Grad Student Marie Peppler is Contributing Author in New Scientific Investigations Report

Second-year Master's student Marie Peppler has recently been published as a contributing author on a new Scientific Investigations Report SIR 2004-5272 "Monitoring channel morphology and bluff erosion at two installations of flow-deflecting vanes, North Fish Creek, Wisconsin, 2000-03".

Link to the citation and report >>

Peppler is a Hydrologist student trainee in the Surface Water and Sediment Studies Team at the Wisconsin Water Science Center in Middleton, Wisconsin. She also contributed to a 2003 USGS Open File Report 2003-23 "Sedimentation and sediment chemistry, Neopit Mill Pond, Menominee Indian Reservation, Wisconsin, 2001".

PhD Minor Forms and Guidelines Now Online

Char Burke, Graduate Student Coordinator, has posted the PhD Minor Agreement form online. The form is accompanied by a separate page of Guidelines for PhD Minor Agreements.

The purpose of the minor is to add breadth to a PhD major. The PhD Minor Agreement Form and choice of Options must be filed with the graduate coordinator, and approved by the advisor(s) and student by the time the preliminary warrant is requested (a minimum of 3 weeks before the final preliminary examination). A warrant will not be issued until the proposed minor has been approved.

New Graduate Student Orientation Set for August 31

Char Burke, Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Geography, invites all graduate students, faculty, and staff to the New Graduate Student Orientation on Wed, August 31 from 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm in the Department lounge, room 388. Pizza and soda will be provided.

Department Chair Karl Zimmerer will welcome the incoming grads, and Char Burke will be on hand to answer questions and hand out grad student information packets. New grads will get a chance to introduce themselves and informally meet faculty members and senior grad students.

Photo at above: At the 2004 orientation, Bill Cronon (back left) and Tom Tews (back center) talk with grad students while others queue up at the pizza table.

We will be taking pictures of all the incoming grads. Dave Toland will be giving a tour of Science Hall again, and will be making a stop in the Geography Library where Tom Tews will give a detailed tour and hand out copy cards.

A Science Hall tradition is to make a "field trip" to study Wisconsin cultural geography at the Union Terrace after the orientation. See you there !

Photo at right: Doctoral student Feng Qi talks about choosing seminar classes with incoming grad Matt Liesch.

Photos by Char Burke

Computer Support and Help Desk Gets a New Web Interface

A new web interface for submitting Science Hall computer support Help Requests is now online at: http://www.geography.wisc.edu/support/ .

The interface was re-designed this summer to make the process much simpler and more interactive.

The new Computer Support interface (shown at right) features a new " 1-click Help Request " menu that allows for quick submittals of common help requests, such as printer or multimedia issues.

Test It -

You are welcome to test drive the new system. Submit a request with the word "TEST" in the NAME box. MAKE SURE TO ENTER A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS. Check your email to see a message from "Apache" with your Tracking Number. Feel free to phone the Computer Support office 262-8111 with any questions.

An Improved Process -

To improve computer support services for you, the Help Request process has changed as follows:

•  No more logging in. The left-hand blue menu gives you 1-click help requests for a variety of common problems. The menu at the top sends you to informational pages and other help. No special access is required.

•  A simple form. Select a Help Request categaory, then add your infomration and click "Submit". That's it. Be sure to include your working email address.  If your email is not working, fill in the address anyway.

•  You get a Tracking Number. Once your Request is submitted, a Tracking Number is sent to the email address you submitted. Save the Tracking Number for future reference when the technician calls.

•  In-out Board. For critical problems, check the in-out message board on the Help Desk door. The staff will note where they are in the building if they're not in the office.

Critical requests will get the same priority support. For non-critical requests, you will be contacted by a Computer Support staffer within 24 hours who will make arrangements to work on your problem. You can submit a Status form or call the office if you are not contacted.

For outstanding computer support issues submitted before this change, phone the Computer Support office at 262-8111 to get your Tracking Number and status.

Comments -

Comments on the new Computer Support web interface can be sent to Melanie McCalmont at webteam@geography.wisc.edu .

Letters of Recommendation Process Changes for New Grad School Applicants

As of 23 August 2005, the Letters of Recommendation process will change for newly applying graduate students. The reference letters will be submitted online by your reference instead of to the Department of Geography. The new process is faster, more secure, and allows for online letter review by the admitting committees. For questions about this new process, please contact the Graduate Student Coordinator, Char Burke.

During an application to the UW Graduate School, the applicant will be asked for three (3) references' names and email addresses. The UW Graduate School, not the student, will send the reference an invitation to submit their letter online. The text of the email sent to the reference will include the applicant's name, the department to which the applicant is applying, and a link to the submittal form.

Department of Geography web pages will no longer have a link to the Recommendation form, and neither will the UW Graduate School's admissions web pages. The only person who will have a link to the form will be the reference, and he/she will get this link because the applicant wrote the reference name and email address in the UW Grad School online application.

Read the UW Grad School overview here.

After the application has been finalized and submitted to the Graduate School, the applicant and the Department of Geography can view a receipt of the Letters of Recommendation through the online status system. Only the UW Graduate School and the Department of Geography admissions committee will be able to view the actual text of the Letter online.

GIS Day Expo at the UW-Madison on November 16, 2005

On Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 the UW-Department of Geography will host the 3rd Annual GIS Day Expo at the Memorial Union's Great Hall from 9am to 4pm.  The purpose of the event is to promote awareness of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related technologies for research, planning, management, education, and decision-making in a wide-array of application areas. The event is free for all participants and attendees.

Co-sponsors of this event are the Land Information Computer Graphics Facility (LICGF), Environmental Remote Sensing Center (ERSC), the Arthur Robinson Map Library, the Spatial Information and Analysis Consortium (SIAC), and the Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office (SCO).

Last year's expo was very successful, with over 250 students, faculty, staff and members of the greater community participating in the day's activities sponsored by 35 government agencies, academic programs, businesses and non-profit organizations.

We invite individuals and organizations to be involved by having an exhibition booth, giving a GIS demo or presenting a GIS application/topic, holding an interactive activity, or submitting a map or poster.  We welcome your creative ideas! If you wish to be a part of the 2005 GIS Day Expo, please fill out and return the form, downloadable on the 2005 GIS Day webpage.

For more information about this event and to take a look back at last year's expo, see: http://www.geography.wisc.edu/GISDay . This page will be updated frequently as plans unfold and our participant list grows. 

I hope you will join us for this exciting event!


Karen Tuerk
GIS Day Coordinator, Department of Geography

Staff Changes at Geography Library

Tom Tews writes:

A going away party for Geography staffer Richard Schwartz was held on Thursday, July 28, 2005 in the Geography Department's mail room / lounge. That day was his last day on the job at the Geography Library. Richard started here in the fall of 1999 after transferring from College Library.

He will now be stationed at the InterLibrary Loan office over at Memorial Library (rschwartz@library.wisc.edu).

Our new assistant in the Geography Library is Clara Salazar. She had most recently been working at the Geology Library. She started Monday, August 1st.

Department News Archives Now Online

News items from the Department of Geography website are now online at News Archives.

Stories about department events and people are grouped by year, then by story title or main person of interest. Photograph and general geography archives are also online, and will be gradually expanded.

If you have any department-related photographs, flyers, posters, maps, and articles, we encourage you to send them to the webteam for inclusion in the archives.

New Additions

Congratulations to geography doctoral student Ben Sheesley and wife Becky on the arrival of twin daughters, born August 6th in Madison. They can be reached at bcsheesley@wisc.edu .

Wolf Recovery Project Gets New Website

Lisa Naughton's research on wolves in Wisconsin and human-wildlife conflicts has a new web site. The "Living with Wolves" project (http://www.geography.wisc.edu/livingwithwolves) features a public opinion survey on wolves in Wisconsin and publications related to or published for the project. Naughton frequnetly is called on to lecture and present the latest research on wolves to a wide variety of government and private groups who are managing human-wildlife conflicts.

Dr. Naughton recently received a 2005 Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship to study environmental governance in Ecuador's protected areas and a 2005 Fulbright-IIE, 8 month research and teaching grant for Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

Input Needed for Student Resources Page

We need input from graduate and undergraduate students to enrich the Student Resources page.

This page is an informal collection of links and websites that are helpful for funding, professional development, registering, and finding student groups on campus.

If you have found any helpful sites or have links to other resources for navigating through univeristy life, send them to the Webteam. We are especially looking for links to funding and job information.