News & Events

Dept. Event Calendar:

Dept. of Geography Calendar of Major Events and Activities.

2013 Department of Geography Graduation and Awards Ceremony:

2013 Geography Department
Graduation and Awards Ceremony

Undergraduate Awards:

Outstanding Undergraduate Paper Contest:
On behalf of the Undergraduate Geography club, fourth year student Maegan Miller and Geography Undergraduate Advisor Brook Raake presented the awards for the first annual Outstanding Undergraduate Paper Contest. All paper submissions were written for geography courses during the 2012-2013 academic year and were evaluated on the basis of strength of thesis, clarity of argument, and quality of engagement with geographical concepts. There were nine submissions in total that spanned a wide range of courses and covered topics such as the spatial segregation in Jewish ghettoes, metrics for evaluating global cities, an evaluation of the proposed 3-C high speed rail corridor, and theoretical engagements with scale. This year, the selection committed chose winners, fourth years Tim Adams and Devin Oliver. Tim's paper was titled "Transcending the Onion: An Engagement with Site Ontology" and Devin's Paper was titled "Rio's 'Sexy' Olympic Transformation: Interrogating the Role of Sexuality in Urban Branding and Mega-Event Planning." Each of the winners was awarded a $50 gift card, a geography department t-shirt, and a coffee mug.

We have 5 different undergraduate awards, which we are giving to 8 individual undergraduate students today. Each student will receive a certificate or a plaque, and - even better! - each award includes a monetary component as well.

Presented by Professor Nancy Ettlinger.

The undergraduate awards begin with two different scholarships that we give to returning students, the Sharpe Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduatesand the Fenburr Scholarship for Women and Underrepresented Groups. Students who receive both these awards were chosen on the basis of their scholarly excellence, high GPAs, and their professionalism, as indicated in their statements about professional goals and activities ranging from volunteer work, research, activism, work in extracurricular organizations, and leadership.

• Fenburr Scholarship for Women and Underrepresented Groups. These scholarships were established in 2002 with funds from the Herbert and Dorothy Joseph Fenburr Scholarship Endowment Fund for Geography, which was established in 2002.

I am delighted to honor three outstanding students with this award.

• Colleen Durfee
• Michaela King (not present)
• Dana Thompson

• Sharpe Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduates. The Sharpe award was established with funds from the Gary L. Sharpe Scholarship Fund in Geography, which was established in 2010. This scholarship provides funds for undergraduate students majoring in Geography with preference given to students from the state of Ohio.

It is my pleasure to honor 2 outstanding students with the Sharpe Scholarship.

• John Bangoff
• Nathaniel Henry (not present)

Second, we have 3 awards for students completing their major. The goal of these awards is to honor these students' achievement in the classroom, research, service and/or leadership. The students chosen for these awards were all nominated by individual faculty members who wrote glowing letters about them. These students are all outstanding emerging scholars - all noted by faculty to be exceptional.

Taaffe Award for Outstanding Undergraduates in Atmospheric Science, and Climate and Physical Geography. This award was established with funds from the Edward J. "Ned" Taaffe Memorial Fund in Geography, established in 2003. It is my pleasure to honor DAN MILLER with this prestigious award.

Dan's research project, which is being prepared as peer-reviewed journal submission, aims to use meteorological observations from an ongoing NSF-funded project to help identify and calibrate the primary processes responsible for the oxygen isotopic ratio signature observed in the Bruce Plateau Core in the Antarctic Peninsula. This calibration will allow more robust conclusions to be drawn about pre-1950 conditions from the ice core-derived proxy data. Dan presented his initial findings at the American Meteorological Society's Annual Conference this January. At this meeting he also presented the results of his research at the Center for Multiscale Modeling and Atmospheric Processes at Colorado State University, where he was awarded an internship in the summer of 2012; this research examined local climate policies and green energy initiatives in Fort Collins, Colorado. Dan later presented his Antarctic research at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, where he was awarded an honorable mention.
Beyond his research projects, Dan has worked with the Ice Core Paleoclimate Research Group at Byrd Polar since he was a freshman and has assisted with organizing the ice core archive and compilation of ice core-derived data sets.  Rearranging ice cores in freezers at -30 degrees Fahrenheit, Dan was able to have "the polar experience" right here in Columbus.
Dan's advisor is Ellen Mosley-Thompson; she cannot be here today, but she sends her warmest wishes and congratulations. She was joined on Dan's committee by Ph.D. candidate Brad Goodwin, who was instrumental in mentoring Dan with data analysis methodology for the Antarctic Peninsula project.
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Dan has an impressive record of service to OSU at BuckeyeThon, and to the broader community through the Mid-Ohio Food Bank and Central Ohio Animal Shelters.
Dan is graduating with honors. He will be heading to graduate school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he has been awarded a GRA in the Northeast Climate Science Center.  Please join me in congratulating Dan and wishing him well in his bright future!

Huntington Award for Outstanding Undergraduates in Environment and Society, and in Urban Regional and Global Studies. This award was established with funds from the Charles Clifford Huntington Memorial Fund, established in 1957 by a gift from Helen Hughes Huntington in the memory of her husband. It is my pleasure to honor MEAGAN MILLER with this prestigious award.

Maegan is a human geographer with interests in social justice. Her undergraduate thesis was an engaging study of anti-homeless law and enforcement in Columbus. Despite rhetoric about Columbus being an apparently ‘nice' city regarding the homeless, notably with reference to a language of care and compassion, Maegan found persistent implicit criminalization of the homeless through new strategies that blur the line between city government and civic society. These findings reflect a research strategy that spans a variety of types of sites across the city landscape. Meagan's research is based on secondary as well as primary data, including 20 IRB-approved interviews.
Maegan's advisor, Mat Coleman, is out of town and sends his very best and warmest wishes. He was joined on Maegan's committee by Nancy Ettlinger and Nada Moumtaz in the Department of Comparative Studies. Beyond the thesis project, Maegan presented her research at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. Outside formal academic work, Maegan is currently co-President of the Undergraduate Geography Club, Executive Director of the new progressive student news magazine on campus (The Pulse), an editorial member for the Journal of Politics and International Affairs based in the Department of Political Science, and a mentor for the Girls' Circle program on campus. She has served as a tutor for the Dowd Center of the Homeless Foundation in Columbus, and has interned at both the Community Refugee and Immigration Service and the Kaleidoscope LGBTQ Youth Center in Columbus. Maegan has also participated in Ohio State's study abroad program in Indonesia. She is indeed well rounded!
Maegan is graduating with honors and research distinction. She is heading to graduate studies at UCLA in Geography, where she will be funded via UC's prestigious fellowship: the multi-year Cota Robles fellowship. Please join me in congratulating Meagan and wishing her well in her bright future!

Robinson Award for Outstanding Undergraduates in GIScience and Spatial Analysis. This award was established with funds from the Arthur H. Robinson Fund, established in 1985, based on an initial gift from Arthur Robinson in 1947. It is my pleasure to honor MAHMOD ABDALLA with this prestigious award.

Mahmod came to the United States from Sudan, with interests in both the experiences of recent immigrants here in Columbus, as well as a strong focus on public health issues in his homeland. He blends these important substantive interests with spatial analysis and GIS.
As all research is to some extent a matter of perseverance, Mahmod's senior thesis is a case in point. He wanted to research West Nile virus in Franklin County, and had to deal with the frustration of highly uneven data availability, notably that data are available for Franklin County, excepting Columbus. With that in mind, he transformed his project so as to identify the problems for data analysis and lay an important foundation for future research. From the mapping and locational analysis components of the project, Mahmod was able to determine that the location of monitoring stations in Franklin county has been driven principally by jurisdictions. His research, then, sets the stage for the design of an effective spatial sampling scheme.
Beyond the thesis, Mahmod presented his research at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. He is graduating with research distinction in Geographic Information Science. His advisor, Ningchaun Xiao, has been in Guangzhou this semester and by skype joined Morton O'Kelly and Desheng Liu for the thesis defense. Neither Morton nor Ningchaun can be here today, but they send they send their warmest wishes and congratulations.
In addition to his research in GIScience, Mahmod interned with the Center for Urban and Regional Research. When he is not busy working at CURA and on his research, he is busy being a husband and father. He is now poised to find the job of his dreams. Please join me in congratulating Mahmod and wishing him well in his bright future!

Congratulations to all the exceptional undergraduate students who have received awards!

Graduatestudent Awards:

Fenburr Travel Scholarship for Outstanding Graduate Students
This $600 scholarship is intended to offset costs of travel associated with professional development. The competition is run twice a year, with three awards made in Autumn and Spring and the competition is open to Master's and doctoral students. The awardees for this past year are Alfonso Fernandez (Autumn 2012), Jeff Olson (Autumn 2012), Scott Reinemann (not present) (Autumn 2012), Peter Chen (not present) (Spring 2013), Emily Scarborough (Spring 2013), and Aaron Wilson (Spring 2013).

Rayner Scholarship for Field Work
This scholarship provides $1,000 to support fieldwork endeavors by graduate students. The awardees for this past year are Jessica Barnes (Autumn 2012), Nick Crane (Autumn 2012), Hyeseon Jeong (Spring 2013), and Oliver Wigmore (Spring 2013).

Lakshmanan Chatterjee Fellowship for Outstanding Ph.D. Students
('Lakshmanan Chatterjee Fellowship')
This endowment was established June 5, 2009 with gifts from Dr. Tiruvarur R. Lakshmanan and Dr. Lata Chatterjee to be used to recognize a distinguished graduate student in the Department of Geography who is in the PhD program.
This award is intended to benefit a PhD student either from the Global South (Asia, Africa, or Latin America) or carrying out research on the Global South. The award should support a student professionally focused on issues of benefit to humanity, and with demonstrated professional promise. The fellowship provides funds for research and it was awarded to Alfonso Fernandez and Zoe Pearson. Alfonso is studying the dynamics of Chilean glaciers in a context of climate change. Zoe is conducting fieldwork to understand the lingering effects of the war on drugs in Bolivia. Both recipients received $1,000.

The Robert Max Thomas Graduate Fellowship ('Thomas Fellowship')
Jessica Barnes was selected as the 2013 Robert Max Thomas Graduate Fellowship. Her research examines the value of artist entrepreneurs to the local economy, not just in monetary terms but also in personal, emotional and cultural value. Her dissertation stands to make important contributions to economic geography in urban cultural economy. Jessica has two peer-reviewed publications and two others in progress. She has served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for many terms, and developed our first online course, Geog 2750: World Regional Geography.
This award recognizes graduate student excellence, broadly defined. Qualified candidates shall demonstrate professional promise with special consideration given to students expressing an interest in economic geography or the impact of geography on economic development.  The award is for $4,000.

The E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Fellowship ('Miller Fellowship')
This year's E. Williard and Ruby S. Miller Fellow is Christine Biermann. Christine is a broadly trained human and physical geographer. In her nomination letter, her advisor calls her a creative thinker, whose exceptional research on the restoration of the American chestnut promises to make a splash in political ecology, restoration ecology and science studies. Christine is the recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She has four peer-reviewed publications published or forthcoming. She has taught Geog 3980 (Biogeography: an Introduction to Life on Earth) twice.
The E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Fellowship Award is the highest recognition the department can bestow on a Graduate student. The award is given in recognition of potential to make a major contribution to geography or its subfield(s), particularly through scholarship and scholarly writing. The award is for $4,000.

Retiring Faculty:

Yuri Medvedkov, Professor of Geography at The Ohio State University 1987-2013. In appreciation of your dedicated service for 26 Years.

More pictures can be found on the Department Facebook Page.

Colloquium Series

The Department of Geography is proud to present the Colloquium Series, a program that attracts researchers and guest scholars from across the country to share their passion and researcher expertise in the field of Geography with the Ohio State community.

The Colloquium Series is made possible in part by generous contributions through the Department of Geography’s Edward J. 'Ned' Taaffe Memorial Fund, the Arthur H. Robinson Fund, and the John E. Nelson Colloquium Endowed Fund. Read More →

Hunker Tour Featured in the Lantern

On November 3, 1956, our very own Prof. Henry L. Hunker, led a group of professional geographers from around the country on a tour of "Urban-Industrial Columbus, Ohio." Thanks to Prof. Ola Ahlqvist and his students, you can relive Prof. Hunker's tour on Google Earth! Click here for details.