Go to nature; take the facts in your hands; look, and see for yourself (Louis Agassiz).
Travel is one of the “perks” of being a geographer – whether doing field research or attending international conferences, it “goes with the territory.” During the past year, members of our faculty have visited Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, and Sweden – a list of countries that I’m sure is incomplete, but which gives you an idea of the extent and variety of travel undertaken by our faculty for academic reasons.
Professor Mike Goodchild has the distinction of being the Department’s premier frequent flyer. Here’s a breakdown of “Goodchild’s Travels” in the last 6 months: March: Washington, DC and Redlands, CA. April: Chicago, IL; Oak Ridge, TN; Lincoln, NE; Irvine, CA; Seattle, WA; and Dublin, Ireland. May: Los Angeles, Redlands, & Irvine , CA. June: Los Angeles, Redlands, & Anaheim, CA; Washington, D.C.; Ann Arbor, MI; Florence, Italy; Shanghai, China; Salzburg & Vienna, Austria; and Munich, Germany. July: Redlands, CA; Vancouver, Canada; Washington, DC; Oak Ridge, TN. August: San Jose, CA and Seoul, South Korea. Whew! And, as if that isn’t enough, he’s also booked for trips to several states in the US and to Canada and China in the next two months.
Of course, the study of Geography and its concomitant travel isn’t for everyone: Einstein is quoted as saying:
As a young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However while working in the customs office I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as a substitute.
(Editor’s Note: according to Matt Rosenberg, “This quote was actually written by Duane F. Marble, Professor of Geography at Ohio State University. Professor Marble wrote the quote and put it on his office door at SUNY at Buffalo in response to the cool welcome received by the geography department which had taken over part of the physics building.”)
