Department History
History, Curriculum, and Pedagogy
A Lively Chronicle: 1963-2000
UCSB Geography in the 21st Century
Computers in Research
Historic Photos
Timeline
UC Santa Barbara Geography / Department History / Timeline
Timeline of Milestones
1855
- College of California chartered
1860
- Berkeley site of College of California dedicated
1868
- College of California became University of California, with Berkeley the first campus
1909
- An existing Santa Barbara city normal school became Santa Barbara State Normal School of Manual Arts and Home Economics
1919
- The name was shortened to Santa Barbara State Normal School
1921
- The school changed from a 2-year to a 4-year program and was renamed the Santa Barbara State Teachers College
1935
- With academic diversification that included liberal arts degrees, the word "Teachers" was dropped from the name, so the institution was called Santa Barbara State College
1944
- Santa Barbara State College became a campus of UC; Geography classes offered by faculty in various departments
1954
- College moved from Santa Barbara (Riviera and Mesa) campuses to the old WWII marine base on Goleta Point
1958
- Santa Barbara designated a general campus; renamed University of California Santa Barbara
1963
- Geography Program begun under the direction of the Dean of College of Letters and Science
1963
- Berl Golomb hired and started building Geography Program; (separated 1971)
1964
- Geography had two full-time instructors and offered five classes
1965
- Geography minor established; 12 classes offered
1966
- Geography major established in February; first BA granted in June
1969
- John "Jack" Estes hired and taught Air Photo Interpretation (died 2001)
- Program offered five lower division and 32 upper division courses; eight faculty and two full-time researchers were on board
1971
- Program diminishes in faculty (down to five) and class offerings (only three lower division and 20 upper division). Jack Estes gathered research team for remote sensing
1973
- Biogeography offered for the first time
1974
- Geography freed from control of Dean to become an official Department; Cartography offered for the first time
- David Simonett hired and given position of the first Department Chair, though wasn't on campus until 1975 (died 1990); Alan Strahler hired (separated 1982); Christopher Clayton hired (separated 1980); Jeff Dozier hired (transferred to Bren 1997)
- David Simonett chair July 1974 to June 1980
1976
- Terence Smith hired
1977
- Reginald Golledge hired; Waldo Tobler hired (retired 1994)
1978
- Remote Sensing Research Unit used VICAR-IBIS software, supported by Engineering Department, on huge computers (the VAX 1145, initally, then a VAX 1170) for image processing
- Geography granted first master's degree
1979
1980
- Richard Church hired
- Estimated year the first ArcInfo license purchased from ESRI
- Reginald Golledge chair, July 1980 to June 1984
- Extramural research funds reach $650,000 annually, largely for Estes' remote sensing research; PhD in Geography approved
1981
- Raymond Smith hired (retired 1994, but continues research within Institute for Computational Earth System Science - ICESS)
1982
- First $1 million year in research funding; Department establishes its own computer center; Geography granted first PhD; Waldo Tobler elected to National Academy of Sciences and hiked to the top of Mt Whitney
- Joel Michealsen hired; Barbara Buttenfield hired (separated 1984); Helen Couclelis hired
1983
- Frank Davis hired (transferred to Bren School of Environmental Science and Management 2000); Patrick Harker hired (separated 1984); Julia Allen-Jones hired (separated 1991)
1984
- Richard Church chair, July 1984 to 1988
- Remote Sensing Research Unit first began using ERDAS software to do remote sensing image processing and GIS; an IBM PC (8088) was used, which had a 20 MB hard drive and ran at 88KHz
1985
- Luc Anselin hired (separated 1994)
1986
- David Simonett elected Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jeff Dozier elected Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
1988
- Hugo Loaiciga hired; Michael Goodchild hired
- Ray Smith chair, July 1988 to June 1991
- Jeff Dozier and Ray Smith reorganized the earth science component of an organized research unit named Computer Systems Laboratory (started in 1972 under Engineering) into the Computer Systems Laboratory/Center for Remote Sensing and Environmental Optics (CSL/CRSEO), which in 1995 was renamed Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS); Ray Smith was first Director (1988-1996); Catherine Gautier became Director in 1996; Dave Siegel appointed Director in 2002
- Reginald Golledge founds Research Unit on Spatial Cognition and Choice (RUSCC)
- National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) founded initially with an NSF award and continues under a memorandum between UCSB, the University of Maine, and the University at Buffalo
- Waldo Tobler received honorary doctorate from University of Zurich, Switzerland
1990
- Catherine Gautier hired; David Siegel hired; David Lanter hired (separated 1994)
- Reginald Golledge elected as Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science
1991
- Joint PhD program with San Diego State University started
- Jack Estes chair, July 1991 to June 1992
- Leal Mertes and Libe Washburn hired
- Jeff Dozier elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
1992
- Joel Michaelsen chair July 1992 to December 1997
- Dan Montello and Jim Proctor hired
1993
- Jeff Dozier receives NASA Public Service Medal
1994
- Dar Roberts hired
1995
- Diamond-Graham ranks UCSB's Geography #1 for the number of citations/awards for a given department or program divided by the number of program faculty
- National Research Council ranks UCSB's Geography #4 in nation based upon reputation by peer review
- Oliver Chadwick hired; Tommy Dickey hired
- Carl Sundbeck, SBCC professor, hired to teach Geography 3A & B
1996
- Keith Clarke hired
1997
- Varenius (research project) funded by NSF until 2001
1998
- Michael Goodchild chair, January 1998 to December 2000
- Stuart Sweeney hired
1999
- CSISS founded as a result of an NSF award that runs through 2004
- Descartes Lab for undergraduate education in GIS opened
- Helen Couclelis receives Honorary Doctorate, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
2000
- Reginald Golledge elected President of AAG
- Reginald Golledge awarded International Geography Gold Medal, Institute of Australian Geographers
- Sara Fabrikant hired
2001
- Keith Clarke chair, January 2001 to July 2006.
- UCSB Administration promises Geography 25,000 square feet of space in Ellison Hall so that most of the scattered Geographers can come under one roof.
- Keith Clarke elected President of CaGIS
- Reginald Golledge receives Honorary LLD from Simon Fraser University (Canada)
- Reginald Golledge receives Honorary PhD from Gotebord University (Sweden)
- Phaedon Kyriakidis hired
- Geography Department developed new "Vision Statement"
- Jack Estes receives NASA Public Service Medal posthumously
2002
- Michael Goodchild elected to National Academy of Sciences, selected for membership in the Royal Society of Canada, chosen for University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Educator of the Year Award
- Hugo Loaiciga received a 2002 Service to the Profession Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute for his "longstanding contributions to research and technical activities" of the two groups.
- Ray Smith received Jerlov Award in recognition of his contribution made to the advancement of knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean
- Reginald Golledge received University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) 2002 Research Award
- UCSB Geography faculty averaged $487,000 in extramural funds per faculty member for the year 2002. This amount leads the whole Science Division at UCSB, $150,000 over the nearest rival (Physics)
2003
- Michael Goodchild selected by peers to give UCSB Faculty Research Lecture
- Keith Clarke selected as UCGIS Educator of the Year
- Catherine Gautier awarded Goddard Space Flight Center's annual Teamwork Award for her work on the AIRS science team that is part of the Aqua Project
- Christopher Still hired
- Michael Goodchild chosen for Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal
2004
- Mo Lovegreen hired as MSO (the top staff person), only the second MSO ever employed by the Geography Department. She replaces Meryl Wieder, who retired after 36 years of service to UCSB
- Keith Clarke selected to status of American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) Fellow, for his contributions to ACSM and the professions of Cartography and GIS
- Geography celebrates its 30th anniversary as an autonomous department; the Department’s Time Capsule is installed and will be opened on the Department’s Centennial in 2074
- Reginald Golledge elected to serve on the Decade of Behavior's National Advisory Committee
2005
- Reginald Golledge elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Hallie Eakin hired
- Keith Clarke receives the U.S. Geological Survey’s John Wesley Powell Award
- Jeff Dozier receives the William T. Pecora Award
2006
- Tommy Dickey elected AGU Fellow
- Keith Clarke appointed Chair of NAS Mapping Sciences Committee
- Mike Goodchild receives Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award
- Reginald Golledge selected as UCSB Outstanding Graduate Mentor
- Keith Clarke receives UK Leverhulme Trust award and Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship
- Mike Goodchild Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Joel Michaelsen Elected Chair of the UCSB Academic Senate
- Oliver Chadwick becomes Department Chair July 2006
- Martin Raubal hired
- Keith Clarke appointed to the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration
- Ray Smith receives the R.J. Russell Award
2007
- Oliver Chadwick selected as Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America
- Reginald Golledge received the Lifetime Achievement Honors of the Association of American Geographers
- Mike Goodchild received the Geospatial Information and Technology Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award
- Mike Goodchild received the Prix Vautrin Lud, considered the Nobel Prize of Geography
- Loaiciga elected Fellow of ASCE
2008
- David Carr invited to the ATHGO International 5th Annual Global Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change 2007 as a Nobel Peace Prize VIP honoree member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- Michael Goodchild became director of spatial@ucsb, a multimillion dollar, interdisciplinary research center devoted to spatial thinking
- Kostas Goulias became joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Transportation Letters: The International Journal of Transportation Research"
- Hugo Loaiciga selected by the Water Resources Planning and Management Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers as the recipient of the Julian Hinds Award
- Martin Raubal won the Best Paper of 2007 award for an article written for the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Journal
- Martin Raubal won the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Journal's U.V. Helava Award for best paper in 4 years
- Dar Roberts received UCSB Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award
- Leila M. Vespoli de Carvalho, Jennifer King, and Joseph McFadden hired
- Tommy Dickey selected as Secretary of the Navy/Chief of Naval Operations Chair of Oceanographic Sciences
