Malcolm Mathias MS 1974

Hello Madison,

It was the mention of Professor George Dury on the front page of Issue 65 (Spring 2005) MadGeogNews that compelled me to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. He was a wonderful man. George and his wife Muriel were very kind to me during my stay in Madison. I have many fond memories of the Department of Geography, Science Hall, the Cartography lab and field trips with George Dury, who was my M.S. supervisor from 1973-74.

As an international student (Australian), I was awarded the Whitbeck Fellowship to study in the U.S. in the Department of Geography at UW-Madison. I researched climatic data for my M.S., looking at regional trends and cycles. As an Australian living in the University Residence Halls, I look back on my time at Madison as one of the happiest and most fulfilling life experiences. I held the position of Assistant Hall Adviser at Witte Hall and studied full time.

At left: Malcolm Mathias at the town of Echuca in Victoria, Australia - an historic paddlesteamer port on the Murray River. The Murray River is the boundary between the states of Victoria and New South Wales. The river has a long history of floods and the old river red gums near the original Hopwood ferry crossing are marked with the height the river reached during major flood events since 1853. Old river red gums require frequent river flooding to sustain growth. Photo by El Papworth.

Since Science Hall, I've had varied career in secondary and tertiary education thanks to a broad range of geographic, mathematic and computing skills. I lectured in Physical Geography at Melbourne State College before joining the Education Department of Victoria as a Mathematics and Geography teacher. I wrote a text book for Year 12 Geography titled The Earth in Action and became the statewide vetting examiner for Year 12 Geography. I was promoted through the teaching ranks to become Associate Principal at Mount Waverley Secondary College. At one stage I was the Senior Policy Officer for Computer Education within the head office of the Education Department of Victoria. I wrote briefing papers for the Minister for Education and the Victorian Parliament on the development of the use of computers across the curriculum in both Primary and Secondary schools. I facilitated the development of computer usage in all government schools across the state.

Divorce and the rigours of Family Law forced me to resign from the Education Department in 1994. I founded and lead "Fathers for Family Equity" for six years and became quite involved with politics and the media while campaigning for legislative changes. A Google search under "Malcolm Mathias" or "Malcolm H Mathias" will reveal some of my writing and activities.

I worked for some time as a designer of educational software with the State Computer Education Centre, the Curriculum Corporation, ISIS and Prologic. After the "dot.com crash" I became Head of Geography at Camberwell Grammar School before joining Swinburne University of Technology, Higher Education Division, at Hawthorn. I was the Divisional Quality Manager for Higher Education at Swinburne (Hawthorn), before transferring to Swinburne (Lilydale) where I now work as a Project Officer to the Deputy Vice Chancellor.

My current research is in the area of "Community Engagement" and I have a particular interest in student transition from secondary school to university life. My computer simulation skills and my geographic background are used extensively--looking at regional socioeconomic indicators, enrolment trends, retention rates, student aspirations and regional mapping. The current regional mapping is, of course, completely computerised using MapInfo and CDATA2001, quite unlike my days earning extra pocket money in the Science Hall cartographic lab drawing Wisconsin maps with Rotring pens! I still enjoy drawing house plans by hand!

I originally met El Yaffee, my now-life partner, while living in Madison. We parted company when I returned to Australia in 1974 and she went to teach in Racine, Wisconsin, but we met again in 1991 in Australia. We have now been together for 14 years. Our home has a "name plate" on the front entrance wall that reads "Madison" with a snowflake. We plan to marry on March 11, 2006 and return to Madison, Wisconsin in September/October 2006 as part of our honeymoon!

In closing, I must record my thanks for the opportunity and the financial support provided by the Whitbeck Fellowship from the Department of Geography. It was a major stepping stone in my life. I now enjoy 20:20 hindsight. I know that my experience at Madison was a life-shaping one. Best wishes to all Madison geographers. It is a life-long club.

Malcolm Mathias B.A.(Hons), Dip.Ed, M.Sc.
Project Officer to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale
Locked Bag 218 Lilydale, Victoria, Australia 3140
Email: mmathias@swin.edu.au

Charlie Montemayor, BA 1951

Whenever I get a chance to see it I enjoy reading the UW-Madison Geography Newsletter. Although it has been 57 years since I first took courses from Professors Finch and Trewartha, and a few years later from Arthur Robinson, it's nice to learn from the newsletter that their names are remembered, honored and have such an enduring quality.

I went on after geography to study urban planning and served for a while as the city planner of Green Bay, later as planning director of Manitowoc County, and finally as Executive Director of the Dane County Regional Planning Commission. In that position I had the pleasure of meeting and obtaining the services of Onno Brouwer who updated our mapping for the commission.

I have been retired for 15 years and living for the last 10 years in Guanajuato, in the central highlands of Mexico. I recently wrote a book: Retirement Tales: Two Gringos Living in Mexico, (available at iUniverse or Amazon). This is a lighthearted treatment of retirement in Guanajuato, a place we consider a magical city, but throughout the book I have tried to do justice with the facts. I like to think my training in geography at UW 57 years ago helped to this end.

I can be reached at: charles@montemayor.org .

--  Charlie Montemayor, August 2005

Naijun Zhou, PhD 2005

Starting from the Fall of 2005, I will be working at University of Maryland-College Park as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, where I will be teaching GIScience and continuing my research. My primary research foci will be data integration, semantics, database and web services.

As a student, I most appreciated the free academic environment at the geography department of UW-Madison—an environment allowing me to examine related fields of GIScience outside geography. The diverse resources and expertise on campus helped me establish a comprehensive and solid knowledge of my field.

I received my Ph.D of GIScience in July 2005. My dissertation studied the characteristics of the semantic heterogeneity of geospatial data, and proposed a theory and methodology of comparing geospatial semantics and integrating semantically different data.

In particular, I would like to express deep thanks to my advisor Mark Harrower and my former advisor Hong Jiang, and also Steve Ventura (Soils/IES), Jeff Naughton (Computer Sciences) and Richard Brualdi (Math).

Naijun Zhou
nzhou@wisc.edu
UMD Dept of Geography

Makram Murad-al-shaikh, MS 1983

Here is my news between my MS degree in August 1983, my arrival back in the U.S. in June 1992, and now:

When I graduated from the UW-Madison in 1983, I had 3 job offers in the United States. But I was forced to decline them and had to leave with my family back to Baghdad, Iraq. When in Baghdad, I went back to my position as assistant professor at the Institute of Technology, Baghdad and was teaching cartography and remote sensing in both the Surveying Department there as well as at the Department of Geography, University of Baghdad (my part-time job).

In 1984 I introduced Geographic Information Systems concepts in the cartography curriculum at both places where I taught. I had published 13 books and over 20 papers between 1983 and 1991.

After the Gulf War and in August I left Baghdad once and for all with my family. We had to pretend that we were leaving for a two-week vacation after the Gulf War of 1991, so that we can cross the border to Jordan. When in Jordan, I wrote some 150 letters to friends, relatives, professors asking for help in relocating. ESRI, Inc. in Redlands, California offered me a job in June 1992, and now we are happy citizens of this great country starting to enjoy "credit" living, paying taxes, and being stereotyped sometimes. I am still working as a senior instructor at ESRI, Inc. Educational services Department, since 1992. I am course manager and author of the Using Maplex and Cartography with ArcGIS courses. I am co-author of the Introduction to ArcGIS 1 & 2, Working with the Spatial Analyst extension to ArcGIS, and the What's New in ArcGIS courses.

Since 1993 and in every ESRI's International Users Conference, I have been presenting a 90-minute Basic Principles of Cartographic Design workshop, and have been involved in the Map Gallery as a map judge. I was honored one time when one of my former professors, Joel Morrison, attended my 90-minute presentation.

Since 1996 and in every ESRI's International Users Conference, I have been presenting a half-day pre-conference seminar on Cartography: Creating Better Maps.

Since 1996 I have been teaching (part-time) GIS Cartography courses in the GIS certification programs in nearby colleges and universities (San Bernardino Valley College, Riverside Community College, California State University - San Bernardino - Extended Learning, University of Riverside - Extension, and Loma Linda University - Public Health Dept.).

I have published papers and presented them:

• GIS Cartography Courses in GIS Certification Programs at the International Cartographic Conference, Durbin, South Africa, August 2003.
• ArcGIS Tools for Professional Cartography and Professional Labeling and Text Annotation Techniques with ArcMap at the International Cartographic Conference, A Coruña, Spain, July 2005.

I've also had a book published: Cartography with ArcGIS, a 3-day course that teaches one day of basic principles of cartography and 2 days of cartography with ESRI's ArcGIS 9 software. It was published by ESRI, Inc. in 2004. I have taught this course both in the US and internationally (Sweden, Thailand, South Africa in 2003; Dubai in 2004; Spain, England, and Egypt in 2005).

I visited Madison twice after I graduated. In July 1992 I met with the late professor David Woodward and Professor Phillip Muehrcke, and visited the Geography Department, Eagle Heights, etc. and then about 4 years ago I taught an ESRI course for the DOT staff in Madison.

Makram Murad-al-shaikh
mmurad@esri.com
Senior Instructor - ESRI Educational Services
http://www.esri.com/training/index.html
ESRI, Inc.
380 New York St. M3S07
Redlands CA 92373, USA

Emily Young, MS 1990

Director of Environment Analysis and Strategy, San Diego Foundation

Serge Dedina, MS 1991

Executive Director, Wildcoast     www.wildcoast.net

• Emily Young and Serge Dedina send in this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune (31 Oct 2004) with greetings to their fellow alumni:

Nomads settle on permanent base

By: Nina Garin, Staff Writer  Read this article online

Before they had kids, Serge Dedina and Emily Young lived in some strange places throughout Mexico: a two-man tent held together with duct tape, an 11-foot trailer, an old-mansion-turned-hotel.

Even after their sons, Israel and Daniel Dedina, were born, the family spent summers at environmental research stations throughout Baja searching for sea turtles, dolphins and good waves.

But after moving 13 times in their 15-year marriage, Serge and Emily recently decided to settle down. Imperial Beach, Serge's hometown, is where they picked for the family base. "All of a sudden, we're not going anywhere," says Serge, 40. "We're finally home."

Though they bought their house in the summer of 2000, it took a few years to remodel it. This past summer, the job was completed, and they moved back in. "My favorite part is my closet," says Daniel, 6. "It's big, and I can put lots of stuff in it now."

But the house is much more than a place to put toys and knickknacks from their travels. For the first time, the Dedinas feel like they're part of a community. "I've never had a community of friends before," Emily, 39, says. "Now we're getting together with other families, meeting people in our neighborhood. It's what we had hoped for."

When they met in 1985, Serge and Emily were exchange students in Peru. A month after they met, they went on a 12-mile hike up a 15,000-foot mountain. "I thought it was 12 kilometers, not 12 miles," says Emily. "I was pretty worn out and hiding behind rocks trying to catch my breath." After their adventurous semester, Emily moved back to Wisconsin and Serge went back to UCSD.

They continued a long-distance relationship while they both studied environmental issues. Serge now works at Wildcoast, a conservation group, and Emily manages the San Diego Foundation's Environmental program.

After the couple married in 1989, they spent their first year studying gray whales in Baja. That's when they lived in the trailer and heard whales spouting as they slept.

"We lived in a small town in Mexico, and everyone would always ask us when we were going to have kids," says Serge. "They would give us this plant, Damiana, they use that to make a fertility tea. They told us if we drank it, we would have babies."

Eventually, they did. And after Israel and Daniel were born, Emily got a job at the University of Arizona. But even then, they couldn't settle down completely. "I like Colorado because I like hiking and I get to ride my bike there," says Israel, 8. "Here you see ocean animals. In Colorado you see forest animals." Daniel, the youngest Dedina, prefers the ocean, like his dad.  "I like going surfing," he says. "In Sayulita, we got to see (the rock group) Mana for free. And sea turtles."

After relocating to California, the boys are able to keep up with their surfing. And even though the community is still developing, Serge hopes his family can contribute something to the neighborhood. "We really want to help make this a better place," says Serge. "We want to give our kids a future that's better than what we had. We're not the type to complain about a problem; we'd rather solve it."

Now that they've tackled the question of where they'd set their roots, the other problems should be easy.

[end]

~  Emily Young      email 
~  Serge Dedina      email

Ashley Weber, BA 2002

What do you do with a bachelors degree in geography? That's a tough one! I still can not explain to anyone what geography is. "No, I do not know the capital of Zimbabwe!" My interest in cities and redevelopment led me to major in geography (BA 2002). I specialized in human geography. During my senior year, I applied to City Planning master's programs. With the help of many amazing faculty members, I was accepted at and chose the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. At Carolina, I specialized in real estate development with an emphasis in urban redevelopment/community development. I discovered where all the geographers go: The Planning World! There is definitely a large concentration of geographers in the industry.

After graduation in 2004, I took a position with US Bancorp Community Development Corporation. The CDC makes investments in low income, historic, and new markets tax credit real estate projects. Where does a geography degree take you? I guess in my case...a geographer/city planner/banker! I believe my background in geography allows me to understand issue in a broader context, see the "big picture" and understand the systems and processes at work.

~ Ashley Weber, 2005

Sara Rauscher, PhD 2004

Staff Associate, International Research Institute for Climate Prediction
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades NY

I'm a graduate of the Department of Geography, receiving my Ph.D. in May 2004. The title of my dissertation is "Scale Dependent Climate Change Due to Deforestation in Amazonia." My advisor was Waltraud Brinkmann.

I have been working as a Staff Associate (equivalent to a Post Doc) at the International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate Prediction at Columbia University (http://iri.columbia.edu) since October 2003. I am part of a project that is investigating the use of a regional climate model to improve seasonal climate prediction over tropical and subtropical South America. Last summer I was invited to present results from this research at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. My research group is also working on analyzing general circulation model output for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report to determine the possible nature and extent of climate change over South America.

The IRI does work in people-environment interactions, and not just climatology and climate prediction. There are several Geographers here currently. Current positions open are listed at http://iri.columbia.edu/iri/job/index.html . CIESIN (The Center for International Earth Science Information Network), which is located on the same campus as IRI, also hires people trained in Geography, particularly those with cartographic and GIS skills. Their job listings are at http://ciesin.columbia.edu/jobs.html#staff .

~ Sara Rauscher, 2005
email

Paul C. Adams, MS 1990, PhD 1993

Assistant Professor, Geography, Univ of Texas-Austin
Assistant Professor, Science, Technology and Society, Univ of Texas-Austin
Faculty Advisor, Urban Studies, Univ of Texas-Austin

"I'm glad to say that after nine years and over 100 applications I ended up at a geography department I love. Most scholars and artists like to see themselves as "ahead of their time," particularly when they are less successful than they would like to be. I hope I'm not being self-indulgent to blame my rocky career start on being interested in something that didn't become popular in geography until some 6 years after I graduated. It seems my career was rescued from oblivion by the diffusion of the Internet, which led to discussions of virtual place, and I was able to boast of having studied virtual place as a Master's student, way back in the 1980s when no one else was talking about it.

It took persistence to establish my career, particularly during two years when I had a Ph.D. but wasn't able to find a teaching job of any kind. Fortunately, I managed to keep publishing and eventually obtained a lucky break from the University at Albany.

If there's one thing I'd love every geography grad to know, it's the fact that if I hadn't been forced to obtain my "tool" (three semesters of statistics) I might still be excluded from the academic world. Those hours TAing for Dan Doeppers also paid off. Albany hired me to teach Intro to Human Geography, Urban Geography, and Spatial Statistics. They figured I could do it even though I admitted to being only a so-so student in statistics. (I used the threadbare argument that being slow in something means you can sympathize with your students when they are having trouble with it.)

I was quite proud to work with two other UW-Madison grads (Steven Hoelscher and Karen Till) on the anthology, Textures of Place (University of Minnesota Press). My first monograph has just been published by Syracuse University Press. It's called The Boundless Self, and it deals with the ever-interesting and deceptively complex question: 'Where am I?' "

~ Paul Adams, Sept 2004

Mary Rueling

For the past year, Mary Reuling has worked as a Geographer for the Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau in Washington D.C. where she recently received a promotion. Mary works on the annual Boundary and Annexation Survey with the Legal Areas Team of the Census Bureau's Geography Division. She has been instrumental in writing and designing the requirement specifications for developing the Geographic Programs Quality Control and Plotting System, a new map plotting control system that facilitates the plotting and review of maps for the following geographic programs: School Districts, Boundary and Annexations, Local Update of Census Addresses, Redistricting, and the Decennial Census.

The image at right is Mary taking GPS readings.