The Geography Department had excellent representation at the AAG annual conference in San Francisco, from April 17 – 21. In total, twenty-one departmental members attended the meeting this year. It included six faculty members, eleven graduate students, one research scientist, one faculty research assistant, and two undergraduates. Attendees planned, participated, or served on panels on over 21 sessions.

The six faculty attendees were Cathy Carter, Martha Geores, Sam Goward, Shunlin Liang, John Townshend, and Naijun Zhou.

The eleven graduate students were Jose Roa-Lobo, Tim Heleniak, Jennifer Pomeroy, Ronald Luna, Richard Russo, Kelly O’Neal, Evan Ellicott, Tao Zheng, Kuan Song, Jessica McCarty and Chris Neigh.

The Research Scientist attendee was Chengquan Huang and the Faculty Research assistant attendee was Shiram Ilavajhala.

Our two undergraduate attendees are Karim Thompson and Lidia Lopez.

AAG award winners: Kuan Song won third place in the Remote Sensing Specialty Group Student Honors Paper Competition. This carries a cash award of $150. Evan Ellicott and Tao Zheng each earned Honorable Mentions in the same competition. They won a one-year Erdas Imagine license and a one-year Idrisi Andes license.

Newly Elected Officers: Jennifer Pomeroy was reelected as Director of Developing Countries in Regional Development and Planning Specialty Group.

Kelley O’Neal was elected as the Webmaster/Newsletter Editor for the Remote Sensing Specialty Group. She is also now a Director for the Graduate Student Affinity Group.

Tim Heleniak was elected as Member-at-Large to the Russian, Central Eurasian, and East European Specialty Group.

Booth: The department’s presence was again made known by sponsoring a booth in the Exhibit Hall. This year, in addition to posters represented undergoing projects in the department and written material, the booth featured a monitor playing a DVD of department activities. The DVD was produced by Cathy Carter, and enhanced the presentation significantly.