John Agnew, (PhD, 1976), UCLA distinguished professor of geography, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Oulu in Finland. The University of Oulu is one of the largest universities in Finland with around 16,000 students and 3,000 staff. The university is often ranked as one of the best in Finland. John was Kevin Cox’s advisee and wrote a dissertation on: Public Policy and the Spatial Form of The City: The Case of Public Housing Location. We at OSU are very proud of his accomplishment.

This also gives us an opportunity to recall another distinguished alumnus: Arthur Robinson [1915-2004]. He received his PhD in 1947 for a Dissertation entitled ”Foundations of Cartographic Methodology,” which was advised by Guy-Harold Smith. Robbie spent his entire academic career at the University of Wisconsin Madison, retiring in 1980 as a Professor Emeritus. A biography of Arthur Robinson written by Emeritus Professor Joel Morrison appeared in the Annals

Quoting Joel (p 237): “Robbie received many awards during his career including two honorary degrees: one from Miami (Ohio) University and one from The Ohio State University. He was a Guggenheim Research Fellow in 1964 and again in 1978. He received the Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal from the ICA in 1981, the Helen Culver Gold Medal from the Geographic Society of Chicago in 1983, the John Oliver LaGorce Medal from the National Geographic Society in 1988, and the O. M. Miller award of the American Geographical Society in 1998.”

Zachary Leasor successfully defended his thesis on Thursday. His thesis is titled “Spatiotemporal Variations of Drought Persistence in the South-Central United States”. His adviser is Steven Quiring and the committee members are Bryan Mark and Alvaro Montenegro. Zack will be continuing his studies at OSU in our doctoral program.

Harvey Miller is visiting ETH Zurich where he gave an invited lecture at the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation.  He is also serving as a co-examiner on a PhD thesis at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems.