Graduate Study in Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Welcome to the graduate program of the Department of Geography. The material within this Handbook will hopefully answer most of your questions about our graduate program. The first edition of the Handbook was written in 1989 at the suggestion of a grad student. Please read it and hold on to it - you will find it to be a valuable resource!

AREAS OF EMPHASIS

The Geography Department at UCSB offers specialized graduate training leading to the Master's and Ph.D. degrees. Areas of concentration include:

EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE (ESS): This systematic area emphasizes the measurements, analysis, and modeling of hydrologic, atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial systems and the interactions between systems. A large proportion of the problems addressed by researchers in ESS involve three common elements: large regional issues; mathematical and computational modeling; and large, spatially-indexed datasets.

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONS (HER): This systematic area covers the major components of Human Geography offered by the Department, including: human spatial behavior; spatial decision making and decision support; spatial and geographic cognition; urban and regional modeling, planning, and policy; human movement and transportation systems; resource and environmental management; environmental ethics; human response to the changing environment.

MODELING, MEASUREMENT, AND COMPUTATION (MMC): This area is the investigation of those sets of techniques from the areas of analysis, statistics, and computation that are particularly well-suited to the modeling of the complex, geographic phenomena that are the subject of investigation in both ESS and HER. Important sub-areas include numerical modeling, spatial statistics, remote sensing, computational modeling and database systems (including Geographic Information Sytems) and visualization, all of which are increasingly dependent on a knowledge of computational theory and practice.

THE FACULTY

DAVID CARR (PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Assistant Professor: Fertility, migration, population-environment linkages, land use/cover change in Latin America (x4219, carr@geog.ucsb.edu).

OLIVER CHADWICK (PhD, University of Arizona), Professor: Pedology, soil geomorphology, soil geochemistry, quaternary geology, organic and mieneral fluxes during soil, atmosphere, wather and vegetation interaction (x8525; oac@geog.ucsb.edu).

RICHARD CHURCH (PhD, The Johns Hopkins University), Professor: Facilities location and related computational algorithms, urban and regional modeling/planning, water resources (x4217; church@geog.ucsb.edu).

KEITH CLARKE (PhD, The University of Michigan), Professor: Cartography and geographic information systems (x7961; kclarke@geog.ucsb.edu).

HELEN COUCLELIS (PhD, University of Cambridge), Professor: Spaitial cognition and behavioral geography, urban and regional theory and modeling, planning, the philisophy of science (x2196; cook@geog.ucsb.edu).

TOMMY DICKEY (PhD, Princeton University), Professor: Atmosphere-ocean interactions and upper ocean mixing, turbulence and internal waves (x7354; tommy.dickey@opl.ucsb.edu).

HALLIE EAKIN (PhD, University of Arizona), Assistant Professor: Hazards and Society. Unraveling the implicaitons of globalization for present and future vulnerability of local populations via food production and security (x8741; eakin@geog.ucsb.edu)

CATHERINE GAUTIER (PhD, University of Paris), Professor: Earth radiaiton budget and cloud processes, large-scale hydrology and surfface/atmosphere interaction, radiative transfer and remote sensing, global climate processes and earth system science (x8095; gautier@geog.ucsb.edu).

REGINALD G. GOLLEDGE (PhD, University of Iowa), Professor: Spatial cognition, behavioral geography, decision making, disablility, transportation modeling, human wayfinding (x2731; golledge@geog.ucsb.edu)

MICHAEL GOODCHILD (PhD, McMaster University), Professor: Spatial analysis and geographic information systems (x8049; good@geog.ucsb.edu).

KONSTADINOS GOULIAS (PhD, University of California, Davis), Professor: Transportation systems planning and modeling; applied econometrics and statistics; travel behavior dynamics; microsimulation; and interactions among time-use, travel behavior, telecommunication, and technology (x4190, goulias@geog.ucsb.edu).

PHAEDON KYRIAKIDIS (PhD, Stanford University), Assistant Professor: Geostatistics and spatial analysis, visualization of spatial uncertainty, stochastic spatiotemporal models (x2266; phaedon@geog.ucsb.edu).

HUGO LOAICIGA (PhD, University of California, Davis), Professor: Water resources, surface and groundwater hydology (x8053; hugo@geog.ucsb.edu ).

JOEL MICHAELSEN (PhD, University of California, Berkeley), Professor: Climatology/meteorology, marine resources, temporal and spatial statistics (x2296; joel@geog.ucsb.edu).

DANIEL MONTELLO (PhD, Arizona State University), Professor: Spatials and geographic perception/cognition/behavior, cognitive issues in cartography and GIS, spatial aspects of social behavior, environmental psychology and behavioral geography (x8536; montello@geog.ucsb.edu).

MARTIN RAUBAL (PhD, Vienna University of Technology), Assistant Professor: Cognitive engineering for geospatial applications (x4839; raubal@geog.ucsb.edu).

DAR ROBERTS (PhD, University of Washington), Professor: Remote sensing of vegetation and soils, geobotany, and spectroscopy, geology, ecology, and ecophysiology (x2276; dar@geog.ucsb.edu).

DAVID SIEGEL (PhD, University of Southern California), Professor: Physical oceanography, numerical modeling and supercomputing, bio-optical oceanography, turbulence, air-sea interaction and theoretical ecology (x4547; siegel@geog.ucsb.edu).

TERENCE SMITH (PhD, The Johns Hopkins University), Professor: Spatial data processing, spatial analysis, spatial databases, knowledge-based approaches to geographic information systems (x8883/2966; smithtr@geog.ucsb.edu).

CHRISTOPHER STILL (PhD, Stanford University), Assistant Professor: Global ecology, isotope bio-geochemistry, plant ecophysiology and biosphere-atmosphere interactions
(x5501 ctill@geog.ucsb.edu).

STUART SWEENEY (PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Assistant Professor: Urban and regional modeling and planning, human migration, local economic development, and spatial statistics (x5647; sweeney@geog.ucsb.edu).

LIBE WASHBURN (PhD, University of California, San Diego), Professor: Physical oceanography, ocean turbulence and mixing processes, ocean bio/optics, air-sea interaction and marine pollution (x7367; washburn@geog.ucsb.edu).

EMERTI FACULTY

RAYMOND SMITH (PhD, Stanford University), Emeritus Professor: Remote sensing of oceans, physical and biological oceanography, primary production and bio-optical modeling in aquatic environments with emphasis on Antarctic ecosystems, marine and sea ice ecology of Southern Ocean, UV effects on phytoplankton, optical/biological/physical oceanography; marine resources, remote sensing of oceans, and earth system sciences (x4709; ray@geog.ucsb.edu).

WALDO TOBLER (PhD, University of Washington), Emeritus Professor: Cartography and computational geography. Professor Tobler has retired from teaching but continues to publish (x3831; tobler@geog.ucsb.edu).

AFFILIATED FACULTY

Affiliated faculty are ladder-rank faculty members who participate in instructional activities (including serving on Master's and Ph.D. committees) in a department or program in which he/she does not hold a salaried appointment.

DAVID CLEVELAND (PhD, University of Arizona), Associate Professor of Environmental Studies: Sustainable agriculture, plant breeding, agbiotechnology, farmer and scientist knowledge (x7502; cleveland@es.ucsb.edu).

FRANK DAVIS (PhD, The Johns Hopkins University), Professor, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management: biogeography and aquatic plant ecology (x3438; fd@bren.ucsb.edu).

JEFF DOZIER (PhD, University of Michigan), Professor, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management: snow science, remote sensing, information systems, environmental optics, earth system science (x5889; dozier@bren.ucsb.edu).

TOM DUNNE (PhD, The Johns Hopkins University), Professor, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management: geomorphology and hydrology (x7557; tdunne@bren.ucsb.edu).

JAMES FREW (PhD, University of California Santa Barbara), Associate Professor, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management: environmental information management (x7356; frew@bren.ucsb.edu).

MARY HEGARTY (PhD, Carnegy Mellon), Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychology: spatial cognition, comprehension, reasoning, and individual differences (x3812; hegarty@psych.ucsb.edu).

JOHN MELACK (PhD, Duke University), Professor of Biology: limnology, plankton ecology, biogeochemistry, wetland ecology (x3879; melack@lifesci.ucsb.edu).

SUSAN STONICH (PhD, University of Kentucky), Professor of Environmental Studies and Anthropology: effects of economic development on human societies and the natural environment in Central America (x8627; stonich@anth.ucsb.edu).

CHRISTINA TAGUE (PhD, University of Toronto), Assistant Professor of Hydrology, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management: eco-hydrology; climate and land use change impacts; environmental modeling; model calibration, evaluation, and development (x8579; ctague@bren.ucsb.edu).

THE GRADUATE ADVISOR

The Graduate Advisor for 2007/2008 is Dar Roberts (x2276; dar@geog.ucsb.edu)

Each department's Graduate Advisor is an official faculty representative of the Graduate Dean in matters affecting graduate students or graduate programs in the academic departments. The Graduate Advisor is an administrative appointment, made by the vice chancellor, separate from the department chairperson, the department, and the Academic Senate. The Graduate Advisor's signature is the only Departmental signature, other than the chairperson's, recognized as official on forms and petitions presented by graduate students. It is the Graduate Advisor who evaluates and approves students' study lists, advises them on advancement to candidacy, considers their petitions to change majors, to add or drop courses, to waive or substitute requirements, to take leaves of absence, etc. The Departmental Graduate Advisor should not be confused with your thesis/dissertation advisor (the Chair of your thesis/dissertation committee).

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM MANAGER

The Graduate Program Assistant (GPA) provides administrative and clerical support for the graduate program (and sometimes is just a sympathetic ear). Assisting in the coordination of the admissions process, the GPA is often the student's initial contact in the department. The GPA assists the graduate advisor in monitoring students' progress toward their degrees, and provides information about departmental and Graduate Division policies and procedures. Faculty and students alike rely heavily on the GPA for information, but ultimately faculty must be responsible for academic planning.

THE GRADUATE COMMITTEE

The mission of the Department of Geography is to maintain an active and dynamic environment to help cultivate and build a strong geographic community. We would like to ensure that all graduate students have a positive experience while at UCSB. The Graduate Committee (GC) is a mix of Geography faculty members, plus the Graduate Program Assistant. The responsibilities of the GC include reviewing all graduate applications, making admission decisions, annual review of graduate student academic progress, and general problem solving for graduate matters. It provides a safe and confidential forum for solving problems during your time as a graduate student. Should a problem arise, please feel free to contact any of the individual members of the committee.

The Graduate Committee for 2007/2008 consists of:

Rick Church: church@geog.ucsb.edu; 893-4217; 3626 Ellison Hall
Hallie Eakin: eakin@geog.ucsb.edu; 893-8741; 5709 Ellison Hall
Dan Montello: montello@geog.ucsb.edu; 893-8536; 5711 Ellison Hall
Martin Raubal: raubal@geog.ucsb.edu; 893-4839; 5713 Ellison Hall
Dar Roberts, Chair: dar@geog.ucsb.edu; 893-2276; 5832 Ellison Hall