I am delighted to report that our new colleague Madhumita Dutta will be arriving, as planned, near the beginning of the new term. Her office will be 1049A beside Ola Ahlqvist’s office. We are delighted that the necessary visa steps were surmounted on time. It is remarkable how well this worked out given the early read we received from International Affairs. Madhumita joins us as an Assistant Professor.

We also welcome Morteza Karimzadeh to the department as a Lecturer. He is completing his PhD at Penn State this semester. He will be teaching GIS.

As new students arrive and old students return, please check with Caitlin Naber who is managing our office assignments. Many new desks and spaces are available and these will be opened for occupants very soon.

Recent urban research was written up in a report by Richard Florida in City Lab “Where to Find the Unsung Engines of Innovation and Economic Growth.” This reports on a paper published by Jake Carr’s (PhD, 2017) collaborative team in the Journal of Urban Economics. Richard was a recent guest speaker with CURA and at one time was an Assistant Professor in City and Regional Planning here at OSU.

The New York Times has an interesting piece this week comparing and contrasting skills used in various jobs. “Besides being an amusing exercise, exploring your opposite job has some value. Breaking a job into its component parts helps us look beyond the obvious and think clearly about the things that people actually do.” They report on both Geographers and Geoscientists. While we might question their assessment for (some) geographers, it might actually be a good way to focus attention on what it is we do in our practice. See how the (NYT) article characterizes the skills used the most by Geographers!

Mark your calendars for the Departmental Meet & Greet Monday August 21.