He was the student body president and on the All State Iowa football team in high school. He almost flunked out of Occidental College before transferring to UCSB as a Junior to major in Geography (back in the days when Geography was still a program and not a department) and to avoid being drafted, and he graduated in 1969. He was the manager of the Goleta Airport Drive-In Theatre c. 1973; prior to that he was briefly the manager of the Riviera, and after the Drive-In, he became the “Roving Manager” for Metropolitan Theatres. He applied to become and was accepted as a grad student in Geography at UC Berkeley because Susan, his future wife, was a student there. One year, he used the entire UCB Department of Geography’s computer budget because none of the faculty members or other grad students used computers. He went on to get his MA in Geography at Berkeley in 1977 and his PhD there in 1982, the same year he came on board as an Assistant Professor of Geography at UCSB. In 1988, he became an Associate Professor, and in 1992, he became Chair of the UCSB Department of Geography. During his stint as Chair, he instituted the departmental beach barbecues at the beginning and the end of the school year which have continued (and expanded) to this day. And they call him “The Lion.”
We’re talking about Joel Michaelsen, if you haven’t guessed by now. As for being known as “The Lion,” well…, at least one person calls him that. Diego Pedreros, a researcher in Joel’s Climate Hazard Group, once happened to be talking about Joel while at home with his family. “When I mentioned Joel, my daughter jumped up and with an innocent voice exclaimed ‘!The LION!’ I did not understand what she was referring to until she said ‘because when he talks, it sounds like the ROAR of a LION.’”
During his 30 years with the Department, Joel formed the UCSB Climate Hazard Group (CHG) which specializes in looking at the climate-related components of food-security in developing nations through the lens of geography, he was elected Chair of the UCSB Academic Senate for both the 2006-2008 and the 2008-2010 terms, and he has been a member of both the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Use of Remote Sensing for Human Welfare applications and the proposal review panels of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Global Change.
As for Dr. Michaelsen’s interest in climate-related components of world food security, “The Climate Hazard Group uses the UCSB Geography department’s strengths in statistical climatology, hydrology, GIS, remote sensing, and geostatistics to reduce the threat of flooding and famine in the developing world. The CHG works closely with governmental institutions (especially the United States Geological Survey’s International Program) to improve the scientific research, capacity building, and application components of the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). In addition to a research team at UCSB, the CHG employs scientists stationed in Africa, Central America and Washington, D.C., enabling the group to quickly communicate new scientific developments and news of potential climate-related hazards” (source).
An informal send off for Joel (and Catherine Gautier) was held on June 7, and his formal retirement date is set for the end of the month. Among the many tributes to Joel which were included in the terrific PowerPoint presentation that Leila Carvalho arranged, the following stand out in particular: “Retirement is also a path, not solely a destination, and I am certain Joel’s contributions to the field and to the campus will continue to have an impact as he transitions into his new role as a member of the research faculty – for many more years to come. Thank you, Joel!” (Margot McDonald). “Joel teaches students how to appreciate their world. His tools: Knowledge. Support. Kindness. Thank you Joel for being an excellent mentor” (Laura Harrison). “I am honored to have had the opportunity to share classes and to learn about your cool way of leading students to the realm of climate sciences. I wish you everlasting excitement with your new endeavors, but I warn you, we are not finished yet ….” (Leila Carvalho).
Editor’s note: Photos of the informal send off for Joel and Catherine can be found here.
