The following is the transcript used by Geography Chair Dan Montello while presenting the annual awards during the Department’s final Colloquium on May 28, 2015:
The department gives five major graduate student awards: Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Research, the Leal Anne Kerry Mertes Scholarship Award, the David S. Simonett Memorial Award, and the Jack & Laura Dangermond Graduate Fellowship. They all come with cash prizes, but the amounts vary because the funding for the awards comes from different sources, some of which are better funded than others. Those funded by department money vary depending on our account balance each year. This is unfortunate, to my mind, because the status of each award (all of them represent notable achievements) has little or no relationship to the size of its cash prize.
Excellence in Teaching: The annual Department of Geography Excellence in Teaching award is given to a graduate students who has an outstanding teaching and TAing track record, in terms of both quality and quantity. This award is made annually to a graduate student who has a record of receiving outstanding course evaluations, outstanding written comments from students, outstanding evaluations of their TA work by the course instructor, and/or outstanding design of course, section, or lab syllabi or activities. This year’s award, including a $500 prize, goes to Olaf Menzer.
Excellence in Research: The Department of Geography Excellence in Research award goes to a graduate student who has an outstanding research track record, in terms of both quality and quantity. The award is made annually to a graduate student who has a record of outstanding national and international conference presentations, publications, and/or lab or field studies. This year’s award, including a $500 prize, goes to Andrew Thorpe.
The Leal Anne Kerry Mertes Scholarship Award was established to award a scholar in natural or social sciences for conducting outstanding field research. The Scholarship supports undergraduate or graduate students at UCSB who are planning or are engaged in scientific field research. The Scholarship is awarded to talented and deserving students enrolled in any UCSB department where fieldwork is an integral component of research training. For the purpose of this scholarship, “field work” is defined as studying, sampling, observing, and/or measuring natural or human phenomena in the environments in which they normally exist. The funds support both the scholarly activities and expenses associated with the fieldwork (for example: stipends, travel expenses, research supplies, and research preparation costs). This year, the Leal Anne Kerry Mertes Scholarship, in the amount of $2,308, goes to Corbin Hodges (Department of Geography). It will be accepted on his behalf by his advisor, David Lopez-Carr.
The David S. Simonett Memorial Award was established in memory of David S. Simonett, Professor of Geography at UCSB from 1975 until 1990. A world-renowned authority in remote sensing, Simonett was a founding director of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), and the UC Board of Regents renamed UCSB’s division of the NCGIA in honor of him. The award is given to a student with a long track record of service to the department and the discipline of Geography, and outstanding academic progress and accomplishment. The recipient for this award is someone who best exemplifies the values that David Simonett established for the graduate program at UCSB. The student selected to receive this award, including a $1,000 prize, is Kitty Currier.
The Jack Estes Memorial Award was established in memory of Jack Estes, Professor of Geography at UCSB from 1969 until 2001. Jack was Director of the Geography Remote Sensing Unit. His primary research interests involved the use of remote sensing and geographic information systems technology for analysis of earth resources. He conducted or supervised research for NASA on land-use change, crop identification, and advanced soil moisture conditions; for the U.S. Forest Service on fire fuels monitoring and modeling; and for the Environmental Protection Agency on pollution detection and modeling, and resources management. The award is given for outstanding research achievement working in the area of remote sensing. This year’s award, including a $1,000 prize, goes to Mike Alonzo (accepted on his behalf by Professor Joe McFadden).
The Jack and Laura Dangermond Graduate Fellowship is awarded to an outstanding graduate student in Geography studying within the area of Geographic Information Science. The recipient will hold the title “The Jack and Laura Dangermond Fellow” in residence for 2015-2016 and will receives a stipend of $5,000, allowing its holder to devote more time to imaginative and creative research. Jack and Laura Dangermond are the co-founders, and President and Executive Vice President, respectively, of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). ESRI is a major industrial supplier of software in the field of GIS. This year, the Jack and Laura Dangermond Graduate Fellowship is awarded to Bo Romero.
Now, we have four important undergraduate awards we would like to present. Undergraduate awards are normally handed out during our Geography Graduation ceremony in Buchanan quad, which will be on Saturday, June 13th, this year, but two of this year’s award recipients are not graduating yet, so we are celebrating their accomplishments today.
- Outstanding Service Award – The four student awardees in this category are being recognized for their outstanding service and dedication to the Geography Department. They have provided stellar service to the department by helping with outreach efforts, developing the interactive campus map, or providing leadership for the Geography Club. The awards this year go to Scott Yehl and Bryce Newman. Other recipients are John Solly and Lisa Aleksyuk, who will receive their awards at the graduation reception (certificates only).
- The Jack and Laura Dangermond Undergraduate Fellowship – Jack and Laura Dangermond have also established a fellowship award for a promising undergraduate geography student enrolled in the Geography BA with an emphasis in Geographic Information Science. This year’s outstanding student in GISci and recipient of the Dangermond Fellowship, including a $2,000 stipend, goes to Sophia Macarewhich.
- The Samantha C. Ying Gamma Theta Upsilon Scholarship – The Samantha C. Ying Scholarship is named in honor of one of our distinguished alumna—Sam Ying—and supports one or more undergraduate students, based on the criteria of academic achievement and compelling family or personal circumstances. The awardee is also an active contributing member of the UCSB Geography Club (the Theta Nu Chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon). This year’s recipient of the Ying Scholarship, including a $1,000 stipend, is Daniel Villicana.
- The Nicholas Bourdakis Memorial Award – The Bourdakis Fund was established after the tragic death of Nicolas in February 2001, struck by a car while walking in Isla Vista. He had just declared Geography as his major. This fund helps keep Nick’s memory alive by supporting future generations of outstanding undergraduate Geography students at UCSB. This year’s award, including a $1,000 prize, goes to Christopher James Thomas.
Finally, we have some additional Departmental Acknowledgements:
Faculty Awards and Acknowledgements
- Departmental Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award – Tommy Dickey
- Departmental Outstanding Faculty Research Award – Rick Church
- Acknowledgement of the Campus-wide Outstanding Mentor Award to Keith Clarke (NB: see the April 21 Geography News article about Keith’s award here.)
Staff Recognition
First, we would like to acknowledge Katie Maynard as a recipient of the campus-wide Margaret T. Getman and William J. Villa Service to Students Award, which will be presented at an awards reception Thursday, June 4th, at 9:00am at the Student Affairs Divisional Meeting in Corwin Pavilion. Congratulations Katie, I trust the award certificate is printed on biodegradable hemp. (NB: see the May 23 Geography News article about Katie’s award here.)
Next, we recognize two stellar staff members that are retiring after many, many years of outstanding service.
- Bernadette Weinberg has taken care of academic personnel and space management, including our faculty merit and promotion process, and coordinating faculty recruitment and hiring. Her fantastic diligence, discipline, and attention to detail in supporting these efforts is greatly appreciated, so we want to bring her up and give her a round of applause.
- Beilei Zhang has been in charge of Geography contracts and grant activity, including managing the research support staff. She isn’t in the office today, but we want to express our gratitude for her amazing conscientiousness, promptness, and again, really excellent attention to detail. Let’s give her a round of applause.
Finally, Ryan Kelley has been staff Undergraduate Advisor for only a couple years, but he has been a pleasure to work with and his impact on our undergraduate program has been excellent. Under Ryan’s leadership, we now have a Careers in Geography Course and an active Geography Club. His friendly and informed manner has helped us increase our undergraduate majors from 99 when he first began, up to 150 now. Let’s give Ryan a round of applause.
Editor’s note: Hats off to all awardees, kudos to Dan for being such a good emcee, and thanks to our Executive Officer, Mo Lovegreen, for taking the photos.
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