Geographers Featured on Fredericksburg.com

Over the Fall Break, graduate students Grant Harley and Alex Dye accompanied Henri Grissino-Mayer to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to collect samples from a dismantled crib dam built in 1854 that was once across the historic Rhappahannock River. The massive logs represent old-growth pines (although we don't yet know which species) that once grew in the region and could potentially push our record of climate for this area back to the time Columbus arrived in the New World. The story is titled "Timbers from dam hold record of past: Wood salvaged from Fredericksburg's 19th-century crib dam may hold clues to pre-Colonial climate," and also also features a video of Dr. Grissino-Mayer talking to reporters about the significance of the wood collection. Visit http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/102011/10022011/655354. Many thanks to Tim Kelly of the Woodwright Co. in Fredericksburg for making this trip possible. For more pictures of this incredible wood collection, visit Tim's site here.

Grant Harley (right) and Henri Grissino-Mayer inspect a section of old-growth pine wood sampled from a historic crib dam in Frederickburg, Virginia. Notice the chain saw cut right through an oak peg used in the mortise and tenon joining technique.

Geography 137 Field Trip to the UT Arboretum

Students in the Geography 137 Honors section of the Introductory Physical Geography course spent Sunday, September 11, 2011 at the University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge. Working with graduate students Joanne Ballard and Matt Boehm, and instructor Sally Horn, the students collected tree-ring and soil samples for research projects, and examined the NOAA meteorological station at the site. We are grateful to Director Kevin P. Hoyt for allowing us to use the excellent resources of the UT arboretum.

For more on the arboretum, see http://forestry.tennessee.edu/ORForest.html. And to see our students in action, check out the video!

Michelle Pfeffer's Legacy Lives on at TVUUC!

This morning (September 7), the Knoxville News Sentinel published this very nice piece by Allison Rupp about the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (TVUUC) and their strong commitment to conservation, recycling, and restoration. In May, the church earned its Green Sanctuary accreditation, an effort begun six years earlier by our very own geography major Michelle Pfeffer, who tragically passed away in February 2006. Our Outstanding Senior Award is named after her.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/sep/06/allison-rupp-unitarian-church-goes-green-easy/

(Thank you, Carol, for the alert!)

Best Wishes to Joy DuVoisin

In August, Joy DuVoisin moved from a staff position in Geography to a staff position in Educational Psychology and Counseling. We thanked Joy for her work in Geography and celebrated her new position with a small party in the Geography Department.

Thank you and Goodbye Denise!

Denise Stansberry, who has worked at UT for 24 years, is leaving the University of Tennessee and leaving Tennessee to marry and begin a new chapter of her life in North Carolina.  It is hard to imagine our department office without Denise (!!) but, of course, we wish her the best in her new world.  We had a small reception to say thank you and goodbye to Denise in the department's workroom on Tuesday, August 23, her last day of work at UT.

We will miss you dearly, Denise.
Best wishes to you!

Geography Department Reception, August 15, 2011

The Geography Department kicked off the 2011-2012 academic year with a reception on Monday, August 15, 2011, at the McKendry Fellowship Hall of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Faculty, staff, new and old graduate students, and significant others mingled together, sharing summer stories and plans for a new school year. Kudos to Dr. Ron Foresta for organizing a very nice and warm reception.

Job outlook in GIS

GIS Employment Outlook: Relatively Rosy for State and Local Government Professionals

Summary: Directions Magazine surveyed selected state and local government geospatial technology officials to get their input on the current outlook for jobs. Some states are cutting budgets and we wanted to see how this has impacted hiring or expansion in GIS departments.

Read the whole article here