News

  An article titled, “Hotter, Drier, Hungrier: How Global Warming Punishes the World’s Poorest” by Somini Sengupta was published into the New York Times early this week. The article features Climate Hazards Group (CHG) Research Director Chris Funk, Field Scientist for CHG Gideon Galu, and their work with Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), looking at 30 years of weather data in East Africa. Funk...

After a hard battle with lymphoma and related ailments, Fred Mertz (January 10, 1954 to February 18, 2018) passed away peacefully at his home in San Diego. Fred received his BA (1976) and MA (1984) degrees in Geography from UCSB. He was in the original cohort of all MA students, when the MA Geography program first started in 1976. Fred served as a graduate and a staff research associate in the Geography Remote Sensing Unit (GRSU)...

Waldo R. Tobler, professor emeritus of Geography, famed cartographer and founder of the first law of geography, passed away on February 20, 2018 at the age of eighty-eight. Waldo received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Washington in 1961. After graduating, he spent sixteen years at the University of Michigan. His service at UC Santa Barbara began in 1977 where he held the positions of Professor of Geography and...