Current Department News

• Claudia Monzon: The highly competitive fellowship that Claudia won was for her  research titled: Governance of natural resources in Calakmul, Mexico: Environmental rules for fire management and human-environmental outcomes.
• Krithi Karanth: The UF Alumni Association announced that Krithi Karanth has been selected by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as a 2013 Outstanding Young Alumnus. The UF Alumni Association established this award to recognize Gators who have distinguished themselves in business, community, or service.  Krithi completed a Master in Environmental Science at Yale, working with Dr. Lisa Curran, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences at Duke with Drs. Norm Christensen and Stuart Pimm. She then took a post-doc at Columbia University with Dr. Ruth DeFries, a MacArthur Fellow and member of the US National Academy of Sciences (as is Pimm). She was named an Emerging Explorer by the National Geographic Society, was awarded the 10,000^th research grant from NGS, was named as a rising young women of achievement by Elle Magazine, and has been nominated in the Environment category for the L’Oreal Paris Femina Women Awards 2013. She has become a world leader in the study of how people live in high population densities around protected areas. Krithi is currently the executive director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bangalore, India, and is a Ramanujan Fellow 2011-2016. She also holds appointments with Duke University, the Indian National Centre for Biological Sciences, and Columbia University. CONGRATULATIONS!
• SEDAAG 2012: UF Geography had a strong presence at the conference this year. Undergraduate Hannah Herrero, graduates Erin Bunting, Yin-Hsuen Chen, Ian Comstock,  David Keellings, Stephanie Zick , and faculty members Corene Matyas, Joann Mossa, and Peter Waylen all presented their work at the conference. Presentations were also made by recent alumni Andrea Gaughan and Risa Patarasuk.  Sharon Cobb, who received her PhD from UF Geography in 1998 and is now a faculty member at the University of North Florida was honored at the banquet.
• Anderson Lecturer: Dr. Marshall Shepherd, President of the American Meteorological Society and Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia was this year's speaker. His talk is archived at http://mediasite.video.ufl.edu/Mediasite/Play/095420ee1e794a31ad5162054a98e46b1d
• The SEER Lab will be taking on a new PhD student beginning Spring 2013 to assist with a spatio-temporal modeling effort to improve anthrax surveillance in Australia with the Department of Primary Industries.  Apply now to the graduate program in the Department of Geography and also contact Dr. Jason Blackburn for more details. FLIER
• Dr. Joann Mossa was awarded an EDGE Careers and Outreach grant from the AAG to develop a portfolio system to assess student learning outcomes by our undergraduates
• Dr. Smith receives a Fulbright Award to give some lectures and conduct collaborative research on the ethnobotany of several archaeological sites in the Brazilian Amazon. He will work help identify botanical remains in archaeological sites and ascertain the extent to which the vegetation on and around archaeological sites has been modified by human, particularly enrichment of vegetation with economic plants. The department congratulates Dr. Smith on his signal achievement.
• Dr. Stephen Golant was awarded the 2012 Richard M. Kalish Award from the Gerontological Society of America for his article “The quest for residential normalcy by older adults: Relocation but one pathway,” published in the Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 25, pp 193-205.

• Dr. Joann Mossa wins Advisor of the Year Award
  
• Dr. Corene Matyas receives $470,000 NSF CAREER Award

• 2013 Recipient of the John and Fawn Dunkle Fellowship Award

    

• April 2013. Hannah Herrero is the 2013 recipient of the Dunkle Award. This award of $1000 is made annually to an undergraduate Geography major who shows sustained academic excellence, involvement in departmental activities, leadership and strong promise for graduate study. This year was the tenth year this scholarship was awarded. Previous winners are Justin Fisch, Dylan Paul, Michelle Ruiz, Cammryne Anderson, Jordan Wright, David Rosenblaum, Nicholas Campiz, Cerian Gibbes, and Lila Schaller.

• 2012 Recipient of the Edward Fik Fellowship

  May 2012: An award of $500 is made annually to a graduate student in the process of writing their thesis . The Fik Award is supported by Prof. Timothy Fik in memory of his late father. No award was given this year. Previous winners are Fan Li, Ashish Patel,  Lin Cassidy, Joel Hartter and Cerian Gibbes.

• The Glenn R. Anderson Visiting Lectureship

    The Anderson Visiting Lectureship was created thanks to the generous donation of Robert Anderson in name if his brotherGlenn who was a Geography major at UF in the 1960s. Each year, the Anderson Lecture brings leaders in various areas within Geography to talk with students and to learn about the great things going on here at UF. 
  Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia and President-Elect of the American Meteorological Society spoke on October 10, 2012. His lecture on climate change in the southeast can be viewed online here: http://mediasite.video.ufl.edu/Mediasite/Play/095420ee1e794a31ad5162054a98e46b1d

• 2013 Recipients of the Ryan Poehling Fellowship Award

    
  December 2012. Two awards of $1500 are made annually to 2 graduate students who best exemplify the sustained academic excellence, commitment to departmental service and leadership of the graduate program which Ryan displayed. The 2013 fellowship winners are:         Yang Yang (PhD) and Nirav Patel (Master's), joining past winners:  Erin Bunting, Erica Carlsson, Pinki Mondal, Caroline Staub, Lin Cassidy,  Ann Angelheart, Andrés Guhl, Natalia Hoyos, Jim Rasmussen and Matt Marsik.