Study hard, ace your finals, and use the summer to advance your personal goals, UI Geography Department tells students

UI Geography students will highlight their dynamic diversity this summer as they disburse across a wide-range of places and spaces after the Spring semester comes to an end on May 16.  Some students are taking summer courses right here in Iowa City, others have secured internships, part-time jobs, and research projects, and still others are planning to unwind on beaches and frisbee golf courses.  The UI Department of Geography wishes everyone a hearty good luck on finals and a safe, productive summer vacation.  We look forward to seeing all of you again next Fall.  A full listing of courses offered by the department next Fall may be viewed here.

UI Geography Professor Rex Honey named first-ever "Faculty Mentor of the Year" by International Programs

UI Cultural Geography Professor Dr. Rex Honey has been named the first-ever "Faculty Mentor of the Year" by International Programs. 

"Dr. Honey was chosen for this award because of his unwavering support for, and outstanding service to, International Studies and all of our students," said Deowning A. Thomas, the Associate Dean of International Programs. 

UI Department of Geography welcomes post-doctoral researcher Dr. Auromeet Saha to the team

The UI Department of Geography would like to welcome Dr. Auromeet Saha to, who will be working as a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Naresh Kumar.  Dr. Saha received his PhD in Physics from Andhra University in India.  Prior to joining the UI Geography Department, Dr. Saha worked at Texas A&M University, where he was involved in the construction and development of a Continuous Flow Diffusion Chamber (CFDC) for Ice Nucleation studies.  At the University of Iowa, Dr. Saha will be pursing research on space-time dynamics of air pollution and its effect on human health.  In addition to this, he will also be working towards the development of personal samplers for measuring the exposure to nano particles.

Two new books published by Dr. Kathleen Stewart Hornsby:

Dr. Kathleen Stewart Hornsby, an Assistant Professor of Geoinformatics in the UI Department of Geography, recently published two new books.

Dr. Stewart Hornsby is co-editor of Understanding Dynamics of Geographic Domains, published in April 2008 by CRC Press. This book contains eleven chapters by a multi-disciplinary group of authors on topics relating to modeling geographic dynamics and GIScience. This book is a partner to an earlier publication co-authored by Kathleen Stewart and May Yuan on Computation and Visualization for Understanding Dynamics in Geographic Domains: A Research Agenda, which may be purchased line from Amazon by clicking here or from CRC Press by clicking here.

Dr. Gerald Rushton elected to a three-year term on the Faculty Assembly

UI Geography Department professor Dr. Gerald Rushton has been elected to a three year term on the Faculty Assembly as a representative of the social sciences group of faculty.

Crossing Borders Convocation held on UI Campus April 3-5, organized by UI Geography Professor Dr. Rex Honey

UI Department of Geography Professor Dr. Rex Honey organized and hosted the 9th annual Crossing Borders Convocation April 3-5, 2008 in Iowa City.  The theme of this year's convocation was "Transitions in Modern Muslim Societies" and featured a weekend of workshops, panel discussions, and plenary sessions.  On April 3, Dr. Honey gave the opening address on "Transitions in Modern Muslim Societies" to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council.  A convocation schedule may be viewed here.

UI Geography professors return from social entrepreneurship class in India

Social entrepreneurs are described as “new heroes,” people who often work against the odds to find solutions where others only see problems (e.g. poverty and unemployment, environmental problems, lack of infrastructure).  Often (but not always) working in developing countries, social entrepreneurs observe that part of society is stuck, and find ways to get it unstuck. 

Over winter break Professors R. Rajagopal and Ed Brands led a team of 23 Iowans for a 3-week period to Tamil Nadu, India to visit, participate with, and learn directly from social entrepreneurs in eight organizations that employ a diverse variety of techniques to address social problems such as child labor, unemployment, poverty, healthcare for the poor, illiteracy, community waste management, and schools for the handicapped.  The group of students included geography, engineering, nursing, business, social work, international studies/relations, public health, MBA, and art majors.

Last year, Professors Rajagopal and Brands' class earned rave reviews in BizEd Magazine, where their program was compared to similar ones at Harvard and LeHigh Universities.  The BizEd article, Making a Major Impact with Microfinance, BizEd Magazine. May/June 2007, is available online here.

Look for information on an exciting return lecture and public event discussing their trip in this section soon.  In the meantime, academia and media personnel, as well as other interested parties, may contact Dr. Rajagopal or Dr. Brands at r-rajagopal@uiowa.edu or edwin-brands@uiowa.edu.

Environmental Protection Agency interested in model developed by UI Geography professor Dr. Naresh Kumar:

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to enter into negotiations with The University of Iowa for work relating to spatial sampling of PM coarse particles for megacities. The EPA is interested in the method of optimal spatial sampling design developed by Dr. Naresh Kumar, and the passive sampler with new shelter designed by Dr. Thomas Peters and Darrin Ott, Dr. Kumar’s collaborators in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of Public Health.  The EPA’s intent to enter into negotiation with The University of Iowa is available online here:

Professor Naresh Kumar is also serving on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) PAR-07-345 review panel. It is a new mechanism for time-sensitive research opportunities. Details are available here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-07-345.html

Dr. Kumar also recently received a seed grant from the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC) to develop indirect methods of estimating indoor and outdoor air quality in Iowa City area. The grant amount is $30,000.  The UI press release may be read here.

New anthology edited by UI Geography professors recently published:

"Geocoding Health Data:  The Use of Geographic Codes in Cancer Prevention and Control, Research and Practice," a new anthology edited by UI Geography professors Dr. Gerald Rushton, Dr. Marc Armstrong, and Dr. Claire Pavlik, was recently published.  In addition to chapters by the editors themselves, UI Graduate Students Chetan Tiwari, Kirsten Beyer, Qiang Cai, Zunqiu Chen and Geoffrey Smith are also co-authors of chapters in the book.  Copies may be ordered from the publisher by clicking here.

Faculty Grants, Student Scholarships, and Recent Publications:

Mazumdar, S.; Rushton, G.; Smith, B.J.; Zimmerman, D.L.; Donham. K.J. 2008.  Geocoding accuracy and the recovery of relationships between environmental exposures and health.  International Journal of Health Geographics, 7:13 (3 April 2008).

Yuan, M. and K. Stewart Hornsby (2007) Computation and Visualization for Understanding Dynamics in Geographic Domains: A Research Agenda, CRC Press, New York, NY.

Ott, D., Kumar, N. and Thomas, P., 2008. Passive sampling to capture spatial variability in PM10–25, Atmospheric Environment, 42 (2008) 746–756. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.09.058.

Zimmerman, D., Pavlik, C. 2008. Quantifying the Effects of Mask Metadata Disclosure and Multiple Releases on the Confidentiality of Geographically Masked Health Data.  Geographical Analysis, 40(1): 52-76.

 Yadav, V. and  Malanson, G.P. 2008. Spatially explicit land use land cover and soil organic carbon transformations in southern Illinois. Agriculture,  Ecosystems & Environment, 123: 280-292.

Wang, Q. and Malanson, G.P. 2007. Patterns of correlation among landscape metrics. Physical Geography, 28: 170-182.

Kumar, N. and A. D. Foster. 2007. Have CNG regulations in Delhi done their job?  Economic and Political Weekly, 42(51): 48-58.

Read here: http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/11357.pdf

Kumar, N., 2007. Spatial Sampling for a Demographic and Health Survey. Population Research and Policy Review, 26(5-6): 581-99. DOI: DOI 10.1007/s11113-007-9044-7.

Read here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h88202454078193k/fulltext.pdf

Sciences Research Center is seeking innovative, environmental health-related research proposals from University of Iowa researchers in three categories:  senior ($50,000), open ($30,000), and international ($10,000).  Areas of interest for funding include, but are not limited to:  studies of susceptibility to environmentally induced disease; environmental risk factors for disease; fundamental biology with environmental relevance; environmental and mammalian toxicology; occupational and environmental medicine; assessment of exposures to environmental agents; and environmental remediation and control.  The application deadline is February 1, 2008.  For more information, go here.  

Upcoming Lectures:

May 2

Dr. David Bennett, an Associate Professor with the UI Department of Geography will deliver a Kohn Colloquium lecture titled "the Provenance of Complexity" at 3:30pm in 221 Jessup Hall.