Department Announcements

Left to nature, Broderick Park could rest at the bottom of the Niagara River by 2033.

By CORY NEALON

By CHARLOTTE HSU 

Fifteen ways UB researchers changed the world — and made headlines — in 2017

The Department of Geography holds a reception each year for graduating graduate and undergraduate students.

The AAG welcomes two new editors to take the positions of Cartography Editor for the AAG Journals (Annals, The Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities) and the Methods, Models, and GIS Editor for the Annals of the AAG starting January 1, 2018. Stephen Hanna will be taking over for Cartography Editor Thomas Hodler while Ling Bian will assume the role of the Methods, Models and GIS Editor as Mei-Po Kwan steps down. The AAG would like to send a very special thank you to Thomas Hodler and Mei-Po Kwan for their years of extraordinary service in these positions.

Boise, Idaho - When he first arrived at UB four years ago, Ikenna Smart used to keep a photo of his parent's most rural home in Nigeria on the screen of his cell phone. He told people that he wanted it there to keep him humble, and to remind him how far he had come.

Jeff Good, PhD, chair of the Department of Linguistics and author of "The Linguistic Typology of Templates," discusses unique social dynamics of language in Northwest Cameroon, as well as how technology is helping create a clearer picture of who speaks what, where and why.

A new book by geography and planning experts examines several decades worth of data to provide an analysis of the state of shrinking cities across the United States.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — South Africa’s Cape Floristic Region is one of the richest repositories of plant life in the world.

UB has been designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Geospatial Sciences by two federal agencies with an interest in building the United States’ expertise in the field.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — As the Earth’s climate changes, shifting weather patterns will affect where plants and animals can live.

President Donald Trump claims that curtailing immigration will boost workers' wages. That's the premise -- and the name -- of the RAISE bill two GOP senators introduced Wednesday, which aims to cut legal immigration to the U.S. in half and change the criteria on which immigrants are admitted.

The plan gives preference for legal residency to high-skilled, English-speaking immigrants. NPR's Stacey Vanek Smith talks with Abigail Cooke of SUNY-Buffalo about the economic impact of immigration.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — In 1992, University at Buffalo graduate students brought top geographic information scientists to Western New York for what would become the first inaugural International Conference on Geoinformatics.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — In some ways, Geocove is the perfect example of a company drawn to Western New York for all the right reasons.

Not long ago, prominent Democratic leaders like former President Barack Obama and progressive pundits like Paul Krugman publicly questioned what unskilled, low-paid immigrant laborers meant for American workers and the U.S. economy. Today, however, Democrats are almost totally unified in their support of open borders.

Increasing prolonged periods of severe hot and dry weather during the first summer after wildfires is inhibiting vegetation recovery and causing loss of plant diversity, according to a new international study on climate change.

UB’s Community for Global Health Equity (CGHE) has announced the winning research teams from its inaugural Ideas Lab workshop — “Seeding Food Equity for Global Health” (FEIL) — which was held in late January.

Bassam M. Deeb knows what it's like to be a stranger in a strange, new land.

Diverse immigrant populations do more than enrich a city’s cultural fabric. According to geographers from UB and Southampton University, they also boost wages.

People have long been intrigued by figuring out the center of the places where we live.

The online education company called interactiveX seems like something created in the computer labs of Silicon Valley, but it’s launching from UB’s Technology Incubator on Sweet Home Road in Amherst.

Misa Yasumiishi grew up in Fukushima, Japan, but was in Amherst when reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Bethel Park Great Alumni Hall of Fame was created in 2013 to recognize and honor Bethel Park High school alumni who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments either personally or professionally after graduating from Bethel Park High School.

It was the summer of 2016 — five years after an earthquake and tsunami had caused three nuclear reactors to melt down at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant in Japan.

The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Program (ISEP) exposes middle and high school students to science and engineering.

Residents of Rugby, N.D., about 45 miles south of the Canadian border, erected a stone obelisk marking it as the geographical center of North America.

Flu season is starting to peak in Western New York, although its activity here lags behind other regions of the state.

In debates over immigration, economic anxieties loom large. One of the most common concerns is that an influx of workers born abroad will depress wages for native-born Americans.

UB geographer Chris Renschler first caught the attention of the United Nations, especially the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in 2016 while completing a Fulbright Fellowship in Vienna, Austria.

Where is the geographic center of a state, country or a continent?

“It was remarkable how clearly you could see many different biomes on Earth based on the frequency and timing of cloudy days over the past 15 years.”

The Nov. 5 event on the Trans-Pacific Partnership features experts from around the world

Researchers seek public participation in the survey, whose results will be used to model how disease spreads through a community

7th International Symposium on Gully Erosion was held at Purdue University from May 23 to 27, 2016. Dr. Sean Bennett served on organizing committee as a co-chair.

The Ontological Approaches to Sensor Data Analysis Conference (May 19-20, 2016, Buffalo, NY, USA) attracted more than 50 researchers from 21 institutions in eight countries. Participants shared research findings and assessed challenges in frontier topics of sensor ontology research.

Researchers see signs of trouble for the native fish. In 2014, they could find the native fish in plentiful numbers in the Niagara River. But last year, the shiners’ numbers fell by nearly 75 percent.

“Depending on their venue, some athletes may face greater health risks than Zika from water quality and sanitation issues.”

Dr. David Mark is currently a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Buffalo. He was one of the pioneering academics that helped develop Geographic Information Science (GIS) and recently kick-started another groundbreaking field called ethnophysiography.

“There was the feeling that VW was one of these really trusted brands, particularly for their engineering, and the biggest shock was that this seems to be a case of willful deceit.”

46th Annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, “Laboratory Experiments in Geomorphology”, was held  at UB from September 18 to 20, 2015.

A new study finds that large-nut-bearing trees were more abundant than expected near the historic sites of Native American villages in Chautauqua County.

Michael F. Goodchild is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He will give a talk on "Is Big (geo) Data the next big thing in The spatial sciences?" on Friday, April 17, at 3:30pm, in Fillmore 170. Please see below for details.

Please join us this coming Friday, April 10th in Wilkeson 145H, 106 and 144 for the graduate students' research symposium! The symposium will start at 3 pm.

The mini conference "Geographic Perspectives on Health" was held on March 6th at 145H Wilkeson.

Our first Colloquium of the spring semester will be presented on Friday, February 13, at 3:15pm, in room 145H Wilkeson. The featured speaker is our own Professor Jacquez. Please see below for complete details.

A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY IN GEOGRAPHY

    Next week is Geography Awareness Week and you are all invited to participate in our events.

Looking for funding opportunities? Check the CAS Scholarships & Awards homepage!

Dr. Sharmistha
Bagchi-Sen, Chair

Recently established degrees in International Trade – BA in International Trade and MA in International Trade – are now being offered by the Geography Department.

The Geography Department has set up the Charles H.V. Ebert Lecture Series and Scholar-in-Residence program. Each year, a prominent scholar will be invited to give the annual lecture, and the department will have the option of hosting them over the course of a week for a series of other lectures and seminars. The goal is to facilitate interaction across disciplines and professions to promote interdisciplinary geographic research and teaching.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Center in conjunction with the Department of Geography and Asian Studies Program at the College of Arts & Sciences is home to the Nila T. Gnamm Junior Faculty Research Fund. Each year, we invite proposals for funding from scholars affiliated with any department or academic program at UB to support research related to the Southeast Asia region. Small grants of between $500 and $2,000 will be awarded for expenses related to travel, conference presentation, library research, data collection, and other research costs. Funding could also support visiting scholars, conferences, workshops, lectures, and similar scholarly activity at UB that is related to the research of a faculty member or graduate student. For questions about the Fund, please contact Professor Jessie Poon.

Please join in us this coming Friday in 145H and 144 for the students' rehearsal at AAG! The symposium will starts at 1pm, food and drinks will be provided.

MS in Geography requirements have been revised and are effective Fall 2012. Two new MS tracks are being offered – Economic Geography and Business Geographics (formerly Transportation Science/Business Geographics) and Health Geography.

The recent issue (2013) of the Geography Department Newsletter "The Compass" is available!