(July) 1999
Editor's Note
Part I
Outgoing Chair's Comments: Whining About the Annals -
Jeff Lee
Minutes Of The Honolulu Business Meeting
Treasurer's Report
Awards with Citations and Acceptances
The Gilbert Award
The Melvin Marcus Distinguished Career Award
General News and Announcements
Updates Since Honolulu
PART II
News From Organizations With Common Interests
Notice of Awards -
Call for Student Papers and Proposals
Call for Nominations for Gilbert and Marcus Awards
Announcements Regarding Conferences And Special Sessions
News regarding Members and Departments
GEOMORPHORUM is issued twice a year by the Geomorphology Specialty Group (GSG) of the Association of American Geographers. The purpose of this newsletter is to exchange ideas and news about geomorphology, and to foster improved communication within our community of scholars and professionals. GEOMORPHORUM is archived at http://www.cla.sc.edu/geog/gsgdocs/. GEOMORPHORUM is distributed electronically over Geomorphlist (currently moderated by William Locke), but we will provide paper copies to specialty group members who do not subscribe to Geomorphlist upon request.
The GSG Elected Officers for 1998-1999 are:
Jeff Lee, Chair
Joann Mossa, Secretary-Treasurer
The GSG Advisory Board members for 1998-1999 are:
Allan James, senior representative
Bruce Rhoads
Carol Harden
The GSG Awards Committee members for 1998-1999 are:
Anne Chin, Chair
Bill Renwick
Mike O'Neill
The GSG Elected Officers for 1999-2000 are:
Joann Mossa, Chair
Basil Gomez, Secretary-Treasurer
The GSG Advisory Board members for 1999-2000 are:
Bruce Rhoads, senior representative
Carol Harden
Jeff Lee
The GSG Awards Committee members for 1999-2000 are:
Bill Renwick, Chair
Mike O'Neill
Karen Lemke
OUTGOING
CHAIR'S COMMENTS
Whining about the Annals
American geographer-geomorphologists have whined for years about the "Annals of the Association of American Geographers" and its lack of geomorphology papers. I generally hear three complaints: the editorial board is made up mostly of human geographers who don't understand my work, colleagues in other disciplines will not see my paper, and my research is too specialized to be of interest to other geographers. I have no connection to the Annals other than being a member of AAG, but I will address these points anyway. Perhaps an argument could be made that the editorial board has been dominated by human geographers, but the real problem has been that geomorphologists haven't submitted many papers to the journal. It's my understanding that the acceptance rate for physical papers is higher than for other areas of geography. It now appears that the journal will be divided into sections, each with its own editor, so the first complaint, if ever valid, certainly isn't now. As to the second gripe, Annals papers get indexed and people can find them with keyword searches. And I hate to tell you this, but there re only ten or twenty people who care about most of your papers and will read them carefully--mail each one a reprint. The last complaint, that our research is too specialized for the Annals readers, can be looked at from two directions. One is that a solid piece of work, especially with a real geographic message, will get published even if it is specialized. The other is that maybe we shouldn't do only specialized papers. Doing a broader study every now and then can help us put our detailed work into perspective. Let's not forget that each study is supposed to fit into a 'big picture' of geomorphology. So, let's support our flagship journal and submit quality papers.
Jeff Lee, Texas Tech University, mailto:j.lee@ttu.edu (Note: This was written before the official AAG publication changes had been announced.)
MINUTES
OF THE HONOLULU BUSINESS MEETING
(Including budget and awards citations and acceptances)
A. Welcome and Introductions
B. Review/Revision/Approval of Minutes from 1998 Meeting
1. There was no discussion regarding the minutes
2. The minutes as published in the Summer 1998 Geomorphorum were approved unanimously by members attending the business meeting
- C.
Treasurer's Report
1. Beginning and Ending Balance (see below)
2. Disbursements and Upcoming Expenses
Credit Union Account:
25 March 1998 $4006.12
2 April 3429.22 Awards Checks (200, 400)
15 April 3384.84 Reimburse J. Phillips($44.38), Gilb. Plaque
3 August 0 Account closed (3425.84)
15 Oct 3425.29 Account re-opened
12 Jan '99 2450.76 Travel Awards (200, 400, 400)
14 Jan 2050.76 Travel Awards (200, 200)
9 March 3443.76 Check from AAG (+1393.00)
10 March 2443.76 Student Paper Awards (400, 400);
check to G. Humphreys (200 towards intl. travel, Gilbert Award)
12 March 2293.76 Check to B. Renwick (150) to buy Award
Lunch tickets
Ending Balance (12 March 1999) is $2293.76, reported at AAG meeting
Noted that $1000 is past due to the IAG
D. Proposed By-Laws
1. There was no discussion or modification of the proposed by-laws published in the Spring 1999 Geomorphorum
2. The by-laws were approved unanimously by members attending the business meeting
E. Issues from Specialty Group Chair's Meeting
- All geographers may be interested in the Argus CD-ROM compiled by a large group of geographers
- Revisions to AAG publications were discussed extensively. The discussions are continuing
F. GSG Awards
1. The Student Paper Award winner was David Howes, University at Buffalo, for his paper "One-and Two-dimensional Modeling of Surface Runoff in a Desert Shrubland Ecosystem", $200.
2. PhD Student Research Grant recipients were:
Andreas Baas, University of Southern California, "The Aeolian Bedform System: Toward the Application of Entropy Principles to the Interactions Between Aeolian Ripples, Wind Flow and Sediment Transport", $400.
Jeremy Venditti, University of British Columbia, "The Development of Three-dimensional Dune Topography in Alluvial Channels: An Exploratory Flume Study", $400.G.K. Gilbert Award
3. The G.K. Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphic Research was presented to T.R. Paton, G.S. Humphreys, and P.B. Mitchell for their 1995 book "Soils: A New Global View". The award was presented by Anne Chin. Geoff Humphreys accepted on behalf of his co-authors.Citation - written by Randall J. Schaetzl, Michigan State University and read by Anne Chin, Texas A& M University:
Very rarely is a book published that inspires, challenges, and promotes geomorphic and pedologic theory. Only rarely does a book or a paper come out that introduces truly new ideas and ways of thinking about the evolution of landscapes. Soils A New Global View does many of these things, and more. This 1995 integrates a body of literature and presents a theoretical construct that will rattle mid-latitude geomorphologists and pedologists to their very being. T.R. Paton, Geoff Humphreys, and P.B. Mitchell, Earth Scientists from Macquarie University in Australia, are to be congratulated for writing a book that is destined to become a classic--spoken of in the same breath as Hans Jenny's Factors of Soil Formation, Bob Ruhe's Quaternary Landscapes in Iowa, Stan Buol, Francis Hole and Ralph McCracken's Soil Genesis and Classification, and Pete Birkeland's Pedology, Weathering and Geomorphological Research. Soils A New Global View is the first book that successfully takes soil geomorphology out of North America and gives it a truly global perspective. It is this year's G.K. Gilbert Award winner for excellence in geomorphic research.
What do Paton, Humphreys and Mitchell say in this book, to merit such an award? First, the authors point out that, on relatively young landscapes such as the glaciated plains of the US, the loessial landscapes of the Mississippi Valley, the moraines of the Rocky Mountains, and dissected alluvial fans of deserts everywhere, soil morphology is as much related to depositional systems as it is to pedo-geomorphic systems. They draw attention to older landscapes such as interior Africa and Australia, where soils have had a longer period of time to develop, and argue that only here are they intimately integrated into the landscape. The authors are enthusiastic supporters of the catena concept---perhaps the one concept that truly does tie soils and landscape together. The book's main point is that many soils on older landscapes, termed "texture contrast soils" because they have a coarser-textured layer over a finer-textured substrate, are not dominated by downward-driven pedogenic processes such as lessivage and leaching. Instead, soils on many of these older landscapes can be best explained by invoking slow downslope movement of a surficial mantle above an otherwise stable, but weathered subsurface or substrate.
These ideas did not appear in print for the first time in this book; they have been elucidated by the three authors over the past two decades. Soils A New Global View, however, brings these ideas together and does a fine job of "selling" the idea by way of numerous examples from around the world. Soils A New Global View reminds this nominator of Ruhe's Quaternary Landscapes in Iowa, because it provides a new and useful conceptual framework within which soil-geomorphic landscapes that otherwise appeared complicated and difficult to explain, become quite understandable and easily explained. In the words of one reviewer, the book represents a conceptual breakthrough of major proportions....a once-in-a-lifetime contribution.
Soils A New Global View is deserving of the G.K. Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphic Research because it provides a different, novel and truly global view of soils and soil-geomorphic landscapes. Like the writing of G.K. Gilbert, it challenges conventional wisdom in interesting, revolutionary, and geomorphically significant ways. It prompts the reader to bring more geoscience into soil geomorphology. The book takes soil geomorphology, previously the bailiwick of North America, and incorporates it into a global context. As one reviewer put it, "it will be...a milestone on broadening the view of soils arising largely from the Russian- and USDA-influenced soil science that has dominated pedology" for decades. The conceptual framework that this book advances will be tested and evaluated for years and, as this nominator believes, will be shown to be accurate and highly useful. The book provides a major theoretical contribution to the fields of geomorphology and pedology, and for these reasons it is an obvious choice for the Gilbert Award.Acceptance of the G.K. Gilbert Award - Geoff S. Humphreys
Before I commence the prepared part of my speech I will offer two comments. First, that my colleagues and I are now in the Department of Physical Geography - a name change following restructuring at Macquarie University. I am sure that this new label will be received warmly at this gathering. The second point is that the award is from geomorphologists for a book that in its title, at least, is about soils. I think that one of the messages in the book is that there is much to be gained by removing the boundaries between these two disciplines with regard to the formation and distribution of soil materials. This viewpoint comes through strongly in the nomination and judging by the reaction of the audience it is also shared here. I will now move onto my formal response.
Thank you Anne Chin for reading the citation and thank you Randy Schaetzl for the nomination which, as I understand, was also strongly supported by Don Johnson and Jonathan Phillips. I am using the first person singular here when I should be using the plural form. WE, would also like to thank Don and Jonathan. In particular, Don Johnson has been very supportive over many years a fact that is probably well known to many here today.
I also must thank Anne for responding to various e-mail messages over the past six weeks one of which concerned the nature of an acceptance speech. As part of my preparation I read Nel Caine's response of a few years ago. The Award appears to have overwhelmed him to such an extent to, and I quote, "provoke Australian-style swearing". Nel, I have no idea what you mean! I jest, of course, and my immediate response conformed to Nel's experience of Australians. Of course I was delighted and so were my colleagues, Ron Paton and Peter Mitchell, and it is a pity that both gentlemen are not here today to receive the Award with me. In particular Ron Paton deserves special recognition since he started out on a quest to re-examine the basis of pedology over 30 years ago.
When writing this book we were very aware that some of the content would prompt a reaction. If reviews are a good guide, then this is indeed what happened. In general the reviews were of two types. The first were those that found the content less than palatable. They belonged to a group with an affinity for agriculturally based soil science. The other group appear to have treated the book as it really is: a set of testable ideas framed within a definite viewpoint that differs in important ways from orthodoxy. This group, comprising of geomorphologists, geologists and ecologists, were quite positive about various themes of which the role of bioturbation was often singled out. Feel free to draw whatever conclusions you like from this comparison. At this stage it is appropriate to thank Tom Dunne and Greg Retallack, both from USA, and Andrew Warren and Tanya Bowyer-Bower, from the UK, for their very encouraging reviews at the all important pre-publication phase and to our publishers, Yale University Press and University College London Press and especially Roger Jones.
The idea of the book was hatched in 1986 and took shape slowly and then evolved rapidly between 1992-94. This prolonged gestation period provides a useful comparison to Grove Karl Gilbert - a comparison that very much favours him. A few years ago I was examining one of Gilbert's volumes - Lake Bonneville, I think. [I hope many will realize that the volume on the geology of the Henry Mountains is a better candidate!] In the preface is an apology to his superior for the tardiness in completing the volume, which incidentally runs to many pages with a page size of about 9 x 12 inches. What tardiness I thought for he was still in the field the preceding year of 1876! Gilbert was clearly a very organized operator not only in conducting extended forays into the field but in writing-up too. Of course, his deductive thinking prowess, problem-solving ability and observational powers are legendary. If we, in only a small way can be compared in such company then we are pleased to have made our contribution. And on this note and on behalf of my colleagues I gratefully accept the G.K. Gilbert Award kindly bestowed by the Association of American Geographers Geomorphology Specialty Group.
Finally, I wish to thank the same Group for helping me come to Honolulu for this occasion, to participate in the meeting, to make many new acquaintances and see old ones, and where once again I can enjoy using the familiar units of my very Australian childhood of miles, inches and pounds.
Thank you.
(Editor's note: I don't know about spending the latter here, but they work pretty well in England!).
Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award
4. Richard W. Reeves became the first recipient of Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award. The citation was read by Dick Marston. Mary Anne Marcus and Andrew Marcus were in attendance to help present the award to Dick.Citation written and read by Dick Marston:
I am pleased to nominate Dr. Richard W. Reeves of the University of Arizona for the 1999 Mel Marcus Distinguished Career Award. Dick has been a member of the Arizona Geography faculty since 1967, serving as Head from 1975-1980. Dick received his graduate degrees from UCLA, culminating with a dissertation on channel entrenchment in 1970. He also served as a Visiting Honorary Professor of Geography at University College London during the 1973-74 academic year. It was from this latter appointment that Dick collaborated with Ronald U. Cooke on what was to become a benchmark volume in geomorphology, Arroyos and Environmental Change in the American Southwest (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1976). This volume presents the quintessential example of convergence in geomorphology…where similar landforms can be created from different combinations of changes in controlling environmental variables. The book also helps separate the influence of human activities on arroyo development (logging and fire, grazing, cultivation, roads and trails, ditches and levees, bridges and embankments) from arroyo development that occurred with less human influence. In the American West, a long time has elapsed before range scientists and geomorphologists realized that the effects of grazing, in particular, can not be cited as the sole cause of accelerated erosion. Cooke and Reeve's book took the first major step to remind us that linking grazing with channel entrenchment must be examined on a case-by-case basis, without bias from prior training and experience.
In a broader context, Dick Reeves has contributed to the discipline of geomorphology in a number of significant ways. First, he garnered approximately 25 gifts from various Arizona government agencies to support the UA Geography Summer Field Camp from 1970-1986. Second, he received a grant to lead the compilation of the Arizona Atlas in 1976. Third, Dick participated in cooperative research and faculty exchange programs in the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, People's Republic of China, and Mongolia...promoting field-based learning in geomorphology and other sub-disciplines of geography. Fourth, Dick has been very active in working with Arizona communities on economic analyses and planning. Dick has applied concepts and techniques from geomorphology and other cross-cutting disciplines to a wide variety of problems in urban geography and economic analyses and planning. The most prominent evidence for this activity is the extensive list of monographs published for Arizona communities as part of the UA Community Directory Series and UA Resource Paper Series. Dick's career demonstrates that a geomorphologist can develop expertise in other subdisciplines of geography and use them together to understand and solve problems in society. For the five reasons cited above, plus his co-authorship of Arroyos and Environmental Change, I feel strongly that Dick deserves the 1999 Mel Marcus Distinguished Career Award. Dick has supervised a number of graduate students, some of whom are writing letters supporting this nomination. Dick is a superb colleague in the field who has demonstrated leadership and creativity throughout his career. His civic-mindedness, ability to work cooperatively, and record fulfilling commitments set standards we should all emulate.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard A. Marston, Professor, AAG Regional Councillor of the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division, AAG Secretary, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Geomorphology.Acceptance of the Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award - Dick Reeves
I wish to express my gratitude to members of the Geomorphology Specialty Group, Anne Chin, the evaluation committee, and Dick Marston for this recognition and to those who took the time to write letters in support of my nomination. I want also to recognize the presence here of Mary Ann and Andrew Marcus.
I feel particularly honored and humbled by this award because of its namesake. Mel Marcus was one of the most humane, beloved, and respected members of our discipline. His life represents a model that few can hope to emulate, and the memory of his death still holds the power to evoke pangs of emotion and moments of serious reflection.
There are lots of "Marcus anecdotes" floating around; I am going to offer a trivial "not" Mel story to introduce my observations on the field experience. Several years ago Mel and Tony Brazel invited a few of my graduate students and me to spend a winter week with them and a crew of students from ASU on their annual excursion to the San Juans. At the eleventh hour, Mel went in for emergency surgery, and the entire trip was cancelled. I forced my group to settle for a dubious substitute: a week of near blizzard conditions in desolate landscapes of central and eastern Arizona, trudging up and down cinder cones, measuring their slopes, sampling surface characteristics, and trying to dig soil pits in frozen ground. At the time none of the students seemed to buy my effort to blame Marcus for our misery. Eventually most began to forgive me and to look back on the experience with a certain amount of pride.
The first point I wish to emphasize here concerns fellowship and the personal relationships formed in the field. I missed my chance to spend field time with Mel and, for a variety of reasons, the opportunity never recurred. I consider this a genuine loss. I did, however, on that occasion get to know seven other individuals, some virtual strangers to begin with, and to interact with them under a variety of circumstances ranging from adverse to exciting, intimate, tedious, and confusing. Two of the seven quickly earned my trust and admiration, and I hope to maintain lasting contacts with at least two others. As happens, for one of the individuals, the experience was sufficient to engender a strong mutual aversion. My point is that well-founded personal preferences and judgments take shape rapidly in the field and, as most of you know, both the speed and depth of bonding can be really quite amazing.
A second point relates to the field experience itself, which makes for feelings of elation, pleasure, sometimes intense disappointment, and often great memories. That cinder cone excursion produced a few tales, but they are hardly worth recounting here. I may be perverse, but my most poignant memories are attached to the most difficult situations. Accidents, bouts of serious illness (both my own and others) and vehicle disasters top the list, and I still cringe at recollections of border crossings with inadequate documents, bundles of undeclared hundred dollar bills, or hard-earned samples that might be confiscated. I won't bore you with hours of stories linked to unpleasant weather, inedible food, inadequate sanitation, dysentery, toothaches, hangovers, fights, equipment failures, and a host of other common field discomforts. Strong memories of times when all went well are generally less vivid, and typically linked to discovery, the unanticipated, and minor creature comforts. Perhaps to me the most noteworthy "good time" involves a week on reconnaissance with a group of Russian, Mongolian, and American archaeologists when we quite literally stumbled over a small mesa covered with several billion palaeolithic artifacts, and of the following week of 16-hour-days spent documenting, sampling, and mapping that find.
My third, and final, point relates to the "bottom lines" that justifies fieldwork, and here I will attempt to be very brief. We are all, I presume, attempting to develop our understandings of the physical world and convey them to our constituents--students, colleagues, and society as a whole. For most of us, the field is ultimately both the source of our research questions and the place we go to seek relevant evidence. The objective is generation and dissemination of knowledge. In this context, the cinder cone excursion I've referred to here was not overly successful. So far, the tangible products include only one minor paper, the seeds of what eventually became a credible M.A. thesis, and a dusty file crammed with field notes, data, and a preliminary morphometric analysis. Perhaps now that I have retired there will be time to reach and publish some definitive conclusions, but perhaps not. In vacating my office I couldn't bear to dispose of a file drawer stuffed with remnants of at least a dozen field-based projects in similar states of semi-completion. Seeing work through to publication has always been my bane.
In closing, let me recap what I've tried to say in a single sentence: about half of my small circle of close friends, a majority of my most memorable life experiences (excluding those with wife and family, of course), and nearly all of my modest list of publications derive from time spent in the field. For me, location, duration, scale of operations, and intellectual focus have varied considerably--from numerous casual day-trips along stream channels in Tucson, through 15 years of co-directing a mobile summer field camp around Arizona and the Southwest, to membership in five sizeable archaeological expeditions to central Asia--but the details aren't particularly important. My attachment to geography, particularly physical geography and geomorphology, is intimately tied to experiences in the field. In retirement, I will miss, most of all, the diminished opportunity to be a participant.
G. General News, Announcements, and Issues
1. IAG. Our IAG representative, Allan James, reported that the GSG owes annual dues for both 1998 and 1999 at $500 per year. A motion to authorize payment for both years was moved, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote. Bruce Rhoads will be our new IAG representative.
2. Publications and Journals
a. Dick Marston reported on the status of the Annals and Professional Geographer. Changes proposed by President Will Graf and the AAG Council will apparently not go through. Instead, the Annals will have three co-editors, and the Professional Geographer will remain as is. Marston encouraged GSG members to attend the AAG business meeting to express their views.
b. Basil Gomez called for more submissions to Water Resources Research
c. Dick Marston encouraged submission of articles to Geomorphology, and reported that the journal is available to GSG members at $96 per year.
3. Upcoming Conferences and Meetings
a. Greg Pope reported that the topic for the next Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium will be "Geomorphology and Policy".
4. Special Sessions
a. Jon Harbor will continue to organize sessions on "Human Impacts in Geomorphology".
b. Allan James encouraged collaboration with the Water Resources Specialty Group.
c. Don Friend announced the establishment of the new Mountain Geography Specialty Group.
d. Bill Renwick encouraged increased coordination between different sessions organized by the GSG. Members could help in this by sending abstracts in a bit early to give session organizers time to communicate with each other.
e. Gary Running suggested that we organize more illustrated sessions.
5. Other Business
a. Allan James suggested that we design a logo for the GSG. He then announced that he will provide a generous $15 prize to the individual with the best design.
b. Tom Paradise discussed the availability of Fulbright Scholarships for research. For details, contact him at paradise@hawaii.edu.
c. Andy Marcus will provide "beverages" prior to our next business meeting in Pittsburgh.
H. Nominations/Elections/Appointments
1. Basil Gomez and Paul Gares were nominated for secretary/treasurer of the GSG for 1999-2000. A ballot vote was held, and Basil Gomez was elected.
2. Karen Lemke was appointed by the Chair Jeff Lee as the new member of the Awards Committee (Bill Renwick, Mike O'Neill).
I. Closure
1. Special thanks to: Jeff Lee for his work as chair of GSG and as past moderator of Geomorphlist; Bill Locke for taking on Geomorphlist; Anne Chin for her role on the Awards Committee; and Scott Lecce for taking minutes during the course of the meeting.[end of business meeting minutes ]
UPDATES SINCE HONOLULU From Jeff Lee, a report on expenses since the Honolulu Meeting:
$200 to David Howes for Student Paper Competition
$115 to Anne Chin for Gilbert and Marcus plaques and luncheon ticket reimbursement
$1000 to IAG for AAG/GSG half of US dues, last two years
ending balance: $997.31 (as of 3 May 1999)
Interest through closing account: $11.77
14 July $1009.08 Current balance, sent to Basil Gomez
From David Higgitt - (BGRG Meetings Officer and Geophemera Editor) - A list of events sponsored (or part-sponsored) by the British Geomorphological Research Group, for the 12 month period from September 1999.
BGRG EVENTS Sept 1999 - Sept 2000
September 2-4, 1999 2nd UK RIGS Conference (Regionally Important Geological / Geomorphological Sites) at University College Worcester. (BGRG is one of the sponsors. Major sponsors include Environment Agency, English Nature, Geologists' Association, Royal Society for Nature Conservation) For information contact Peter Oliver, Worcester (rigs@worc.ac.uk)
September 2-9, 1999 Joint Field Meeting, British Sedimentological Research Group and BGRG at Almeria Province, Spain. Further information from Anne Mather, Plymouth (amather@plymouth.ac.uk)
September 17-19, 1999 BGRG Annual General Meeting (Unthemed Meeting) at the University of Hull. For information contact Barbara Rumbsy, University of Hull (b.t.rumsby@geo.hull.ac.uk). The meeting is preceded by a one day GERTEC Symposium and field trip on the theme "Geomorphic Impacts of Past and Future Environmental Change", and chaired by Prof. Mike Kirkby. Contact details as above.
December 13-16, 1999 BGRG / NERC Postgraduate Workshop at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor (Training event for new postgraduates). For information contact Brian Whalley, Belfast (b.whalley@qub.ac.uk)
January 5-8, 2000 RGS-IBG Annual Conference (Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers) at the University of Sussex. The BGRG is involved in 3 sessions at this meeting on the themes of "Weathering Environments: Processes and Products" (contact David Robinson, Sussex, d.a.robinson@sussex.ac.uk). "Millennium Geomorphology: Processes and Landscape Change in the Last 1000 years" (contact David Higgitt, Durham, d.l.higgitt@durham.ac.uk). "Multipurpose Buffer Zones" (contact Tim Burt, Durham, t.p.burt@durham.ac.uk)
May 17-23, 2000 BGRG Spring Field Meeting: Ireland - North and South For information contact Tony Brown, Exeter (a.g.brown@exeter.ac.uk)
June 26-30, 2000 Weathering 2000 at the Queen's University Belfast. For further information contact Brian Whalley, Belfast (b.whalley@qub.ac.uk)
September 12-14, 2000 BGRG Annual General Meeting (Unthemed Meeting) at the University of Sheffield. For information contact Giles Wiggs, Sheffield, (g.wiggs@sheffield.ac.uk)From Tom Farr, JPL:
On September 16, Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to take off with a payload that will gather data for a digital elevation model (DEM) of the entire landmass of the earth between about 60 degrees N and S latitude. The DEM will have a pixel spacing of 30 m and vertical errors of about 15 m. The flight is called the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and is a joint project between NASA and National Imagery and Mapping Agency. The German and Italian space agencies are also contributing an experimental radar system. More information can be obtained at the SRTM web site: http://www-radar.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/
Tom Farr Deputy Project Scientist - phone: 818-354-9057 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission; fax: 818-354-9476 Jet Propulsion Lab; email: tom.farr@jpl.nasa.gov Pasadena, CA 91109; http://www-radar.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/
NOTICE OF AWARDS for year 2000 Description of Awards. The Geomorphology Specialty Group has five awards: the Grove Karl Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphic Research, the Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award, two Graduate Student Research Grants, and a Graduate Student Paper Competition. Procedures for submissions and nominations are described below.
GRADUATE STUDENT COMPETITIONS FOR 2000 MEETING, PITTSBURGH:
1. GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER AWARD
The Geomorphology Specialty Group announces a competition for the best geomorphology graduate student paper presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. The award is $200. To be eligible for any of the student awards, graduate students must be members of the AAG and GSG.
Applicants for the student paper competition will be placed into special sessions organized for the competition, sponsored by the Geomorphology Specialty Group. Students participating in the paper competition must submit the following materials to Bill Renwick, Chair, GSG Awards Committee, Department of Geography, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056 (renwicwh@muohio.edu):
1) The program participation fee
2) One copy of the standard AAG program participation form
3) One copy of the standard abstract required by the AAG
4) One disk containing the abstract required by the AAG
5) Three copies of an extended abstract of the paper, consisting of 800-1000 words.
All materials for the paper competition must be received at Miami University by August 31, 19992. GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARDS
Each year the Geomorphology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers awards two graduate student research grants to help cover the costs of data acquisition, field work, and laboratory analysis required to complete thesis research. The awards are $200 to a Master's student and $400 to a Ph.D. student. Eligible students are members of the AAG and GSG.
To be considered for the grants, students should submit THREE copies of the following materials to Bill Renwick (address and contact information below):
1) a research proposal approximately five pages in length;
2) two short letters of recommendation.
All materials should be received at Miami University by February 1, 2000. Awards will be presented at the Geomorphology Specialty Group Business Meeting during the 95th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, to be held in Pittsburgh, PA.
Application materials should be sent to:
Bill Renwick, Chair; AAG Geomorphology Specialty Group Awards Committee; Department of Geography; Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, 513-529-1362, renwicwh@muohio.edu, Fax: 513-529-1948.
3. THE GROVE KARL GILBERT AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN GEOMORPHIC RESEARCH
The Gilbert Award is presented to the author(s) of a significant contribution to the published research literature in geomorphology during the past three years. Only books, refereed journal articles, or monographs will be considered with an emphasis on refereed research articles. Nominations should include a copy of the relevant publication and a statement as to why the publication deserves the award. Supporting letters from other colleagues are also helpful.
The nominated work for the Gilbert award should have been written within the last 3 years at the time of nomination. Nominations for the Gilbert award remain active for 2 years. All materials, including supporting documentation, should be received by the 1st of February to Bill Renwick (Chair of the Awards Committee of the Geomorphology Specialty Group) before the annual meeting (see address above).4. THE MELVIN G. MARCUS DISTINGUISHED CAREER AWARD
The Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award is presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to geomorphology over his/her career. Nominations should include: 1) a description of the candidate's contribution to geomorphology, 2) a brief biographic sketch, 3) a selected bibliography, and 4) three letters of support from colleagues.
Nominations for the Marcus award remain active for 2 years. All materials, including supporting documentation, should be received by the 1st of February to Bill Renwick (Chair of the Awards Committee of the Geomorphology Specialty Group) before the annual meeting (see address above).
AAG 2000 Special Session: Human Impacts in Geomorphology
Organizers: Jon Harbor, Purdue University and Dick Marston, Oklahoma State University.
These sessions will focus on the interaction between humans and geomorphology. Special sessions with this theme have been very successful at recent AAG meetings. The scope of these sessions includes both the role of human disturbance in changing rates and types of geomorphic processes, as well as the controls that geomorphic processes and forms exert on human activity. Theoretical, monitoring, historical and applied/management papers are welcome. Papers are encouraged that seek to separate human influence on geomorphological change from change that would have occurred without human interference. We particularly encourage papers that involve collaboration with human geographers and other non-geomorphologists. If there are sufficient papers, one of these sessions will focus specifically on Geomorphology in Urban Environments, as a joint session with special sessions under the Urban Environments theme.
We will have both traditional oral sessions (15 minute presentations) and an innovative poster/paper session in which each presenter gives a brief (3 minute) oral introduction to his/her work at the beginning of the poster session. This format worked very well at the last AAG. Abstract submission details are available in recent issues of the AAG newsletter and at the AAG website. Please submit abstracts for oral papers (1st September deadline) to Dick Marston, and abstracts for posters (25 September deadline) to Jon Harbor. If you plan to submit an abstract for either the oral or the poster sessions, please let Jon Harbor know of your intentions, with a tentative title, by Aug 15th.
Jon Harbor, Dept. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN 47907-1397, Phone 765-494-9610; Fax 765-496-1210; jharbor@purdue.edu
Richard Marston, School of Geology, 105 Noble Research Center, Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, OK, 74074-3301.
NEWS REGARDING MEMBERS AND DEPARTMENTS From Jonathan Phillips:
The TAG (Texas Aggie Geomorphology) Team at the Department of Geography, Texas A&M University is grappling with a variety of geomorphic problems. Anne Chin continues to work on fluvial processes in California, but her focus has shifted to gravel-bed streams in the Ouachita region of Arkansas.
She has U.S. Forest Service funding for the latter work, and is collaborating with USFS hydrologists. Andrew Klein is persisting with his NASA-funded work on snow cover detection algorithms and other cryosphere remote sensing, but is also returning to his first love, glacial geomorphology. He spent part of the summer doing fieldwork on Andean glaciers, and is also involved in an NSF-funded project in Antarctica, where he will spend his 1999 Christmas break.
Vatche Tchakerian is on faculty development leave (known as sabbatical outside A&M) for 1999-2000 in Mexico, where he's working on coastal and Quaternary geomorphology, in addition to his ongoing desert aeolian work.
Mike Waters has been working on geoarcheology projects in Arizona, Texas, and Mexico. Jonathan Phillips, with funding from the Texas Water Development Board, is studying the effects of an east Texas dam on sedimentation in bottomland hardwood forests. He's also working with geology and oceanography colleagues and with USFS funding on radionuclide tracing of fluvial sediments in an east Texas basin. Phillips also continues his work in soil geomorphology despite his inability to attract any funding whatsoever for that work. David Prior and Rick Giardino, when they aren't too busy being Dean of Geosciences and Director of Graduate Studies, respectively, are working on coastal and submarine hazards and engineering geomorphology (Prior) and on remote sensing and GIS applications to landslides, rock glaciers, and other alpine features
(Giardino).
Jonathan Phillips, Department of Geography, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843,
409-845-7141, "The baddest geography department on the planet"
Page originally created by Allan James; Modified by Karen A. Lemke.
Page maintained by Allan James AJames@sc.edu; Last updated August 16, 2001 (KAL).