The intrepid Great Basin team returned from a soggy trip to the field. Unusual to get rain there, but so it was. Here is what the National Park Service says about the park: “Weather conditions in the park vary with elevation. In late spring and early summer, days in the valley may be hot, yet the snow pack may not have melted in the higher elevations. The Great Basin is a desert, with low relative humidity and sharp drops in temperature at night.”

 

I’m sure our researchers will be happy to explain! Thanks and well done to all participants:  Jim DeGrand, Bryan Mark, Scott Reinemann, Julia Andreasen, John-Morgan Manos, John Schaub, Jack Csokmay, and Emily Sambuco. Julia Andreasen was kind enough to share her photos from the trip on FACEBOOK

 

Darla Munroe is on a USDA NIFA funded collaborative grant, "Biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the socioeconomic sustainability of rural forest-based communities." Team members will be arriving this weekend from the University of Connecticut, University of Maine and James Madison University for four days of fieldwork in the Hocking Hills. Afterwards, the team will be presenting at the Rural Sociological Society Conference July 27-30 in downtown Columbus.

 

Desheng Liu is on a USDA NIFA-CBG Program − “Strengthening agricultural and geospatial education and research at Central State University”, 2017-2020. This three-year project is in collaboration with Central State University. It aims to 1) enhance agricultural geospatial education at CSU through offering summer workshops on geospatial technologies and 2) advance geospatial characterization of agricultural runoff using hyperspectral remote sensing to monitor water quality and harmful algal bloom in Maumee River Watershed and Lake Erie.

 

These are great projects with direct impact for Ohio!

 

The department is happy to welcome two new academic leaders in the college: Mike Slater is the incoming Director of the School of Communication, and Kris Gremillion Is the incoming Chair of the Department of Anthropology.

 

As a footnote to Jake Carr’s recently completed dissertation, the final document has been filed with the following revised title: Retail Choice, Consumer Spaces, and Dynamics in the Spatial Organization of the Goods and Services Sector.

 

Welcome back to Max Woodworth who has returned from his travels in Asia.

 

As we enter the final month of the summer break, I hope everyone has a chance to relax a little.