In 2000, Reginald Golledge was elected President of the Association of American Geographers, appointed as a Fellow of the Gilbert Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at Southwest Texas University, and was awarded the Australia-International Medal by the Institute of Australian Geographers. 2001 faculty accolades included Keith Clarke being elected President of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society, Golledge receiving an Honorary LLD from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and an Honorary PhD from Göteborg University (Sweden), Michael Goodchild receiving an Honorary PhD from Keele University (UK), and Jack Estes receiving a posthumous NASA Public Service Medal. Goodchild ended his stint as Department Chair in December of 2000, and Keith Clarke picked up the reins January 2001 and held them firmly for the next five and a half years.
During Clarke’s reign as Chair, seven new faculty were hired in accordance with the Department’s long-range plan (Sara Fabrikant, Christopher Still, Hallie Eakin, Annemarie Schneider, David Carr, Kostas Goulias, and Martin Raubal), the UCSB Administration promised Geography an additional 25,000 square feet of space in Ellison Hall to enable most of the Department to be under one roof, and the External Review Committee concluded that, “In terms of research and scholarship, UCSB Geography can be ranked in the top-tier of research universities both nationally and internationally.” Indeed, the honors kept accumulating. In 2002, Goodchild was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, selected for membership in the Royal Society of Canada, and chosen for the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Educator of the Year Award; Hugo Loaiciga received a 2002 Service to the Profession Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute for his “longstanding contributions to research and technical activities”; Dave Siegel was the lead author in a Science article about the spring bloom of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic; Ray Smith received the Nils Jerlov Award in recognition of his contribution made to the advancement of knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean; and Golledge received the UCGIS 2002 Research Award, as well as the 2002 Grosvenor Medal for Geographic Education and the Outstanding Leadership Award from Southwest Texas University. To top it off, UCSB Geography faculty averaged $487,000 in extramural funds per faculty member for the year 2002, the most in the Science Division at UCSB and $150,000 over the nearest rival (Physics).
In 2003, Goodchild was selected by peers to give the UCSB Faculty Research Lecture and was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal, Clarke was selected as UCGIS Educator of the Year, and Catherine Gautier was awarded the Goddard Space Flight Center’s annual Teamwork Award for her work on the AIRS science team that was part of the Aqua Satellite Project. In 2004, Clarke was elected a Fellow of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping for his contributions to ACSM and the professions of Cartography and GIS, Goodchild received an Honorary LLD from Ryerson University and an Honorary Doctor of Science from McMaster University; and Golledge was elected to serve on the Decade of Behavior’s National Advisory Committee. 2004 was also the Department’s 30th anniversary as an autonomous department. To celebrate the event, Clarke commissioned a time capsule that will be opened on the Department’s Centennial in 2074. The anodized aluminum cylinder, 12 inches in diameter and 24 inches long, is buried in the central seating area in the courtyard between Ellison and Buchanan halls and contains historic and contemporary memorabilia commemorating Geography in general and the UCSB Department of Geography in particular.
2005 saw Golledge’s election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Affiliated Faculty Jeff Dozier’s receipt of the William T. Pecora Award, and Clarke’s receipt of the U.S. Geological Survey’s John Wesley Powell Award. Sadly, 2005 was also the year that our Senior Artist and Web Master, Susanna Baumgart, died after a long bout with cancer – as did Professor Leal Mertes, whose interests spanned the dynamics of river channel, floodplain and wetlands interactions; the remote sensing of wetland environments; and the long term evolution of large river systems. To celebrate Leal’s passion for working in the field, the Leal Anne Kerry Mertes Scholarship Award was established to honor her by supporting UCSB students (graduate or undergraduate) who are planning or are engaged in field research.
In 2006, Tommy Dickey was made a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Joel Michaelsen was elected Chair of the UCSB Academic Senate, Golledge was selected as a UCSB Outstanding Graduate Mentor, Goodchild received the Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Clarke was appointed Chair of the National Academy of Science’s Mapping Sciences Committee and received the UK Leverhulme Trust award as well as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship.