At the 99th annual AAG meeting, March 5-8, 2003, in New Orleans, graduate students Marco Ruocco and Nick Nagle won awards for papers they submitted. Congratulations!
Marco won the graduate student paper award for the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography specialty group. His paper was titled, “Camera motion and landscape: from information to perception and aesthetics.” His primary advisor is Dan Montello but he also works closely with Sara Fabrikant. Just after Marco received the award, the Environmental Perception/Behavioral Geography (EPBG) Specialty Group elected him their new Student Director for the next two years. The current chair of the EPBG group is Scott Bell, a recent UCSB Geography PhD. Scott’s advisor was Reginald Golledge.
Nick won the graduate student paper award for the Spatial Analysis and Modeling specialty group. His paper was titled “A point-based regression analysis of industrial location.” The paper was based on his MA thesis. Stuart Sweeney was the primary advisor for his thesis. (And Nick was the first student to finish a degree with Prof. Sweeney as the primary advisor.) Rick Church and Phaedon Kyriakidas were the other members on Nick’s committee.
Another honor at the AAG meeting, Prof. Sara Fabrikant was elected Academic Counselor of the GIs Specialty Group (GISSG). Her term is two years, ending in 2005. The Academic Counselor position was vacated by Tom Cova, a 1998 Ph.D. graduate of UCSB’s Geography Department under Prof. Rick Church. Tom continues as a board member of the Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SAM) specialty group.
Prof. Sweeney is continuing as the Vice Chair of SAM; and Alan Murray (another UCSB alum, a Rick Church graduate) finished his tenure as the Chair of SAM.
