Dr. Susan L. Cutter received the AAG Lifetime Achievement Honors at the 2011 annual meeting. The Association bestows this honor for her scholarship, public service, and academic leadership: “Recognized by international experts as the leading social scientist attending to natural and technological hazards and risk analysis, Cutter’s scholarship impacts societies in every part of the world. Her concern for the vulnerability and resiliency of societies struck by disaster has improved public safety in the face of hazards ranging from hurricanes to earthquakes to terrorism, and her public service has guided the expenditure of public funding in ways that are most likely to benefit the greatest number of deserving disaster victims. She has played a pivotal role in nationally significant studies on disaster management, human dimensions of hazards, behavioral approaches to decision-making for environmental issues, and earth science applications of satellite technology. By producing research of the highest quality and greatest utility to humankind, Susan Cutter embodies the very best of the discipline of geography.”

PhD student Subhajit Ghoshal was awarded the Doctoral level winner of the AAG Geomorphology Specialty Group Best Student Paper Competition. Mr. Ghoshal's presentation was on "Floodplain and Channel Change Analysis Using Dem Differencing: Lower Yuba River, California".

PhD student Dan Morath is winner of the 2011 Gilbert White Masters Thesis Award for his work entitled. "Social Vulnerability and Public Health: Developing a Metric for Medical Emergency Management in Florida”. The Award was presented at the Seattle AAG meeting.

Masters student Jay Fowler was awarded second place in the student paper competition by the AAG Cartography Specialty Group. Mr. Fowler's presentation was entitled "Communicating Uncertainty Cartographically".

PhD student Elbie Bentley was elected as student director for the Cartography specialty group.

PhD student Kimberly Meitzen was honored by the Biogeography Specialty Group for winning the 2010 dissertation-level research grant competition.

Department of Geography • Callcott Building, Room 127 • 709 Bull Street • Columbia, SC 29208

Phone: 803-777-5234 • Fax: 803-777-4972