseveral days while we attended an opera at what onour ‘70 s visit was an opera house in process. Wetoured the building, visited several museums, took ahalf-day aboriginal boat and lunch trip to hear theirinterpretation of the contributions their people madeto the early settlers, and made a side trip to thewonderful Blue Mountains National Park. Our firstnight there we had a spectacular lightning show thatstarted at 6p.m. and went on all night, and the nextday we watched as fog started as a wisp and infifteen minutes, flowing like water, had emptied onevalley and filled the next.

Our trip included driving Tasmania , KangarooIsland, Melbourne, the Great Coast Road, the Redcenter, and Kakadu. We had a much needed R&Rtime with friends from Manhattan who have a condoin Port Douglas. They organized excursions tonearby beaches; the Tablelands, the Kuranda rainforest, where we rode the sky rail to see the forestfrom above. A couple who run tours took us allanimal and birdwatching for a day and nightviewing as well. Leaving Port Douglas, we flew toBrisbane and ended our international segment at O’Reilly’s, a wonderful nature resort in the hills whereit was cool. Guided birding, walking trails, canopywalks, good food, and a relaxing atmosphere gaveus respite before the long flight home.

We arrived in San Francisco in late April where wehad a brief visit with Heather, went into the City forChuck to attend a professional meeting, and thenflew on home to begin our usual activities.

David Kromm: Road trips this past year tookBobbie and me too many fascinating places in our

great country. This is whatretirement is all about. Christmaswas in North Carolina with allour children and grandchildren.In March we completed Route66, cruising the Mother Roadfrom Needles to Santa Monica,California. After a few moments

relishing our completion of the 2400 mile journey,we headed north on the Coastal Highway visitingmany sites on our way to Muir Woods, followed bystays in the Napa Valley and Oroville. In June we

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drove to Detroit for a high school reunion and inJuly to Pennsylvania for a huge family reunion.

Once we completed Route 66, Bobbie and I wantedto resume our exploration of the routes taken byLewis and Clark. We had essentially followed theirjourney along the Missouri River from St. Louisthrough North Dakota, so we started again inMontana and explored their passages in that stateand Idaho in October. We were impressed by thefine interpretive centers along the way. Crossing theLemhi Pass Trail in more than eight inches of newsnow was a memorable experience. Camping inYellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks on thereturn was a chilling experience. Christmas 2007will be in Boston with our children andgrandchildren.

When in Manhattan I worked on researching andwriting family history and K-State geographyhistory. Looking back is also what retirement is allabout.

Huber Self: I came to the Department ofGeography at Kansas State University 60 years agoin 1947. I continue to visit the department as oftenas possible to attend department seminars, socialevents, and the annual spring banquet.

On January 24th, 2008 I became 94 years old, butthis will not keep me from going to the Self FamilyReunion in Kellyville, Oklahoma (near Tulsa),which has been held each year for more than 60years.

Steve Stover: I looked twice to be sure mycalendar called for a full 12-month year in 2007.Being busy, of course, explains a fast-passing year,and the department history has been a major factor.At Thanksgiving time the Emeritus (a.k.a. the fossil)committee could end the near-weekly meetings thathad kept it busy for many months. Elsewhere oncampus I have enjoyed the fellowship and thechallenge of a bi-weekly discussion group that Ijoined this year. It is composed of KSU facultymembers, most of them retired. Frequent campusvisits have kept me aware of the accomplishmentsof our talented, active faculty and students.

Elsewhere, church activities and AFS (foreignstudent exchange) supply important stimulation. Athome the emphasis has been on selling our rentalhouse and taking care of this one. This year mygardening was limited to pole beans…some pickedfrom a ladder. However, I did plant six roses ofSharon.

Family news in 2007 was not lacking! Twice I flewto Stanwood WA to visit family and to attend therespective weddings of two grand-daughters. One ofthese trips included a week in Oroville, CA and arenewed contact with a Cs climate. From variousbranches of y far-flung family has come word offour more great grands, making the total five: allbeautiful, intelligent, charming and…female.

My health continues “stable”; in some measure thatrelates to the fact that I’ve almost memorized thediplomas and the framed pictures on waiting roomwalls.

The year brought a number of PBS documentaries,especially Ken Burns’ “The War”, and bedtimereading in a variety of books, from light to heavy.Most engrossing was Paul Fussell’s well written,jarring “Wartime”: WW II’s impact on the lives ofcivilians as well as of combatants…their language,literature, economics and other elements. I canreadily identify with the book.

As I have written before, it is always a pleasure tore-establish contact with former students. Mostrecently has been a visit with Jerry and BarbaraPotts, and I expect to see Clyde Weaver (M.A. 1973)next week.

May the New Year go well with you!

Sy Seyler: Fellow Geographers, I’m remiss fornot meeting with you. One day-we’ll do lunch. Mywife Carolyn and I are gypsies, too seldom home aswe travel often to the DC area and spend much timeat our place in the Sierra (from late April to midOctober). I hear good words about all of you fromDuane Nellis and Steve White.

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KSU Geography on the Web

If you haven’t visited the department web page recently, please do! The site is updated almost daily to reflectthe most current information about K-State geography and geographers. During the 2007 calendar year, we receivednearly 20,000 hits froma unique visitors, including 8,536 first-time visitors.

If you would like to keep abreast of department media releases, consider subscribing to our RSS feed K-StateGeographers in the News available from our homepage:

http://www.k-state.edu/geography

Students, past and present, are also encouraged to visit the Facebook sites established by the Beta Psi Chapterof GTU and GISSAL(http://ksu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204848198) (http://ksu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204578931).

KSU GEOGRAPHY MERCHANDISE

The Department of Geography offers a number of custom products designed for K-State geographers, past andpresent, and friends of geography. All proceeds from merchandise are deposited with the K-State Foundation tohelp support the Seyler Undergraduate GIScience Scholarship. Contact Shawn Hutchinson (shutch@k-state.edu;785-532-3414) to place an order. A future version of the department website will also have a dedicated page forKSU Geography merchandise.

Thematic Maps of Kansas Wall Calendar

Interested in the geography of Kansas? Consider purchasing a copy of the new K-State Geography 2008 – Thematic Maps of Kansas wall calendar.

This new product features the final project work of undergraduate students from theFall 2007 GEOG 302 Cartography & Thematic Mapping class. A different thematicmap is included for each month of this 12-month calendar, which runs fromFebruary ’08 to January ’09. The calendar has been further customized to includemajor U.S. holidays and key dates in the university academic schedule, the 2008-09KSU football schedule, major geography professional meetings, and birthdays forgeography faculty and staff.

The calendars are currently in production and will be available by the end of January2008. The expected price for each calendar is expected to be $20-$25.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES REPORT

Revising the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)In collaboration with the USGS and State of Kansas GIS Policy Board, GISSAL and the USDA NRCS havecompleted 2007 work related to the revision of the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for Kansas. TheNHD is the primary source of data regarding surface hydrology location and stream network connectivity.Using 2002 digital orthophotography, the location of stream courses are being adjusted and waterbodiesadded or deleted as current conditions dictate. Graduate student Shravan Bonagiri led this effort for GISSALthis past year. Shawn Hutchinson serves principal investigator.

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Vegetation Mapping for Petrified Forest National MonumentGraduate student Clancy Jensen continues working with the National Park Service Southern Plateau Networkto develop a vegetation data layer for Petrified Forest National Monument. This project has involved aerialphotography photo interpretation, development of high resolution color digital orthophotography for themonument, as well as a detailed vegetation map layer with FGDC-compliant metadata. Shawn Hutchinson servesas principle investigator.

Kansas Forest Stewardship Assessment ProjectThe Kansas Forest Stewardship Assessment Project represents a comprehensive state-wide analysis to identifyprivately-owned lands in the state that would benefit from forest stewardship activities and funds. Undergraduatemajor Joseph Grasela and graduate student Mike Dulin have been involved in this activity being conducted jointlywith the Kansas Forest Service. A state-wide forest suitability assessment has been completed. Remaining workincludes finalizing the digitization of over 1,300 existing forest stewardship plans for input into a enterprisegeodatabase that will eventually be used in a web applications developed by the USFS and ESRI. ShawnHutchinson serves as principle investigator.

Impact of Military Maneuver Training on Surface Water QualityGISSAL involvement in this $1.2 million project, funded by the Strategic Environmental Research andDevelopment Program, entered it its fifth year in 2007 and will be completed in Spring 2007. Graduate studentAmit Kesarwani is using LIDAR data from Fort Riley to enhance a rapid soil erosion assessment/gully predictionmodel first developed in 2005 by Drs. Stacy and Shawn Hutchinson. Shawn Hutchinson is co-PI for thisinterdisciplinary project.

Global GIS Place-Based Field Research in the AntillesGISSAL and the Department of Geography joined forces with the American Geographical Society (AGS) andForeign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth to renew its historical mechanism for academic-governmentcooperation in basic geographic research. Graduate student Tom Vought is working to develop a prototype forobtaining, interpreting and presenting current geographic information on the Antilles Region from open source,publicly-available GIS data of all kinds. Shawn Hutchinson, John Harrington, and Dick Marston serves as co-principle investigators.

Agricultural BiosecurityWith funding provided from a variety of sources, including KSU Targeted Excellence programs in Food Safetyand Security and GIScience Infrastructure Enhancement, a significant research emphasis in GISSAL lies in theareas of agricultural biosecurity and the vulnerability of rural areas. Graduate student Tom Vought and undergraduateNikki Wayant have been working on a number of projects including a county-level vulnerability assessment toagricultural disease, spatio-temporal analyses of agricultural disaster declarations, and further refinement of alivestock carcass disposal model. Much of this work will appear in the forthcoming CRC Press Book, GISApplications in Agriculture: Invasive Species, due in early 2009.

Geography Supports Women in Science and Engineering ProgramGISSAL and the Department of Geography worked again in 2007 to support the activities of the Women inEngineering and Science Program (WESP) at Kansas State University. Undergraduate majors Iris Wilson andHannah Wilcox, along with graduate students and Clancy Jensen, Erik Bowles, and Tom Vought designed andconducted a hands-on exercise featuring geospatial technologies including geographic information systems (GIS)and global positioning systems (GPS) for the 2007 Girls Researching our World (GROW) Summer Workshop.In October 2007, undergraduates Nikki Wayant and Iris Wilson and graduate students Clancy Jensen and TomVought mentored students through a GIS-based tornado climatology and emergency preparedness exercise forthe popular Engineers and Scientists to the Rescue workshop. Both workshops seek to strengthen the interestof middle-school girls in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Given the

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nature of geography and the quality and dedication of the students involved, it is not surprising that ourcontributions to these programs are consistently among the top-rated sessions!

Geographic Information Systems Spatial Analysis LaboratoryIn its 17th year of operation, the Geographic Information Systems Spatial Analysis Laboratory (GISSAL)continues to be the leading GIScience and spatial analysis laboratory at Kansas State University. During this pastyear, GISSAL faculty and students worked on all or parts of nine major projects whose total extramural fundingvalue exceeded $2.4 million. Brief descriptions of some of these projects, and the geography students behindthem, appear elsewhere in this newsletter. As of December 2007, a total of 10 students were on staff (see boxbelow). In addition, two scientists from federal agencies (U.S. EPA, and USDA APHIS) and two full-time GISstaff members from the KSU Office of Mediated Education remain co-located with GISSAL. For moreinformation about the lab (current projects, student and professional staff, resources, etc.), please see our websiteathttp://www.k-state.edu/geography/research/gissal.html.

Undergraduates Graduate Students 2007 Graduates Staff ScientistsJoe Grasela Shravan Bonagiri (M.A.) Judd Patterson (M.A) Rick Chubb (KSU OME)Iris Wilson Beau Burkitt (M.A.) Peg Margosian (USDA APHIS)Nikki Wayant Mike Dulin (M.A.) Shiva Mohandass (KSU OME)

Clancy Jensen (M.A.) Adam Skibbe (USEPA)Amit Kesarwani (Ph.D.)Ramatoulaye Ndiaye (Ph.D.)Tom Vought (Ph.D.)

GISSAL also has an active page on Facebook, the popular social networking site. This global site(http://ksu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204578931) is designed for GISSAL student staff, affiliated scientists,and alumni to keep abreast of current laboratory events, keep in touch with friends, and advertise employmentopportunities. Please join our small, but growing, group of K-State GIScientists!

Graduate And Undergraduate GIS Certificate UpdateCongratulations to the following students who in 2007 have completed the rigorous program requirements foreither the Graduate Certificate in GIScience or Undergraduate Certificate in GIS.

Graduate Certificate Department Undergraduate Certificate DepartmentChad Bunger LARCP Patrick Allen GeographyEric Castle LARCP Chris Donnelly GeographySaid Ennahli Agronomy Mike Dulin GeographyBrian Frank Agronomy Andrea Fowles GeographyMing-chieh Lee BAE Matthew (Toby) Gebhart GeographyGilbert Malinga BAE Jake Lohrmeyer GeographyJudd Patterson Geography Lance Noll GeographyRorik Peterson Geography William Riedel Geography

These certificate programs, established in 2002 and 2005, respectively, have proven to be both popular with studentsand a strong asset in documenting the GIS and spatial analysis skills desired by potential employers. To date, 24students from 9 different departments have completed the Graduate Certificate in GIScience and 14 geographershave earned the Undergraduate GIS Certificate. More information about each program can be found on the webat http://www.k-state.edu/geography/academics/gis.html.

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Graduate Student Profiles

Jeremy Aber: In 2007 my GTA duties had meteaching a couple sections of World RegionalGeography and assisting with the weeklydepartmental newsletter, The Seaton Globe. I wasengaged in multiple collaborative research projectsthat are pending publication and I also progressedfrom dissertation field research to dissertationwriting. My research involves variations and layersof place identity in a small Mojave Desertcommunity. I presented some of my preliminaryfindings at the regional AAG meeting in Lincoln,Nebraska and the National AAG meeting in SanFrancisco. I look to defend my dissertation in 2008and present and publish further results.

Patrick Abbott: Greetings fellow Wildcatgeographers! This year has seen many events in mylife. To just name a few I have finished classes,obtained a job with the federal government as amilitary and cultural geographer, moved to D.C., allthe while I hone my thesis about depictions ofPlains Indian along the Oregon Trail. With my job Istudy various cultures around the world and howthey interact with American and allied policy. Thereis also the opportunity to travel in the future so I amliving the geographer’s dream!

Beau Burkitt: As a student of Geography at K-State I’ve been able to take advantage of severalexcellent opportunities. Since the spring of 2007I’ve had the chance to further my education byworking towards a graduate degree here at K-State.As a research assistant I am currently taking part inan interdisciplinary research project that deals withforecasting how agricultural policy changes affectland cover and water resources. During the Summerof 2007 I helped conduct interviews to assess whattypes of information influence the decision makingprocess of Kansas farmers. As a part of thisdepartment I have had the privilege of serving as thesecretary of our local chapter of Gamma ThetaUpsilon, as well as contributing to severalorganizations on campus. This department hasafforded me the opportunity to attend recentmeetings of the Association of AmericanGeographers, and the Water Law, Policy andScience Conference in 2007. I look forward todefending my thesis during the 2008 school year

and from there seeking employment and starting afamily with my wife Erica.

Scott Deaner: Greetings to my fellow wildcatgeographers. The 2007-2008 academic year marksmy fourth here at K-State as a GTA in the doctoralprogram. Kansas State University and theDepartment of Geography have presented me withsome tremendous opportunities and honors over thepast year. In May 2007, I was recognized by theCollege of Arts and Sciences with the William L.Stamey Award for Undergraduate TeachingExcellence. Later that month, I received theGraduate Teaching Assistant of the Year Award fromthe K-State chapter of Golden Key InternationalHonor Society. I also developed a course on theGeography of Popular Culture, which I offered forthe first time at KSU during the summer of 2007. Iam teaching a total of three sections of WorldRegional Geography this academic year.

After completing three summers of fieldwork, Ipresented on my dissertation, “Region, Place, andIdentity in St. Louis Cardinal Nation” at the GreatPlains – Rocky Mountains Division meeting inSeptember 2007. I hope to be finished writing mydissertation in spring 2008.

In addition to dissertation writing and my GTAduties, I am currently participating in my fourthsemester as a content specialist for the SocialStudies Colloquium Series and the Department ofSecondary Education at K-State. Twice a semester Ivisit with future middle school and high schoolteachers and help them incorporate geography intotheir future lesson plans.

Jake George: I am now in my fourth (and final ifall goes as planned) semester at K-State. This willbe my third semester as a GTA for theEnvironmental Geography I labs. As anundergraduate at KSU I thoroughly enjoyed takingboth Environmental Geography courses and it hasbeen a great experience to teach the labs as agraduate student. I completed my coursework forthe MA program this past semester and plan tocomplete my thesis work in time to graduate thisMay. My thesis topic addresses slippage within theConservation Reserve Program as it relates toagricultural commodity price increases in Western

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Kansas. The education and direction that I havereceived from the faculty within the GeographyDepartment here at KSU has been outstanding. Ihave been pleased with my decision to come back topursue my Masters degree and I am thankful to thedepartment for allowing me the opportunity to doso.

Mark Gossard: The Department of Geography atKansas State is helping me pursue a Ph.D. inGeography is by granting me a Graduate TeachingAssistantship teaching the EnvironmentalGeography I Lab. This is a great opportunity todemonstrate to students exactly what physicalgeography entails and hopefully recruit qualifiedstudents for the geography department. The area ofgeography which I am currently studying is fluvialgeomorphology. My interests for a dissertation topicare development of a unified classification forstreams and sediment transport in fluvial systems.My previous work has examined stream restorationand sediment transport through urban streamsystems.

Nick Graf: The year of 2007 has been a productiveand rewarding year for me. Starting my secondsemester of course work toward my Masters Degreeideas for the topic of my thesis began to grow andtake shape. While discussing ideas for a thesis topicwith Dr. Marston an ongoing USDA research grantto understand the sedimentation of nearby TuttleCreek Reservoir was discussed. I agreed to join thisresearch grant and spent the summer surveyingstreams and tributaries of the Black VermillionRiver upstream of Frankfort, KS. My portion of theproject specifically looks at the whole watershed bymapping the level of channel incision. My goal inperforming this research is to explain the spatialvariation and driving forces of the channel incision.My research has been aided by the Rumsey BissellMarston Scholarship which is awarded to thosewhose research is centered on Physical Geography.

My research has also been aided by the Departmentof Geography paying for my tuition by allowing meto be a Graduate Teaching Assistant where I havetaught labs for Cartography and Thematic Mappingas well as Computer Mapping and GeographicVisualization.

In addition to course work and thesis research Ijoined Dr. Marston and Jeff Neel in a projectlooking at the potential effect of dredging in the BigBlue River near Marysville, KS. This project wasthe basis for a poster presented at the regionalAssociation of American Geographers, GreatPlains-Rocky Mountain Division Annual Meetingheld in Denver, CO. My participation in the AAG-GPRM meeting was made possible by theDepartment of Geography paying for hotelaccommodations. The poster won the student postercompetition.

John Harty: Simply put: I’m done. I spent muchof the summer tramping through the Northwoodslooking for Paul and hisblue ox. This fall, I tooktime off from work tofocus on finishing and itpaid off. On October17th, I defended mydissertation, LegendaryLandscapes: A CulturalGeography of the PaulBunyan and Blue Ox Phenomena of theNorthwoods. Three weeks later, I finished the last ofmy revisions. A good feeling, indeed, to havereached this point. I’ve enjoyed my four years hereat K-State and I look forward to what lies ahead.

Clancy Jensen: In May I graduated K-State withmy bachelor’s in geography and liked it so much Idecided to stick around for my master’s. I began mycoursework and Research Assistantship in Augustand got married on September 29, so it was a hecticstart to the school year for me. I have continuedworking on the National Park Service VegetationMapping Project for Petrified Forest, which I alsoworked on as an undergraduate. The majority of mywork on the project during the last year hasconsisted of scanning and orthorectifying aerialphotography of the park. In the coming year I planon working on my thesis, which I have narroweddown to something involving determining suitablecattle carcass disposal sites, and, towards the end ofthe year, moving wherever my husband and I canfind jobs.

Paul Bunyan HistoricalMuseum, Akeley MN

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Amit Kesarwani: Hello All!I am a PhD student enteringmy sixth semester here at K-State. I work in GISSAL as aGRA for SERPD project. Thispast year was highlighted witha lot of travel both for leisure

and conferences and lots of research activities. Inthe beginning of the year we came back from a tripto Africa, where my wife grew up. Being in thesafari was a whole lot of fun, I urge everyone toexperience it at least once in their lifetime. Itfollowed with a trip to San Francisco for AAG, atrip to San Diego for the ESRI user conference, andthen a trip to India to see my parents. Mydissertation research on Gully Erosion isprogressing nicely. I completed field work andextensive data collection for my dissertation duringsummer with help of my generous friends andcolleagues Erik Bowles, Jeremy Aber, Tom Vought,Michael Dulin, Joe Grasela and Sanjayan. Ipresented a poster in AEES Annual Confernce andanother one in the Map Gallery of ESRI US basedon the work I am doing for SERDP.

David Koch: I am in my third year of the Ph.D.program. In the last year I have finished classworkand have passed my preliminary exams. This yearthe faculty has decided to select a Graduate StudentRepresentative. I am honored to have been chosenby the faculty to serve as the representative in theinaugural year, I hope that I can make the newposition useful for both the graduate students andthe faculty and that this helps make the departmentstronger. With help from various sources, especiallythe Department of Geography, I have been able toestablish a solid research program that will set meup for future academic work and have been able topresent some of my results at conferences. In thelast year I have attended both the AAG annualconference in San Francisco and was able to go tothe Geography in the Americas conference in LaSerena, Chile. This spring I plan on presenting somemore research at the AAG annual meeting inBoston. My research is a combination of land usechange analysis, remote sensing, and healthgeography. Specifically, I am working with Dr.Goodin to study the effects of landscape change in

Paraguay on hantavirus. Paraguay is a place ofparticular interest to me, I served there in the PeaceCorps in the early '90s and I am glad to be able todo my research there. Most of my time now, isdedicated to research and writing. I should be ableto finish my dissertation about a year from now.

Chris Laingen: This past year as been one toremember! In the spring, I passed my preliminaryexams, finished up my coursework, and moved toColumbus, Ohio. On June 1, I was married to Mary“Sam” Eaton who is an athletic trainer at The OhioState University. We honeymooned in St. Lucia,prior to hurricane season [my only request], andafter that I began working as a lecturer in theGeography Department at OSU. Today, I continue inthat role while at the same time working on mydissertation research, and working in the summersas the assistant editor of the Applied GeographyConferences annual publication with John and LisaHarrington. I’ve also started working as ahomemaker as well [though the pay is minimal]making sure the dishes and clothes are washed, andthat the house doesn’t get too dusty, as I only

“work” two days a weekon campus at OSU,while Sam, during hersport’s seasons, isregularly on the road.

I’ve also been working on, and completed, twopublications. One, which I co-authored with DarrellNapton of South Dakota State, is a summary of mymaster’s thesis, and was recently accepted in theGeographical Review. The other, which I am also aco-author on, along with five other KSU’ers, wassubmitted (hopefully accepted) to the ProfessionalGeographer not long ago and deals withcollaboration in geography.

Travel has mostly been limited to conferences,honeymoons, and dissertation fieldwork. I attendedthe AAG meeting this past spring in San Franciscoand presented a poster with my collaborationcollaborators, I attended the Applied GeographyConference in Indianapolis in October and

Sam and I in the “Shoe” onour Wedding day

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presented some of mypreliminary dissertationfindings, and I alsomade a trip to SouthDakota to do somefieldwork for mydissertation whichrelates to land use

change and pheasant hunting. And no, I didn’t bringmy gun with me.

Ben Meade: Hello to all K-State geographers! Ihave just finished up my first semester as a Master’sstudent in geography and have enjoyed it. Teachingthree Environmental Geography 1 labs, undertakinga full course load, and completing the first stages ofa research thesis keep one busy. However, things aregoing well!

I am new to the field of Geography, havingcompleted my Bachelor’s degree in Geology.However, I am actively trying to orient myself tothis new field. With financial support from K-StateGeography I attended the Great Plains/RockyMountain Regional AAG meeting in Denver thispast September and will also be attending the AAGNational Meeting in Boston in my native NewEngland in April of 2008. In Boston I will bepresenting a poster of some past research of minethat assessed sedimentation in a lake in upstate NewYork using a form of remote sensing known asground penetrating radar. I look forward to theexperience of presenting and also to learning whatmany American geographers pursue for researchduring the duration of the conference!

I will be completing my Master’s thesis research ona fluvial (river-related) geomorphology project thatcenters on the Black Vermillion watershed ofnortheastern Kansas. Dr. Marston has ongoing workin this watershed and I am excited to contribute!Next summer I will be working full-time in the fieldwith an interdisciplinary group of K-State facultyand graduate students to collect data that will helpaddress and assess the changes that this watershedhas undergone in recent history due to humanimpacts. For an outdoors guy like me who hasalways enjoyed running around in rivers (especially

while holding a fly-fishing rod) next summer’sfieldwork, and the overall project, looks promising!

Judd Patterson: This past year I was quitefortunate to be involved in researchthat allowed me to travel to severalmeetings, including LTERworkshops in Michigan (KelloggBiological Station) and in Oregon(Portland), as well as the UCGISSummer Assembly in Yellowstone. Iwas quite thankful to also manage to

extend each of these adventures to allow for naturephotography (www.juddpatterson.com)!

Last summer I also received word from the SouthFlorida/Caribbean Network of the National ParkService that they had a GIS Specialist position that Ishould consider. This was the same office where Ihad been an intern in `05-06. Before long I hadaccepted the job and was forced to put my thesiswriting into overdrive. After defending my thesis onspring bird migration phenology (bird arrival datesand how they have changed over time), I was on theroad to South Florida by mid-October. The winterclimate down here still seems quite strange, but Iwon’t complain as I continue to explore the entirepeninsula!

It was really a pleasure to be a part of the K-StateDepartment of Geography and to work in GISSAL.I hope that everyone enjoys 2008!

Rorik Peterson: Since joining the department in2003, K-State Geography has benefited me inseveral ways. From serving as an undergraduateresearch assistant for the Human EnvironmentRegional Observatory to my graduate teachingassistantship as a master’s student, K-StateGeography has provided me with multipleopportunities to expand my knowledge and enrichmy understanding of the world. My most recentachievement was the successful defense of mythesis in late December. From this point forward Iplan to continue my education at K-State, pursuinga PhD in Geography with a dissertation topic yet tobe determined.

Gregory, SD – the “Mecca”of pheasant hunters

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Sumo Reddy: As a third year Ph.D. student, 2007has been very hectic aswell as productive.Academics, conferences,travel and personalachievements have allplayed an important rolein my life this year.

In April, the annual AAG conference was held inSan Francisco. With the help of a travel grant fromour department and graduate school, I was able toattend the conference and present my paper titled“Image, Advertising and Medical Tourism.” Next,during the summer, I traveled to India to researchmy dissertation topic of medical tourism. On theway to India, I stopped for a few days in Bankok,Thailand to visitBumrungrad InternationalHospital which is thenumber one medicaltourism hospital in theworld. Besides research, Ialso got married inHyderabad/ Bangalore, India on 7/7/07.

During the Fall of 2007, I taught Human Geographyfor the first time after teaching World RegionalGeography for the past year. I enjoy teaching morethan any other academic activity and HumanGeography has been a challenge as well a delight.My Ph.D. committee members of Dr. Paul, Dr. DeBres, Dr. Marston and Dr. Brannon from thePsychology department have all been a guidingforce during my academics here at KSU. Isuccessfully completed my preliminary examsrecently and I plan on finishing my Ph.D. in the nextyear. I have also collaborated on three papers thatare currently under review in Geography andTourism journals with several faculty and fellowgraduate students. The faculty here at K-StateGeography has been very helpful in guiding methrough my academics. My fellow graduate studentshave been very personable in making my experiencehere in Manhattan a wonderful one. I am very happyto be part of K-State Geography.

Jacob Sowers: In 2007 my GTA duties had meteaching a couple sections of World RegionalGeography and assisting with the weeklydepartmental newsletter. I was engaged in multiplecollaborative research projects that are pendingpublication and I also progressed from dissertationfield research to dissertation writing. My researchinvolves variations and layers of place identity in asmall Mojave Desert community. I presented someof my preliminary findings at the regional AAGmeeting in Lincoln, Nebraska and the national AAGmeeting in San Francisco. I look to defend mydissertation in 2008 and present and publish furtherresults.

Mitchel Stimers: Now into my second year as aPhD student in the department, I have been busyfinishing my course work and preparing to take mypreliminary exams. In the last year I attended threeprofessional meetings, presenting either a paper orposter at each, with two of those presentationsresulting in a publication (one of which was co-authored by my adviser Dr. Paul, as well as Dr. Cheand another PhD student, Sohini Dutt). Additionally,I had an article accepted for publication in thePennsylvania Geographer’s spring addition, as wellas a book chapter for NOVA Science co-authoredwith Dr. Daniel Patterson of the University ofPittsburgh, and Rhett Mohler, a PhD student in ourdepartment. I have recently begun to prepare adissertation proposal, which I intend to present atthis year’s AAG meeting as a warm up, and withinthe department hopefully sometime later in thespring semester. Although I am not serving as anofficer for Gamma Theta Upsilon any longer, Icontinue to remain active in our chapter. Beginningin 2008, I will serve a two year term as one of twostudent representatives for Gamma Theta Upsilon’sexecutive council, so I am looking forward to beingable to help out GTU in that capacity.

Vicki Tinnon: The past year was an extremelybusy one for me. Though I have not completed mydissertation, I am working hard to do so! Hopefully,I will be able to pass that news on in next year’snewsletter. I did, however decide to start working. Iapplied for an Assistant Professor position at Wayne

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State College in Wayne Nebraska. I made it throughthe phone interview and was asked to make an on-campus visit. The whole process went well and Iwas offered the position. I accepted it and I am nowin the “frozen tundra”- I enjoy teaching, but fourclasses is quite a load! I taught World Regional andUrban in the fall. I am teaching World Regional,World Economic and Latin America this semester.Next year, I get to teach Europe, Biogeography andGIS-lots of preparation right now!

I have had a little time to do some research. Icompleted a project with Dr. Bimal Paul and Dr.Deborah Che on the impacts of last year’s severeblizzard (2006/2007) on cattle in Colorado andKansas. The research was funded through theNatural Hazards Center in Colorado and waspublished online as a Quick Response Report. Ipresented the results at the regional meeting inDenver and at Wayne State College. Currently, I amtrying to finish up a few manuscripts of my own,but it has been a slow process. I have not been ableto do as much traveling as I would like. For the firsttime in over a decade, I did not make my annual trekto the Southwest, but there are plans for that in thenear future. I did go to Aspen, Colorado in Augustfor 10 days and hiked quite a bit. I went to MaroonBells again and found some new and interesting

trails – one of the most interesting was a short hiketo some ice caves! In April, I drove with my dad toTuscaloosa, Alabama and I was one of the 92,000screaming fans at the Crimson Tide’s A-Day game(the spring football game). Of course, everywhere Igo, I take tons of pictures!

Tom Vought: My fourth year in the Geographyprogram here at K-State proved to be just as busy asthe first three. Now a second year PhD student, Iremain a Graduate Research Assistant in GISSAL,K-State’s GIS lab, and was again elected SocialDirector of the K-State chapter of Gamma ThetaUpsilon. In June, several of the maps created for myMaster’s thesis were published in the 2007 ESRIMap Book, distributed to all 13,000 attendees atESRI’s Annual GIS Users Conference. Novembertook on a vaguely tropical perspective as theDepartment was kind enough to ship me off to the3rd Annual GIS Conference hosted by the Office ofthe Lieutenant Governor of St. Thomas in the U.S.Virgin Islands. I promise, I did actually go to theconference. Finally, in December, I discovered that Iwill be spending the next several months writing abook chapter with Dr. J. M. Shawn Hutchinson forthe forthcoming CRC Press book “GIS Applicationsin Agriculture: Invasive Species”.

2007 SCHOLARSHIP AND AWARD WINNERS

Graduate Student LeadershipAward

David Koch

H.L “Sy” Seyler Undergraduate ScholarshipIris Wilson

Huber Self Scholarship in Geography AwardNicole Wayant

Leblanc Outstanding Undergrad Major AwardHannah Wilcox

Mary Dobbs Outstanding Department CitizenAward

Thomas Vought

National Council for Geographic EducationExcellence AwardLesley Ostmeyer

Rumsey Bissell Marston ScholarshipNicholas E. Graf

White Geography Grad Teaching AssistantExcellence Award

Keela AndrewsRorik Peterson

William Grimm Memorial ScholarshipRex Robichaux

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SY Seyler Undergraduate Certificate in GIScienceThe second Seyler Undergraduate GIScience Scholarship, first introduced during the GISSAL 15th Anniversarycelebration in November 2005, was awarded in 2007 to geography major Iris Wilson. This scholarship issupported by alumni, friends, and faculty of the Department of Geography and is bestowed in the name of emeritusfaculty member H.L. “Sy” Seyler. Dr. Seyler retired in 2000 after having devoted nearly three decades ofprofessional service to the advancement of both geography and geographic information science at Kansas StateUniversity.

Please contact Shawn Hutchinson (shutch@k-state.edu; 785-532-6727) from the Department of Geography orSheila Walker from the KSU Foundation (sheilaw@found.ksu.edu; 785-532-7511) for more information on howto make a single or annual financial contribution to this new scholarship. Your efforts to help our departmentcontinue to recruit and retain world-class geographers and GIScientists is greatly appreciated!

MASTER THESIS 2007Jeremy Aber, April 25, 2007, “Sense of Community in the U.S. Video Arcade Industry and Among ArcadeCollectors,”Judd Patterson, October 15, 2007, “An Analysis of Spring Bird Migration Phenology in Kansas.”

DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 2007John Patrick Harty, October 17, 2007, “Legendary Landscapes: A Cultural Geography of the Paul Bunyanand Blue Ox Phenomena of the Northwoods”

Department Graduates

Congratulations and best wishes!

Spring 2007Doctor of PhilosophyMary Evelyn Bird Dobbs, Awarded posthumously

Master of ArtsNancy Anne BrownRhett L. Mohler

Bachelor of ArtsJordan Lee Zenger

Bachelor of SciencePatrick Lewis AllenChristopher Michael DonnellyMichael W. DulinBryan Robert EichenbergCasey L. FultonMatthew Tobias GebhartAshley Nicole HortonClancy M. JensenBryce Kintigh

Jacobv L. LohrmeyerLance Wade NollWilliam F. RiedelHeather Alane Riley

Fall 2007Doctor of PhilosophyJohn Patrick Harty

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Master of ArtsJeremy Ward AberJudd Matthew Patterson

Bachelor of ScienceKevin Matthew BradshawN.S. CallegariChristopher David MotleyBrandon Myles O’Neill (Su 07)Corey Austin RandallJoanna Lynn Rubick

M Steven RuskMark Jacob RutherfordElizabeth Ann SamsonCurtis John SchwietermanEdward VahsholtzPeiwen Wang

LECTURE SERIES 2007

Thursday, January 11, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Melinda Daniels (University ofConnecticut). 4:00 p.m., Little Theater, K-State Student Union. “Rivers as Coupled Human-Natural Systems:The Case of Large Rivers, Their Dynamics and Potential for Restoration.” Sponsored by Gamma ThetaUpsilon and the Department of Geography.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Scott Markwith (University of Georgia). 4:00p.m., Little Theater, K-State Student Union. “Spatial Genetic Patterns and Processes of the Aquatic PlantHymenocallis coronaria.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Friday, January 19, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Derek Alderman (East Carolina University).3:30 p.m., Forum Hall, K-State Student Union. “Naming Streets for Martin Luther King, Jr.: A NewGeography of Memory in America.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Monday, January 22, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Kendra McLauchlan (Dartmouth College).2:30 p.m., Little Theater, K-State Student Union. “Reconstructing Human Impacts on Ecosystems fromDecades to Millennia.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Monday, February 5, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Anna Versluis (Clark University). 4:00 p.m.,Seaton 132. “We all Live Downstream: Land Change and Flood Vulnerability in a Haitian Watershed.”Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Thursday, February 8, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Marcellus Caldus (Michigan StateUniversity). 4:00 p.m., Seaton 132. “Theorizing Land Cover and Land Use Change: The Peasant Economy ofthe Amazonian Deforestation.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Friday, February 23, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Chris Laingen (Kansas State University). 4:00p.m., Seaton 132. “Changes in Human and Natural Systems Influenced by Pheasant Hunting in SouthDakota.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Friday, April 6, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Erik Bowles (Kansas State University). 4:00 p.m.,Seaton 132. “Classifying Heat Stress Events in the United States.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon andthe Department of Geography.

Friday, May 4, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium. Erik Bowles, Scott Deaner, Matt Gerike, SumoReddy, Jacob Sowers, and Mitch Stimers (Kansas State University). 3:45 p.m., Seaton 132. “Greatest Hits anda Few Sour Notes: Teaching Tips from Spring 2007.” Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and theDepartment of Geography.

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Friday, September 14, 2007 2007 Distinguished Geography Alumnus Address. 4:00 p.m., Big 12 Room, KSUStudent Union. “Schoolcraft in the Ozarks, 1818-1819” by Dr. Milton Rafferty, Missouri State University.Sponsored by the Department of Geography. KSU Geography Alumni Panel. 2:30 p.m., Room 132, Seaton Hall. “Tips and Tricks: Rewarding Aspects of aK-State Geography Education.” Sponsored by the Department of Geography.

Friday, October 5, 2007 Visiting GIScience Scholar Presentation. 9:30 a.m., Room 2002, ThrockmortonHall. “Using the GISciences to Address Research Questions and Applications in Agriculture and its RelatedAreas” by Dr. Kevin Price, University of Kansas. Sponsored by the Department of Agronomy.

Friday, October 12, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium Presentation. 3:30 p.m., Room 132, Seaton Hall.“Fighting over the Wasteland: Government Management of the California Desert” by Dr. Lary Dilsaver,University of South Alabama. Sponsored by the Department of Geography.

Monday, October 15, 2007 Geography M.A. Thesis Defense. 2:45 p.m., Room 213, KSU Student Union.“An Analysis of Spring Bird Migration Phenology in Kansas” by Judd Patterson, KSU Department ofGeography. Sponsored by the Department of Geography.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Geography Ph.D. Proposal Presentation. 2:30 p.m., Room 164H, Seaton Hall.“Legendary Landscapes: A Cultural Geography of the Paul Bunyan and Blue Ox Phenomena of theNorthwoods” by John Harty, KSU Department of Geography. Sponsored by the Department of Geography.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 International GIS Day 2007. 1:30 p.m., Room 207, KSU Student Union.“Ecological Modeling of the Flint Hills Ecosystem” by Adam Skibbe, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Sponsored by the Department of Geography and the KSU GIS Steering Committee.

Friday, November 16, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium Presentation. 3:10 p.m., Big 12 Room, KSUStudent Union. “China Rising: Some Recent Changes in an Ancient Land” by Dr. Max Lu, Department ofGeography, Kansas State University. Sponsored by the Department of Geography.

Friday, November 30, 2007 GEOG 800 Graduate Colloquium Presentation. 3:30 p.m., Big 12 Room, KSUStudent Union. “Mixing it Up: A Mixed Approach to Understanding Immigrant Women's Health” by Dr. SaraMcLafferty, Department of Geography, University of Illinois. Sponsored by the KSU ADVANCE Programand the Department of Geography.

BROWN BAGSSponsored By: Gamma Theta UpsilonAnd the Department of Geography

Thursday, September 20, 2007 GTU Brownbag Presentation. 11:30 a.m., Room 164H, Seaton Hall. “TheRole of GIS in Transfrontier Conservation” by Craig Beech, GIS Manager, Peace Parks Foundation.Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 GTU Brownbag Presentation. 1:00 p.m., Room 164H, Seaton Hall.“Spaces, Places, and Geographies of Local Food in Eastern Kansas: Uneven Landscapes of Development” byBen Champion, Oxford University. Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

Thursday, October 4, 2007 GTU Brownbag Presentation. 11:30 a.m., Room 164H, Seaton Hall. “Creating aLIDAR-derived Digital Map Atlas” by Iris Wilson, KSU Department of Geography. Sponsored by GammaTheta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

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Wednesday, November 7, 2007 GTU Brownbag Presentation. 12:30 p.m., Room 164H, Seaton Hall. “Intothe Wild: Road tripping the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains” by Brandon Haddock, KSUDepartment of Geography. Sponsored by Gamma Theta Upsilon and the Department of Geography.

ANNUAL GEOGRAPHY SPRING BANQUETSponsored By: Gamma Theta UpsilonAnd The Department of Geography

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Jack Shroder (University of Nebraska-Omaha)”Geospatial Solutions inAfghanistan: A Geoscience Background to Anti-Terrorism.”

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

The Geography Department Fund, William D. Grimm Memorial Scholarship, Huber SelfGeography Scholarship, Rumsey Bissell Marston Scholarship, and the White GeographyGTA Excellence Award (January 1-December 31, 2007)

KAW RIVER DONORS($250 OR MORE)Shawn & Stacy Hutchinson Steven Kale Vicki Boyd-KennedyMary Ann MillerRichard & Linda MarstonMalcolm Moore PontePamela Gayle ScanlonRobert Henry Williams

WILDCAT CREEKDONORS (UP TO $99)Dean R. AndrewKevin S. BlakeTracu LeAnn BrownDoame BurkittEdmond B. CampbellDeborah L. CheMichael & Amy Cline Suzanne DiRienzoKatrina L. FrankJulie GarsterJames GrimmKristina L. HaahrRichard A. HammellEric L. HildingKurt A. HorschCharlene C. Hsu

BIG BLUE RIVERGROUP ($100-$250)Cheryl L. BlakeKaren Jean De Bres Patricia L. DrewsGeico Philanthropic FoundationJames GrimmDale Joseph Grunewald John & Lisa Harrington Jr.Mark & Pamela HatesohlJohn R. HortonKimberlea Edgington Keehn

Steven R. HunterSteve & Karen Hunter Robert L. JadlowLloyd JohnsonMichael KallasMelinda D. LehmanNanyan & Max Lu Martha A. McCoy Kendra McLauchlanJohn MerryfieldTod L, MeynBarton MullinsTracy M. MurphySharon M. O’SheaLinda M. PattersonDuane G. Pearce

David & Bobbie Kromm Kara B. KuntzKevin McCartyRisto K. MarttinenJohn Leonard Mettille Jr.Patrick W. RobsonBradley & Kristen Rundquist Gary M. SensemanSy and Carolyn Seyler Stephen & Susan White

Dale E. PetersonErik L. PetersonRyan Robert RekerTravis A. RomeRandal J. Rose Allen ShaferWilliam Drakeford Shaw Sharon SiglerJeff & Kimberley SmithSharon D. SchurleSally J. TomlinsonGregory S. VandebergDavid L.WallFrank C. WeeksJeffrey W. Zimmerman

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ALUMNI NEWS

Wendy L. Laflin: (BS, 1982)I was a student from 1977 through 1982. I havesince gone on to work for what is now the NationalGeospatial Intelligence Agency. I left there in 1994and have since worked in private industry as aPhotogrammetrist/ stereocompiler, a researcher forAAA and am now doing freelance work as aresearcher for Universal Map Enterprises.

Len Le Blanc: (BS, 1973) Hi, I’m out of Iraq forgood now. I’m back hanging in Thailand; probablygo back to school locally in June 2007. OK-“Sawas-Dee Bee-Mai!” (Thai for Happy New Year)best regards.

Scott R. Leis: (MA, 2005) Hello again to all myfriends and mentors at KSU. I am still in the U.S.Peace Corps and am finishing up my second year asa teacher. I live and teach on the island of Falalop,in Ulithi Atoll. The island is about 1 square mile andhas a population of approximately 250.Unfortunately, although I am surrounded by water,there are no fish tanks on Falalop. I am currentlyteaching Earth Science, Chemistry and Physics tohigh school seniors and sophomores at The OuterIsland High School. I will be finishing my contractthis year and therefore should be back in the statesby 2008.

Paul R. Meier: (BS, 1958) All though I have notbeen back to Manhattan since I graduated in 1958, Ido thoroughly enjoy your updates. Huber Self was/ismy mentor and my hero.

Risto Marttinen: (MA, 1965) It is cool here thismorning so I am wearing my KSU Alumni sweater,and I thank you for the 2007 Alumni Newsletter.Sounds like a lively department.

My time at K-State was with Huber Self, KarlStacey, Herbert Rau, William Siddall, Sy Seyler, etal. along with fellow grad student, Eldor Quandt.While studying geography, I happened upon Thinkand Grow by Napoleon Hill, which was my firstintroduction to the stock market. My parents, livingat Fort Riley at the time, had asked me what to dowith some money they had saved…now we aredonating a major portion to reduce the estates. My

financial affairs now extend over several continentsvia mutual funds and though my mother is stillliving at the age of 97, she is almost blind so I alsomanage her affairs. Not bad for war refugees fromFinland via Sweden to America in 1947.

Last month I went to Richmond University to seethe wreck of the Henrietta Marie. The slave shipartifacts filled some five rooms. It is the Mel FisherMaritime Heritage Society display. Then, March30th of 2007, I got to the Slavery ReconciliationStatue unveiling ceremony in Richmond. This eventconcerned three continents: Europe, Africa, andNorth America. I felt South America should alsohave been represented as slavery last longest inBrazil.

I have a couple of teenagers from our churchassisting me with clipping my writings andarchiving them in scrapbooks, there are some 1,500published items. I was suddenly discovered by theDenver Post, as a guest editorialist – to my greatsurprise. So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut would say.Let no one doubt the value of an education ingeography. It certainly helps in financial decision-making. Should I have studied another major? Ithink not. Go for geography. Go for the best.

John L. Mettille Jr. (MA, 1977) I retired in 2005from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet after over28 years of employment. Position at the time ofretirement was Deputy Executive Director – Officeof Project Development.

Darcy Paull: (MA, 2006) Greetings to all! Ishould warn you before you get too far in this letter.Most of the update is about my different travelsthroughout the year. As a geographer who loves totravel, those tend to be the big highlights of the yearIn January, I travelled west to Portland, OR to visitmy friend Clem. I had never been to the PacificNorthwest so this was anew adventure for me.I battled the weather toget to and fromPortland, but wecouldn’t ask for betterweather while I wasthere. After I arrivedsafely, I skied my first ever volcano, Mt. Hood. It

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wasn’t really different than skiing the Rockies, but Ithink it is much more fun to say. We also spent a dayat the beach. Unfortunately, it was a little chilly forme to swim or for Clem to surf, so we settled forsome local hiking. On the way to the beach, westopped at an Aviation museum that featured the“Spruce Goose”. It pretty much consumed the entirehangar the museum was in.

In July, I once again ventured outside of the Kansasstate boundaries. This time I had some travellingcompanions, Krisha and Tyson. We went to Denverto visit Tony and Melissa. While we spent most ofour time in Denver, we did venture out of the ‘bigcity’ to go white-water rafting one day. I don’t thinkany of us will be quitting our day job to start leadingrafting trips, but for the most part we did have agood time.

In September, I not only left Kansas but also theU.S. My GrandmaMarsha and I headedeast to India. I spent 10days touring the ‘GoldenTriangle’ including the 3cities of Delhi, Jaipurand Agra. The flight wasincredibly long, and the

time in country was entirely too short, but I had afantastic time. Some of my highlights included aride on a rickshaw (a cart pulled by a bicycle), lotsof Indian cuisine and seeing the temples, palacesand mausoleums. The most memorable was ofcourse the Taj Mahal. India’s architecture andhistory was influenced by three religions, Hindu,Islam and Christian. I felt like I had entered a wholenew world. I could go on and on about myexperiences but I’ll just tell you about the averagestreet in Northern India. It has carts pulled byvarious animals, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, buses,pedestrians and huge trucks. It was a challenge tocross a street. I always felt like a kindergartner whohad to wait for our teacher (in this case our tourguide) to stand in the street to block traffic longenough for us to get across. I can’t even imaginedriving there. There are cows everywhere. They justroam around the streets and cities. Since cows aresacred animals everyone brakes for them. In fact,government officials will collect the old cows andput them in “old cow homes” in the country until

they die. The streets had everything you couldpossibly ever need. Shops ranged from clothing tofood and also parts for cars and bicycles. We sawplaces to get your teeth pulled, barbers and evenurinals. Everything was out in the open for anyoneto see. I had so much fun seeing and learning abouta very different culture from the one I grew up in. Ifyou ever have an opportunity to visit this extremelydiverse and colorful country I highly recommend it.I hope to make it back again someday for a longerstay.

I also started volunteering for Big Brother and BigSister this year. I have had a little sister, Stephanie,for almost a year now. In coordination with ‘Pass ItOn, Outdoor Mentors’, Stephanie learned how toshoot a gun and some basic hunter safety lastmonth. She had a really good time even though hershoulder was a bit sore. This month we are creatinga gingerbread house.

I finished my first year of full-time employment inJune. It’s hard to believe that I have been working 8-5 for a year and a half. I still really enjoy my jobwith the Department of Agriculture. I get to travelthe state quite a bit and meet new people. My jobalso has a lot of opportunities to keep learning, so ina way I feel like I’m still in school researching, but Idon’t have to go to any classes. The one thing Ireally miss from school is the vacation time. Youdon’t get winter break, spring break or 3 months offin the summer.

From my family (which includes Wooderson (mydog) and Athos and Aramis (my turtles), we wishyou a very Happy Holiday season and a healthy2008.

Dustin W. Ross (BS, 2002) After graduating withmy B.S. in Geography in 2002 I attended EmporiaState where I received a Graduate Certificate inGeoSpatial Analysis in 2005. I have been workingfor a Dallas based luxury apartment developer, JPI,as a GIS Analyst since August of 2005. I currentlyreside in Cedar Hill, Texas with my wife Amber, andwe are expecting our first “future K-Stater” thisNovember.

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IN THE NEWS

Billings, MT – MyTopo.com, a leader in providing print-on-demand mapping products,is pleased to announce that Doug Armknecht has joined the company. Armknecht waspreviously employed as a GIS technician with the City of Billings.

“We are pleased to welcome Doug as a colleague who not only shares our passion formapping, but has the computer skills to be a tremendous asset in our endeavor to stay

ahead of technical developments in a very fast-changing mapping environment,” said Kevin Toohill, CEO andfounder of MyTopo.com.

One of Armknecht’s responsibilities will be to maintain and further develop MyTopo’s digital mappingproducts, including its subscription service which allows annual subscribers to print, save, annotate anddownload navigation-ready maps. The service, available via the MyTopo.com homepage, recently added coloraerial photos for 75% of the US.

Armknect will also help develop new mapping products, such as the company’s recently released TopoPhotomap, which successfully combines color aerial photographs with the reliable USGS topographic base maps toproduce a durable, navigation-ready map. The new map was recognized by syndicated columnist StephenRegenold, known as the Gear Junkie, as a “feat of cartography.”

A 2004 graduate from Kansas State University with bachelors’ degrees in Computer Science and Geographyand a minor in business, Armknecht has been interested in cartography since the age of 10 and in computersfrom early childhood. He was born and raised in Kansas but was drawn to Montana because of his love of themountains.

MyTopo.com specializes in providing an easy and convenient process for outdoor enthusiasts to order printedmaps. It is a private company based in Billings, MT. The company sells maps directly via www.mytopo.com,and also resells its maps via many popular websites including Topozone.com, MapTech.com,Remington.com, Realtree.com, the Digital Map Store and many more mapping- and outdoor-related sites. Tolearn more about the company, visit www.mytopo.com or call 866-587-9015. High resolution product imagesand logos are available upon request.

K-STATE PROFESSOR, IOWA EDUCATORS HELP CREATE NEW GEOGRAPHYEDUCATION STANDARDS DEALING WITH NATURAL DISASTERS IN BANGLADESH

MANHATTAN -- American students will soon find out what the South Asian country of Bangladesh and theMidwestern state of Iowa have in common. Bimal Paul, a Kansas State University professor of geography anda published expert on natural disasters, said Bangladesh and Iowa are both prone to flooding and tornados,have similar geography when it comes to size and rivers, and that agriculture is the dominant economy in bothplaces. Paul, a native of Bangladesh, traveled with a dozen American K-12 teachers and two professors fromthe state of Iowa, in July on a 28-day trip to Bangladesh. Their aim was to develop U.S. geography standardsand curricular materials on how the nation copes with natural disasters. The three professors were awarded a$64,000 Fulbright-Hays grant for their project, “Natural Hazards and Related Health Issues in Bangladesh:Standards and Issues based Geography Curricular Projects for Grades K-16.”

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“The average U.S. student has little to no knowledge of the country Bangladesh,” Paul said. “Bangladesh isone of the largest populated countries in the world with nearly 150 million people, but one of the smallercountries in the world with only 56,000 square miles,” he said. The group visited various disaster- affectedareas in Bangladesh and interviewed people to find out how they cope and continue their regular lives, Paulsaid. “We have disasters here in the U.S., but disasters here are different because we have the manpower andmoney to overcome them,” Paul said. “Bangladesh is a poor country and we wanted to show students howthey cope.”

“We were quite surprised to find the people in Bangladesh expect flooding of some sort every year, andbecause of that, they have personal coping strategies,” said Kay Weller, co-project leader and a professor atthe University of Northern Iowa. Weller also the coordinator of the Geographic Alliance of Iowa and is analum of KSU Geography. Rex Honey of the University of Iowa also is a co-project leader. Building theirhomes on higher elevations and growing certain crops that can grow with flood water are just some of theways the people of Bangladesh cope with flooding, Paul said. Disasters also can be viewed differently bychildren and adults, which Paul plans to incorporate into the lesson plans. Paul said when he was a child,flooding season was a joyful event for him -- but not for his father, who owns agricultural land cultivated bytenant farmers. “In flood time, the children in Bangladesh can be happy,” Paul said. “You can eat more fish,ride boats and eat a traditional sweet cake made of rice flour and molasses available during flood time.”Lesson plans and a DVD with video footage taken in Bangladesh will be available on the GeographicAlliance of Iowa Web site next year for public classroom use, Weller said. The material will be taught atvarious regional and national conferences. In Iowa, there will be a workshop Feb. 15-17, 2008, and the newlessons will be taught in the classroom next year.

“As students are more exposed to other cultures and geography they begin to understand the world muchbetter,” Weller said.

K-STATE GEOGRAPHY STUDENTS PRESENT AT RECENT ASSOCIATION OFAMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS MEETING

Students from the KSU Geography Department presented posters and papers recently at the 103rd annualmeeting of the Association of American Geographers in San Francisco in April 2007.K-State students participating included:

Jeremy Aber, graduate student in geography, *Emporia*, presented the paper “The Video Arcade inMemoriam: California Extreme and Place Attachment.”

From *Manhattan*: Michael Dulin, senior in geography, presented the paper “Line in the Sand: Boundary asVariable in Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma”; Jincheng Gao, a December 2006 doctoral graduatein geography and now a research associate for the K-State Division of Biology, presented the paper “CanopyChlorophyll Estimation with Hyperspectral Remote Sensing”; David Koch, graduate student in geography,presented the poster “How Much do Geographers Collaborate?” and the paper “Hantavirus Ecology: Analysiswith Individual-based Models”; Sumanth Reddy, graduate student in geography, presented the poster “HowMuch do Geographers Collaborate?” and the paper “Image, Advertising, and Medical Tourism in India,” andwas a session chair for the “Medical Tourism and Healthcare Access” session; and Iris Wilson, sophomore ingeography, presented the poster “Development of LIDAR-based Topography Information for Gulf IslandsNational Seashore.”

Mitchel Stimers, graduate student in geography, *St. George*, presented the paper “A GIS Analysis ofTemporal and Spatial Regions of Peak Tornado Activity in the United States”; and Rhett Mohler, graduatestudent in geography, *Wakeeney*, presented the paper “Line in the Sand: Boundary as Variable in SoutheastKansas and Northeast Oklahoma.”

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From *Illinois*: Jacob Sowers, graduate student in geography, *Morrison*, presented the paper “Desert butNot Deserted” and the poster “How Much do Geographers Collaborate?” Sowers also served as the sessionschair for the “Regional Identities: Western Cultures” session.

From *Minnesota*: Anne Donovan, graduate student in geography, *Mankato*, and an instructor at HaleLibrary, presented the paper “Tentacles? Testicles! A Sampling of Perceptions on Uneatable Food ItemsAmong Undergraduate Students” and the poster “How Much do Geographers Collaborate?”

From *Missouri*: Matthew Gerike, graduate student in geography, *Columbia*, presented the paper “Linein the Sand: Boundary as Variable in Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma.”

From *Ohio*: Christopher Laingen, graduate student in geography, *Columbus*, presented the poster “HowMuch Do Geographers Collaborate?”

From *South* *Dakota*: Patrick Abbott, graduate student in geography, *Brandon*, presented the paper“United Caliphates of Europe: A Geographical Look at Sharia Microstates” and served on the “Podcasting,Blogging, and the New Media in Geography” panel.

From *Virginia*: Thomas Vought, graduate student in geography, *Purcellville*, presented the paper “Linein the Sand: Boundary as Variable in Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma.”

K-STATE NOMINATES FIVE STUDENTS FOR UDALL SCHOLARSHIPS

MANHATTAN -- Five Kansas State University students were nominated for the Morris K. Udall Scholarshipin 2007, and one of the nominees was KSU Geography major Iris Wilson. The Udall Scholarship acongressional scholarship honoring the former Arizona congressman for his legacy of public service. Thescholarship is worth $5,000. Students competing this year plan to graduate in either May 2008 or May 2009.Recipients must either seek a career related to environmental protection, or be Native Americans or NativeAlaskans seeking careers in health care or tribal policy.

Wilson was the recipient of the 2006 Huber Self Geography Scholarship. She served as an intern with theNational Park Service, creating a digital database of lidar-derived maps for national parks in Florida. At K-State, Wilson is on the Student Advisory Board for the Women in Engineering and Science Program andhas assisted with Girls Researching Our World. She has worked with the Human Environmental RegionalObservatory research project, accessing climate changes in southwest Kansas where the Ogallala Aquifer isused to irrigate crops. Wilson also has worked with Shawn Hutchinson, assistant professor of geography, inK-State’s Geographic Information System Spatial Analysis Laboratory, assisting with a project

K-STATE GEOGRAPHER SELECTED FOR INTERNSHIP WITH NATIONALGEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

Nicole Wayant, *Topeka*, a junior in mathematics and geography at Kansas State University, was selectedfor a summer 2007 internship with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, headquartered inWashington, D.C. Wayant was employed at the agency’s facility in St. Louis, Mo., this summer. According toMax Lu, associate professor of geography at K-State, the agency’s primary function is to collect, analyze anddistribute geospatial intelligence for combat support. The agency defines geospatial intelligence as themerging of imagery, maps, charts and environmental data. Lu said the agency’s internship program is highlyselective. Lu is Wayant’s adviser and wrote her a letter of recommendation as a part of the internship’sapplication process. The process also included a cover letter explaining the program that Wayant was applyingfor, a transcript, a writing sample and an online application. “I spoke to representatives of the NationalGeospatial-Intelligence Agency about this at a recent conference,” Lu said. “They told me that every year; the

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agency only selects a small number of interns for its Virginia and St. Louis facilities from a large number ofapplicants nationwide. The selection is merit based and involves pretty extensive background checks. The factthat Nicole was chosen says much about her past accomplishments.” Wayant said her interest in theintelligence sector has been growing since her junior year of high school when she competed in the NationalHistory Day contest with a report on Allied women spies of World War II. Wayant said she hopes to be ananalyst who gathers and processes information and provides intelligence reports to policy makers and militaryleaders. “Since Nicole aspires to a career in the intelligence sector, this internship experience will be a greatfirst step toward fulfilling her dreams. As her adviser, I am very proud of her,” Lu said. “The most excitingpart of the internship was getting to follow my dream of working in intelligence. It was also exciting to liveand work in St. Louis,” she said. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was created in 1996 when theU.S. Congress, the CIA and the Department of Defense agreed to combine the efforts of the country’smapping and imagery analysis efforts, creating the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. In 2003, whenPresident Bush signed the 2004 Defense Authorization Bill, the agency changed its name to the NationalGeospatial-Intelligence Agency.

K-STATE STUDENTS WIN HONORS AT DIVISIONAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATIONOF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS

Several geography students from Kansas State University earned honors at the 2007 meeting of the GreatPlains-Rocky Mountain Division of the Association of American Geographers. At the meeting, Sept. 28-29 inDenver, one K-State student received the $100 first prize for best doctoral paper, while two K-State studentsreceived the $100 top prize for best poster. Based on individual scores in the meeting’s Geography Bowlcompetition, two K-State students qualified to be on the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division GeographyBowl team. A third K-State student qualified as an alternate. The national competition will be in April 2008 atthe annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Boston.

Students earning honors included:Alex Fredericksen, sophomore in geography, *Fort Scott*, Great Plains-Rocky Mountain DivisionGeography Bowl team; Jeffrey Neel, doctoral student in geography, *Manhattan*, and Nichols Graf,master’s student in geography, *Ogden*, both for the best poster, “Channel Change on a Legally ‘C’ontestedReach of the Big Blue River in Kansas”; and Mitch Stimers, doctoral student in geography, *St. George*,Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division Geography Bowl team.

From out of state:Brandon Haddock, doctoral student in geography, *Springfield, Mo.*, best doctoral paper, a $100 award, for“Queer Camp: Economic Impact Analysis of an Alternative Tourism Destination in the Missouri Ozarks”; andJim Wells, doctoral student in geography, *Averill Park, N.Y.*, alternate to the Great Plains-Rocky MountainDivision Geography Bowl team.

NEW FROM GTU:

The new Kansas State University Department of Geography t-shirts are in! Once again, GTU has t-shirtsavailable with a new design created by two of our students. As many of you know, funds raised from the saleof these shirts are used to provide travel assistance to students, to fund chapter activities such as the annualbanquet and fall picnic, and to secure funding for visiting speakers. Currently, the shirts are available in sizesS - XL in both long and short sleeve. Shirts are dark gray with a globe and “Department of Geography;Kansas State University” on the front, and a compass rose with a Powercat on the back. Be sure to get yourstoday. To order, please contact Rhett Mohler at: rlmohler@ksu.edu

Long Sleeve: $18.00 or $24.99 shippedShort Sleeve: $12.00 or $17.99 shipped

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FACULTY AND STAFF OF THE GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

Front Row: Huber Self, Richard Marston, Karen De Bres, Bimal Paul, Lisa Harrington, David Kromm, Jeffrey SmithMiddle Row: Steve Stover, Deb Che, Chuck Martin (poster board stand in), Doug Goodin, John Harrington, Max LuBack Row: Shawn Hutchinson, Kathy Zimmerman, Kendra McLauchlan, Kevin Blake, Steve White, Chuck Bussing, Duane Nellis

Outside of Seaton Hall after the December 2007 ice storm.

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Kansas State University Geography Alumni Update Form

We enjoy hearing from you, the Geography Alumni, so please take a few minutes to complete the followingform, now, before you forget! Your information and comments will be included in the next AlumniNewsletter.

Thank you very much!

Name: ________________________________________________________________________ Occupation: ___________________________________________________________

Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________ Title: ______________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________ Employer: ______________________________________________________________

E-mail Address: _________________________________________________________ Other: ____________________________________________________________________

Year Graduated: _________________________________________________________ Degree: __________________________________________________________________

Year Graduated: _________________________________________________________ Degree: __________________________________________________________________

Year Graduated: _________________________________________________________ Degree: __________________________________________________________________

Other information or comments of interest for the next Alumni Newsletter:

Please return this form to:Kathy Zimmerman

Kansas State UniversityDepartment of Geography

118 Seaton HallManhattan, KS 66506–2904

E-mail: kzimmerm@ksu.edu and Fax: 785-532-7310

Kansas State UniversityDepartment of Geography118 Seaton HallManhattan, Kansas 66506-2904

See the Alumni Newsletter on the Web at:www.ksu.edu/geography/alumni2008

Nonprofit Organization

U. S. POSTAGEP A I D

Permit #525Manhattan, KS 66502

Department of Geography Travel Mugs

Drink the beverage of your choice in this handsome and functional 16 oz. insulatedstainless steel travel mug featuring the internationally-recognized ”Powercat Globe”logo. Testimonials confirming the quality of these priceless drinking aids are alreadyin:

“This is clearly the finest beverage container for geographers available in today’s market.My coffee stayed warm for hours, and tasted better, than if consumed from standardceramic or styrofoam.”

Drink coffee the same way as AAG Presidents, Provosts, Deans, and lowly AssistantProfessors do! Each mug is only $8.00 (cash or check) and can be shipped in the mailfor only $2.00 more!