Alumni News and Information

• Cultural geographer George Roberson (UMass Geosciences PhD 2006) has been named a Fulbright Scholar by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). CIES offers academics from the USA granting opportunities in 150 countries and awards approximately 160 research grants annually.

Roberson’s ten month “traditional” Fulbright research grant will support his ongoing cross-cultural inquiry in Tangier, Morocco.  Roberson recently launched the project with a paper titled “Visualizing Tangier” at the Annual Tangier International Conference, Dr. Khalid Amine, Director and again at a one day symposium at Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetouan, Morocco.

To express interest and/or to read more about the project, click here. [posted 6/26/07]

George Roberson (left) with friend and dissertation adviser Dick Wilkie.

• A geologist and environmental consultant is being remembered for his many antics, the muffins he baked and the lasting impacts of his tireless civic involvement. Barry Sturtevant Timson earned his master’s from the Geosciences Department at UMass Amherst in 1972 under the guidance of Don Wise. He launched his career with the Maine Geological Survey and settled in Hallowell. The Kennebec Journal’s obituary remembered his commitment to rebuilding Water Street after the 1987 flood when others proposed destroying the damaged structures. “Barry held steadfast, and stood thigh deep in water, orchestrating operations as if he were directing the Boston Pops.”  Timson died April 15 in Augusta, Maine. Read the Kennebec Journal obituary. [posted 4/27/07]

• Art Goldstein (who worked under the guidance of Don Wise at UMass Amherst) was recently appointed permanent head of the Earth Sciences Division (EAR) at the National Sciences Foundation. Art came to NSF from his position as head of the Colgate University Geology Department to serve as a section chief in EAR.

• James Bradbury, who recently received his PhD in Geosciences, is working as a Congressional Fellow of the American Meterological Society. He is in Congressman Jay Inslee's (D-WA-1st district) who has a national-scale focus on Energy and Environment and is assigned to the Energy and Commerce and Resources Committees. Read more about the program.

.• Mark Serreze was recently highly visible in news reports about the loss of Arctic ice cover. Mark told BBC News, "September 2005 will set a new record minimum in the amount of Arctic sea ice cover. It's the least sea ice we've seen in the satellite record, and continues a pattern of extreme low extents of sea ice which we've now seen>for the last four years." Mark is a Research Associate at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in >Boulder, Colorado. This Fall Cambridge University Press will publish a book by Mark & Roger Barry, on "The Arctic Climate System"

• Lee Allison (Ph.D. 1986 with Don Wise) has been appointed policy advisor for science and energy to the governor of Kansas and the Kansas Energy Council. Less has been chair of the Kansas Energy Council and Director of the Kansas Geological Survey since 1999. Read more.

• Chris Hamilton (‘92) Featured in UMass Magazine Marine science instructor for Long Island University’s SEAmester program

• Bran Potter named Tennesee’s Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year

Photos from the 2003 GSA reception
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This page is intended to help our alumni stay in touch with the department and each other. If you have any news or accomplishments that you would like listed, send an email to Mike Williams or to the webmaster