A great deal of interesting news this week!

Congratulations to Debangana Bose who successfully passed her candidacy exam this week. Her dissertation is entitled “Forced Resettlement, Informal Land-ownership and Governance of Everyday life in Peri-urban Delhi, India.” Her committee members are Becky Mansfield, Kendra McSweeney, Max Woodworth, and Nancy Ettlinger (adviser).

Emelie Bailey successfully passed her MA thesis defense this past week. Her thesis was entitled: "Healthcare access under health system decentralization in Honduras: A mixed methods study" and involved fieldwork in Honduras over the summer. Emelie's committee included Becky Mansfield, Kendra McSweeney and Elisabeth Root (adviser). Emelie will continue on with us for her PhD and will be working with the State of Ohio on a spatial analysis of infant mortality.

The College of Arts and Sciences has launched a new Environmental Humanities Program, funded by an Arts and Humanities Divisional Grant and Ohio State's Humanities and the Arts Discovery Theme. Developed by Thomas Davis, associate professor, English; Mary Thomas, associate professor, women’s, gender and sexuality studies; and Chris Otter, associate professor, history, the program will forge campus connections between scientists, engineers, humanities scholars and artists. More news here:

The program plans events of interest for Geography, and note that they have a geographer coming to visit in November. More information and notices as the time nears. Thanks to our colleague Mary Thomas for sending this news!

I am delighted to report that Steven Quiring received news of a new NASA project last week. This is his first new grant at OSU. Here are the details: "Investigation Soil Moisture-Convective Precipitation Feedbacks with Soil Moisture-Active Passive." Co-PIs are at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Southern Illinois University.

During the 33rd International Geographical Congress in Beijing this week, Dan Sui was chosen to be the new chair for IGU's GIScience commission - a 4 yr term.  This is an important platform to promote GIScience on the international scene.

James White, from Akron Ohio, is a second-year double major in Atmospheric Sciences and Earth Sciences competed successfully at the recent Datafest event. This is great! Read about this project here:

Congrats again to all our graduate students who received diplomas (it's official!) at the Summer commencement: they will be added to our list of Alumni.

Masters:

Chengbi Liu;  Advisor: Daniel Sui (Geography)

Seth Warthen;  Advisor: Alvaro Montenegro (Atmospheric Sciences)

Doctorates:

Christopher Hartmann; Advisor: Becky Mansfield (Geography)

Hyeyoung Kim; Advisor: Ningchuan Xiao (Geography)

Rachel Mauk; Advisor: Jay Hobgood (Atmospheric Sciences)

Yuxi Zhao; Advisor: Darla Munroe (Geography)

Focus on recent graduate

Alistair Fraser completed a PhD in this department in 2006. Ten years ago this year! The dissertation was entitled "Geographies of Land Restitution in Limpopo Province, South Africa." Alistair's adviser was Kevin Cox.  He has also published with Nancy Ettlinger.  Currently, Alistair is a Lecturer in Maynooth University's (NUIM) Department of Geography. He has just published a new book called Global Foodscapes, (Routledge). It is intended as a text for undergraduates and graduates interested in the global food economy. Well done Alistair.

Finally, we have received an offer of assistance from the OSU Development Department in writing proposals, particularly to foundations and other non-conventional sponsors. In a very big university there can appear to be two of everything, all competing for our attention, but there is a real push to have cohesion between the Office of Sponsored Programs (the research arm) and the Office of Development (the fund raising arm). For us, the bottom line is the support for our research. More on this in the near future and be sure to ask if you have ideas that need professional guidance: help is available to navigate these areas.

You may have noticed that I share this news update each week with Jen Russell… she is the staff person in Development who is our go to person! She is keen to learn more about all we do.

MOK