AAG

Kent McGregor, Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1982, Associate
Professor — meteorology; climatology; water resources; remote
sensing
Lisa Nagaoka, Ph.D., University of Washington, 1999, Associate
Professor — zooarchaeology; evolutionary ecology;
conservation; biogeography
Joseph R. Oppong, Ph.D., University of Alberta, Edmonton,
1992, Professor — cultural geography; medical geography;
location-allocation models; quantitative methods
Feifei Pan, Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2002, Associate
Professor — hydrology; water resources; modeling
Alexandra G. Ponette-Gonzalez, Ph.D., Yale University, 2009,
Assistant Professor — global environmental change; terrestrial
ecosystems; biogeochemistry; environmental services
Murray D. Rice, Ph.D., University of Saskatchewan, 1995, Associate
Professor — applied economic geography; retail geography;
urban and regional economic development
Chetan Tiwari, Ph.D., University of Iowa, 2008, Associate Professor
— medical geography; GIS programming; computational
geography
Harry F.L. Williams, Ph.D., Simon Fraser University, 1989, Professor
— geomorphology; paleotempestology; hurricane impacts
Steven J. Wolverton, Ph.D., University of North Texas, 2007; Ph.D.,
University of Missouri, 2000, Associate Professor —
paleozoology; conservation ecology; zooarchaeology;
environmental archaeology
ADJUNCT FACULTY:
Johnny Byers, M.S., University of North Texas, 2008 — earth science;
environmental archaeology
Bruce Hunter, Ph.D., University of North Texas, 2005 — geographic
information systems; fire ecology
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS,
AUSTIN
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
DATE FOUNDED: 1949
GRADUATE PROGRAM FOUNDED: 1950
DEGREES OFFERED: B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
GRANTED: 09/01/14-08/31/15: 88 Bachelors, 1 Masters, 3
Ph.D.
STUDENTS: 345 Majors, 8 Masters, 20 Ph.D.
CHAIR: Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
DEPARTMENT GRADUATE COORDINATOR: James
Gunter
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION WRITE TO: Department of
Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas 78712-1098 Telephone (512) 232-1595
Fax (512) 471-5049 E-mail: teal@austin.utexas.edu
Internet: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/geography/
PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH FACILITIES:
The Department offers the B.A. in Geography with several areas of
concentration, including Environmental Resource Management,
Cultural Geography, GISc, Landscape Ecology and Biogeography,
Earth Science, and Urban Geography. It also offers a B.A. in Urban
Studies, a B.S. in Environmental Science, the M.A. and Ph.D. in
Geography, and a joint Ph.D. in Geography and M.S. in Community
and Regional Planning.
Graduate students work closely with their supervising professors to
develop individualized, original research projects. Faculty and
graduate students have contributed in many ways to understanding
and managing earth’s diverse cultural and physical environments,
ranging from local to global scales across the full range of human
history. Current areas of faculty research include Space, Place, and
Social Worlds; Environmental Changes and Surface Processes; and
Digital Landscapes. The faculty has always had a strong international
orientation and is especially well prepared to guide students in
research in Latin America, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and
Europe, as well as field research in the Southwestern and Western
regions of the United States. Field work and archival investigation are
important parts of student research, and many pursue training in
languages and field methods. Computer and laboratory techniques
serve the needs of both scientific and humanistic research and
teaching; such tools include Geographic Information Science and the
laboratory analysis of soils, sediments, and archaeological materials.
The professional development of students involves education in the
discipline's heritage and philosophy as well as current issues and
theories. Interdisciplinary expertise is developed through course work
and involvement in campus-wide as well as Departmental symposia
and colloquia. Students are encouraged to attend and present papers at
regional and national professional meetings, and to develop skills in
leadership, service, and teaching. Most Ph.D. recipients pursue careers
in higher education; others obtain advanced professional positions in
government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the
private sector. Most Master’s recipients are encouraged to pursue the
Ph.D.; the rest are employed in a variety of governmental, nongovernmental
organization, and private sector positions, or in
secondary education.
Research facilities: The University library of over eight million
volumes is one of the largest in the United States, and is noted for its
collections and rare materials on Latin America and the American
West and South. The Ransom Center is one of the world’s premier
cultural archives, and houses thirty million literary manuscripts, five
million photographs (including the world’s first photograph), and
numerous rare maps and atlases. Courses, symposia, and research
support are available through nationally prominent area studies centers
for Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, East Europe, and Eurasia,
and South Asia. Further resources are available through the Population
Research Center, the Environmental Science Institute, the Center for
Space Research, and the Bureau of Economic Geology.
The Department houses the University’s Center for Geographic
Information Science and deploys ESRI, ERDAS, and IDRISI software
packages. Facilities for GISc include an Environmental Information
Systems Laboratory, a Digital Landscape Laboratory for research, an
Environmental Change Laboratory, and a Spatial Sciences Laboratory.
The Department has a new Soils and Geoarchaeology Research
Laboratory for the study of soils, sediments, and pollen samples, and a
new Water Quality and Hydrology Research Laboratory,
complementing existing Fluvial Geomorphology Research
Laboratories. The Department also has a research partnership with the
Hornsby Bend Center for Environmental Research, located in an
urban floodplain wetland.
ACADEMIC PLAN, ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS, AND
FINANCIAL AID:
Undergraduate: The University has two regular semesters, and two
summer sessions. Students in geography take courses assuring breadth
of knowledge in physical geography, human geography, and
geographic methods. Students also specialize in an area of
concentration. Numerous honors programs such as Liberal Arts
Honors, Junior Fellows, Gamma Theta Upsilon, and Phi Beta Kappa
are available to geography majors. The University encourages
international study.
Graduate: All entering students participate in a common two
semester seminar sequence, which provide an introduction to the
department, disciplinary research, and international research. A
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