Dr. Timothy Nyerges delivers Borchert Lecture

As part of GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week activities on the U of M Twin Cities campus, Dr. Timothy Nyerges, delivered the fourth annual Borchert Lecture on Friday, November 19th. Dr. Nyerges, Professor of Geography at the University of Washington and President of the University Consortium for GI Science, engaged the audience with his presentation, "Online Participartory GIS for Decision Support of Regional Transportation Improvement," in the Honeywell Auditorium (L110), Carlson School of Management, West Bank campus.

2010 MGIS Student Recognition

Congratulations to a number of MGIS students who were the recipients of recent awards. Several of these were ESRI-related awards. Molly Martin and Chiu-Yi Liu were awarded 2010 ESRI User Conference Assistantships; Neha Kulkarni received a Summer 2010 Internship; and Jeremy Moore was recognized as the 2010 ESRI Development Centers Student of the Year award. Mike Foster, Brad Herried and Don Kilberg all received CAGIS Student Awards that allowed them to travel to the 2010 ESRI Conference to represent CAGIS in the exhibitor area.

Margaret Voth was the recipient of the 2010 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Scholarship Graduate Award for her research project "Assessing Minnesota Lake Clarity Using MODIS Imagery." Ms. Voth went on to win first place in the Graduate Student Paper Competition (cash award of $1,000) held at the October 2010 MN GIS/LIS Conference in Duluth. Colin Lee was the recipient of the same scholarship in the undergraduate category for his research on "Lidargrammetry: Reducing file sizes while retaining accuracy." Mr. Lee won second place in the Undergraduate Student Paper Competition with a cash award of $400.

Finally, congratulations to our recent graduates in December 2010: Kyle Chester, Mike Foster, Eric Hanson, Brad Herried, Tim Jacobson and Greg Schulz. For a listing of their Plan B projects, see the MGIS graduates page.

Robert McMaster receives 2010 UCGIS Education Award

Robert McMaster, Professor of Geography and Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, is the recipient of the 2010 UCGIS Education Award. Dr. McMaster was recognized for his long history of service to the GIScience community in multiple leadership roles, his afflitation with the National Historical GIS project, and the innovative curriculum work he has accomplished at the University of Minnesota.

DNR's Maki joins MGIS Advisory Board

Robert Maki has been appointed to the MGIS Advisory Board. Robert Maki is currently the Chief Information Officer for the Management Information Services Bureau at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He is a leader in the design and development of spatial databases on the job and in the state. He was the project leader in developing the award-winning and highly utilized DNR DataDeli. While working for ESRI Robert was closely involved with the development of the Digital Chart of the World. He also served on the Standards Committee of the Governor's Council on Geographic Information and initiated the effort to focus on an interagency data architecture. He was co-author of the State of Minnesota standards and guidelines for coordinate specifications and metadata formats. Robert strives to share his knowledge with others and has given numerous papers and workshops at the state GIS/LIS conferences. Robert is an associate member of the graduate faculty of the Master of Geographic Information Science program at the University of Minnesota where he has taught a course in spatial database management and advised masters students.

Monmonier gives third annual Borchert Lecture

As part of GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week activities on the UMN Twin Cities campus, Dr. Mark Monmonier gave the third annual Borchert Lecture on Friday, November 20th. This lecture honors the late John Borchert, University of Minnesota Regents Professor in Geography and member of the U.S. National Academy of Science. Dr. Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University and recent recipient of the German Cartographic Society's Mercator Medal, lectured on, "Coastlines, Boundary Lines, and the Cartographies of Protection and Control," in Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey Center, West Bank campus.

Craig inducted into URISA's GIS Hall of Fame

Will Craig, Associate Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and MGIS Faculty Member, has been inducted into URISA's GIS Hall of Fame. The GIS Hall of Fame was established by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) in 2005 to recognize and honor the most esteemed leaders of the geospatial community. For more information on Dr. Craig's impressive achievements, visit http://urisa.org/hall/craig.

ESRI's Cummens joins MGIS Advisory Board

Pat Cummens has been appointed to the MGIS Advisory Board. Ms. Cummens has been working in the GIS field since 1983 with experience in both the public sector and private sector. In 1998 she joined ESRI, where she works to increase awareness of GIS benefits to government executives and provides senior-level management and guidance to state and federal government projects. Prior to joining ESRI she spent 14 years in state service, with the states of New Jersey and Minnesota. She served the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for 11 years as the GIS manager after launching her GIS career at the Minnesota Land Management Information Center (LMIC). She has been active in several GIS professional organizations and committees including the Environmental Protection Agency's National Advisory Committee on Environmental Policy and Technology, the National Governors' Association (NGA) Corporate Fellows Program and Information Technology Task Force, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). She earned a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture in 1983 from the University of Minnesota.