Twenty years ago, the Golledge Distinguished Lecture was instituted. When Prof. Reginald Golledge lost his sight in 1984, a major problem was how to keep up with research in his fields of interest. The Department, with prompting from professors Waldo Tobler and David Simonett, decided to set up a named Distinguished Lecture Series. The intent was that Golledge would be able to invite the distinguished person whose work related to his interest areas to the department for 3-4 days a year, so he could interact with them and catch up on the latest in ongoing research. Contributions were solicited from the discipline and from Department members, and a fund was set up with the UCSB Development office to help pay the expenses of bringing in such a person.
This year, the twentieth speaker for the series was Ronald Abler, Executive Director Emeritus of the Association of American Geographers after thirteen years in that service. His biographical sketch is thick with accomplishments and accolades. Flying all the way from Washington, D.C., he gave a talk on “Telecommunications and Geography” during the regular Thursday Colloquium time slot. He also gave a “brown bag” talk April 11, “Geography Among the Sciences.” Thank you, Dr. Abler!
(To see all the past Golledge Distinguished Lecturers, please go to the page that lists the names, dates, and topics.)
