Student News as of 3 April 2003

• $500 merit-based scholarships:
  • The Richard F. Logan Scholarships
  • The McKnight-Clemmons Scholarship
  • Century Business Solutions Scholarship

A limited number of merit-based $500 scholarships will be awarded to undergraduate geography majors at community colleges and upper-division undergraduate geography majors at 4-year colleges and universities south of the 36th parallel in California.

The purpose of these scholarships is to encourage talented students to continue their training and studies in geography and, generally, to foster interest in geography. These awards reward good scholarship and student involvement in the field. As merit-based scholarships, financial need is not a consideration. You can learn more about them and download application forms at http://www.lageographic.org/scholar/scholar.html.

Completed applications (please use the appropriate form), current official transcript, a faculty letter of recommendation, and a typed 8½" x 11" page personal statement, must be received by close of business on the 18th of April.

Send completed applications to the address below. Winners will be presented their awards at the May LAGS meeting (2nd of May).

LAGS Scholarship Committee
c/o Michael Prichard Box 1799
Los Angeles City College
855 North Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90029

Great Things Students Are Doing

Student Researchers at Professional Conferences

A number of graduate students and undergraduates have been presenting their research at a variety of conferences recently. The Department commends you for making your work at CSULB known to professional audiences.

Brian Sims presented:

"Assessment of Interpolation Methods and Spatial Resolutions on Urban Digital Surface Models Derived from LiDAR" to the Association of American Geographers in New Orleans in March 2003

"Centralizing Corporate Assets with GPS Technology at Southern California Edison" to the 22nd Annual ESRI International User's Conference in San Diego in July 2002

Brian Sims and David McCune presented:

"Diurnal live fuel moisture change in Adenostoma faciculatum (Chamise) in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California" to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in San Bernardino in October 2002

Brian Sims and Aziz Bakkoury were part of a RESAC research team, whose work was presented by Dr. Suzanne Wechsler:

"Centroid Hunting: The Truth Is out There -- or Is It?" at the Association of American Geographers in New Orleans in March 2003

Michael McDaniel and Micaela Lukasser (a University of Salzburg exchange student here at CSULB in Spring 2003) presented:

"International Cooperation with GIS" to the Association of American Geographers in New Orleans inmarch 2003

Valerie Müller (recently graduated from our master's program) presented:

"Satellites, Census, and the Quality of Life" to the Association of American Geographers in New Orleans in March 2003

"Gateway Cities 2000: Visualizing Land Uses in 27 Cities in Los Angeles County" to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in San Bernardino in October 2002

More student presentations are listed below

Graduate Students and the Science Olympiad

Two graduate students have captained events in the Statewide Science Olympiad trials held at CSULB over the last three years:

Aziz Bakkoury
Shaun Healy

Our Own Steve Newberg Wins the CSULB "Battle of the Minds"

The Department is proud to announce that Mr. Steven Newberg, graduate student, won the CSULB "Battle of the Minds" chess championship on in November 2002! There were 25-30 competitors battling for some pretty significant prizes. Steve won a computer multimedia system (and he's already a web terror without this!), a dinner for two at Marrakesh in Newport Beach, and a car wash gift certificate. There is a quid pro quo, however: He has to represent CSULB in the upcoming intercollegiate chess championships (January 2002). Our students are doing all sorts of surprising stuff around campus! Congratulations! And good luck, too!

Jorge Quintero

Geography grad student, Jorge Quintero, stopped by for graduate advising and happened to mention that, after the HTML boot camp of Geography 600 a couple of years ago, he wound up the webmaster for the Long Beach Group of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club! Check out his elegant artistry at: http://angeles.sierraclub.org/longbch/! Way to GO, Monsieur Quintero!!!

CSULB Geography Students Win ESRI Mapping Honors!!!

Graduate students, Mike Jenkins and Shaun Healy, and recent graduate, Caroline Kolb, were fêted at the ESRI International User Conference 2001 by earning second prize in the Map Gallery Best Cartographic Publication entry was the City Street Map they had done for the City of Lakewood. Thanks to Dr. Frank Gossette for this news item, who remarked, "Map On!!!" We are way proud of your achievement, folks! For more details, check out http://www.esri.com/events/uc/results/map_gallery_results.html.

Steve Newberg

The Department just learned that one of our graduate students, Mr. Steve Newberg, has been working as a GIS technician for the Port of Long Beach. He says he's been there a couple of months already and that it's a lot of fun applying GIS and the working environment is very nice and stimulating. Way to go, mountain lion webmeister! <G>

Christiane Candelaria

Earth Science Associates, a small petroleum research/software development firm in Long Beach sought a part-time undergraduate or graduate student in geography or geology for administrative and research work. ESA specializes in quantitative analysis in oil and gas exploration and development, GIS, and creation of spatial analysis tools. Projects range from model development through building add-on tools for spatial analysis to empirical, site-specific projects for clients. ESA's clients are mainly major oil and gas companies, but they also include other consulting firms and government agencies.

The Department is delighted to learn that our own Ms. Christiane Candelaria was the student chosen for this challenging position! Congratulations!

Student Research Activities

Ms. Romey Hagen and Mr. Aziz Bakkoury, graduate students and research associates in the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center, and Dr. Christopher Lee, made a presentation to the Association of American Geographers in Los Angeles this March:

"Southern California Wildfire Hazards Center: A Regional Earth Science Applications Center."

Mr. Shaun Healy, graduate student and research associate in the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center, also presented at the AAG:

"Cultural geography: An experiment in hypermedia."

Ms. Valerie Müller went to the Urban Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), Montego Bay, Jamaica in September of 2001 to present:

"Using GIS in Urban Planning -- Updating 27 General Plan Maps in Southern California."

Mr. Thomas Ellrott, a geography graduate student, traveled to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in Santa Barbara in September 2001, in order to present:

"Southern California Surf Culture Through the Construction and Deconstruction of Surf-Place Images in Huntington Beach, California."

Ms. Erin Stockenberg, gave a talk with Dr. Suzanne Wechsler to the GIS Expo at Cal Poly in Pomona, May 2001:

"Environmental and Natural Resource Applications of GIS: Course Development."

Mr. Ed Huefe, a graduate student, went to the AAG meeting in New York in March 2001, where he made the following presentation:

"Across the Borderline: U.S.-Mexico Borderlands as Locus of Transformation in North American Popular Music."

A large contingent of graduate students made their way to Portland in early February 2001 for the 5th Annual Western Geography Student Conference. This group, in fact, won the prize for the most highly represented department at the meeting (and thanks to Dr. Chris Lee for supporting the students' travel to this meeting). On top of the general great attendance, students presented two papers, entitled:

"In the Line of Fire: An Investigation into the Relationship between Aspect and Fire History in the Santa Monica Mountains, 1925-1997" by Lewis Francis, Romey Hagen, Shaun Healy, and Steve Newberg.

and

"Using GIS to Update 27 General Plan Maps" by Valerie Müller

Nice job!! The Department is really proud of you! For photographs of the delegation, check out the Portland Files.

[ Geography home ] [ News archive ] [ Liberal Arts ] [ CSULB home ]

This document is maintained by Geography Webmaster: rodrigue@csulb.edu