Chair's Message
From: Karl Zimmerer, Chair, Department of Geography
Science
Hall is settling into the depths of fall semester, full of a new crop
of graduate students and undergraduates. The snow has flown, as of last
week, leaving us with a dusting of the familiar white stuff. For the
first time in recent memory these MadGeogNews pages are not announcing
the new arrival of a faculty member, although there is plenty of activity
to report. We are able to pause enough to recognize that 12 of the Department's
19 faculty having been appointed within the past 10 years. It is, however,
only a temporary hiatus. Currently we are conducting a search for a new
hire in GIScience/Cartography, which suggests that words of welcome for
new faculty may be waiting only until a future issue.
One major new appointment has occurred in the ranks of staff in the Department. Dr. Matthew Edney has been appointed the new Director of the History of Cartography Project. Matthew is on leave from the University of Southern Maine, where he is an Associate Professor of Geography. We are pleased to have Matthew's expertise, experience, and energy leading the project. After receiving his Ph.D in the Department in 1990 under the supervision of David Woodward, Matthew has become established as an international leader in the history of cartography, which help make him an ideal choice to guide the project through this next phase (see the article in this issue).
Dust is beginning to settle from the relocation of Department offices to the first floor of Science Hall, which was accomplished last year, and the floor-to-ceiling remodeling of the Department's physical geography laboratories on the north wing of the second floor. The lab remodeling, begun nearly two years ago, has dimensions of unprecedented scope and significance in the Department. It provides a group of three completely remodeled laboratory facilities for research and teaching that are state-of-the-art for the Department's faculty and students in geomorphology, paleoenvironmental studies, and global environmental change science.
The Department is looking forward to an expanded series of visiting speakers as part of the Yi-Fu Tuan Colloquia that are held in the afternoon on most Fridays. This year's colloquia feature the added highlight of a special series of speakers devoted to Feminist Geography that has been organized by Leila Harris. Even the hallways themselves are abuzz with new activity this fall, namely the newest phase in the restoration of the plaster relief maps whose memorable displays of places and topography have long adorned the corridors of Science Hall. Under the direction of Onno Brouwer, the Director of the Cartography Laboratory, the plaster relief maps are being expertly restored and renewed. The Department is actively looking for donors to serve as sponsors of the restoration work, as described inside this issue. It is a golden opportunity to help renew and give new life to some of the often overlooked geographic elements that are integral to the charm and future vitality, as well as the memories, of Science Hall.
Finally, it certainly bears mentioning that not all the news about geographers on campus is coming out of Science Hall this fall. On the other side of Bascom Hill there are job interviews taking place for a position in Rural Sociology, with geographers having been chosen as two of the three short-list candidates. Our fingers are crossed that with this job search also we may have the chance to welcome another geographer as a faculty colleague on campus before long.
