The University of California Office of the President publishes an annual magazine called “Continue the Journey: An Introduction to Graduate Education at the University of California.” This classy publication gives an overview of the graduate admissions process, including how to prepare for and apply to graduate school; it provides valuable information on opportunities available at UC, including summer research opportunities for undergraduates and tips for financing graduate education; it includes profiles of current and former graduate students at UC; it lists the hundreds of graduate degree options available at UC; and it profiles the ten UC campuses.
Barbara Ige, the UCSB Director of Communications and Relations for the Graduate Division, is in charge of providing content relating to our campus, and she requested “a line or two about the great projects that Geography does. Something to draw students to UCSB for the summer and hopefully here for grad school.” Your editor provided the following: “The new UCSB Center for Spatial Studies spatial@ucsb is an innovative university-wide resource and research center directed by Michael Goodchild, who is considered the father of Geographic Information Science. Goodchild won the 2007 Prix Vautrin Lud (considered the Nobel Prize of Geography), and is a Professor in the Department of Geography which is ranked # 4 in the USA by the National Research Council (the highest NRC-ranked department at UCSB).”
While the submission was shortened (the ranking was omitted) due to the layout constraints of the 1-page profile, Mike and spatial@ucsb were included in a 7-point list of UCSB’s “bragging rights” that also 1) described UCSB as being in the elite 1.5% of all US research-intensive institutions; 2) mentioned our 5 Nobel laureates; 3) lauded the Kavli Institute; 4) listed the Religious Studies Department’s prestigious endowed chairs; 5) highlighted Shuji Nakamura’s breakthrough work with LEDs; and 6) featured the efforts of ImaginArte, an interdisciplinary humanities project, to further the Chicano movement. Not bad company! As Chancellor Yang recently pointed out, the Department of Geography is “a world-renowned resource and center of excellence.” Stand tall, Geography people! (and see http://www.ucop.edu/journey/ for last year’s UCOP publication)
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