Student News

We have amazing students. Check out their accomplishments!

Welcome New Graduate Students

PhD Program: Joseph Chestnut, Dinko Hanaan Dinko

MA Program: Paige Ramsey

MS Program: Nicholas Burns, Aaron Colgrove, Juanita Corea, Alex Crotty, Amanda Drinkard, Mark Fogleman, David Forster, William M. Hugel, Thomas W. Laritz, Johanna Levene, Mason Lovaas, Lorraine Metz, Jennifer C. Murdock, David Peters, Natasha Sanders, Michelle Spencer, Steven Tyrrell, Cassie Vaughan

Student Awards

LAURANCE C. HEROLD FUND RESEARCH AWARD

The Laurance C. Herold Fund supports field research by graduate and undergraduate students as part of their degree programs in the Department of Geography & the Environment, University of Denver. This fund, created in 2010, honors the memory of Professor Laurence C. Herold, a faculty member in the Geography Department from 1963 through 1996, who led many student field research expeditions, notably to study prehistoric agricultural terraces in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Award recipients for AY 2018-19 are:

  • Brandon Bailey, MA program, Rock Glacier Development in the San Juan Mountains.”
  • Michael Madin, MA program, “Climate Change and Seed Security Among Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana.”
  • Chris Hancock, MA program, “Temporal and Spatial Controls on Alpine Streamflow Variability in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado.” 
  • Shannon Jones, PhD program, “Flood Hydrology of Coastal Catchments and Mangrove Sedimentary Response in Tropical Wet-Dry Forests.”
  • Corey Martz, PhD program, “Capturing Where Nature is Meaningful for Individuals in a Community Nature Program Through Story Mapping.”
  • Meghan McCarroll, PhD program, “Water Literacy of Day Zero in Cape Town, South Africa.”

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHERS
MARBLE-BOYLE UNDERGRADUATE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN GEOGRAPHIC SCIENCE

The Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award recognizes excellence in academic performance by undergraduate students from the U.S. and Canada who are putting forth a strong effort to bridge geographic science and computer science as well as to encourage other students to embark upon similar programs. The award is an activity of the Marble Fund for Geographic Science of the AAG.

Rachel Pierstorff

DEPARTMENT AWARDS

Dr. Laurance C. Herold Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants: Linde Carmack, Caitlin Lebeda, Kelly Measom

Dr. Robert D. Rudd Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Student ResearchAnna Sveinsdóttir, Byron Schuldt, Xuantong Wang

Dr. Thomas M. Griffiths Memorial Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student Scholarship/Independent Research in Geography: Nicolas Tarasewicz

Dr. David B. Longbrake Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Service in Geography: Madison Gawler

Professor Moras L. Shubert Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship in Environmental Science: Arie Feltman-Frank

Environmental Science Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Environmental Science: Anya Dushinski, Taylor Johaneman

Paul Stanford Burnhard Memorial Scholarship in Environmental Science: Hannah Gaertner

Alan Bryce Henry Memorial Scholarship in Environmental Science: Miles Dorrance, Ryan Keenan

AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
ROBERT A. HERBERT MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

In 1980, AWRA established the Endowment-Memorial Fund to be used for the enhancement of education in water resources. The fund has since been renamed the Richard A. Herbert Memorial Educational Fund to honor Richard A. Herbert -- a champion for water resources education -- who passed away in 1994. The undergraduate scholarship will be awarded to the student most qualified by academic performance. Measures of academic performance include the cumulative grade point average, relevance of the student's curriculum to water resources, and leadership in extracurricular activities related to water resources.

Ngoc Nguyen

Student Publications

Corey J. Martz, Rebecca L. Powell & Bryan Shao-Chang Wee (2019), Engaging children to voice their sense of place through location-based story making with photo-story maps, Children's Geographies, DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2019.1685073

Xuantong Wang, Mickey Rafa, Jonathan D. Moyer, Jing Li, Jennifer Scheer and Paul Sutton (2019), Estimation and Mapping of Sub-National GDP in Uganda Using NPP-VIIRS Imagery, Remote Sensing 11(2), 163; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11020163

 

Student Presentations

Brandon Bailey, Rock Glacier Development and Evolution in Colorado. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Joshua Baldwin, Environmental Injustice? Green Space Access in the Denver Metropolitan Area. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Sylvia Brady, Public-private Partnerships with Public Transit, Local Government Agencies, and Ridesourcing in Denver, CO. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Jordan Bretthauer, Hazard Visualization and Risk Assessment of Morrison, Colorado. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Lucas Brown, Hydrology and Terracing in the Monte Pallano area of Abruzzo, IT. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Bryan Collins, Modeling Crop Yield to Appraise Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Timor-Leste. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Christopher Hancock, Hydroclimate in the San Juan Mountain Region of Colorado. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Shannon Jones, Land Use/Land Cover Change in the Ostional Catchment in Rivas, Nicaragua between 2009 – 2017. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Caitlin Lebeda, The Visual Impacts of National Park Designation on Gateway Communities in the United States: A Photographic Examination of Estes Park, Colorado. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Hailey Macrander, A Web GIS for Human Trafficking Data Exploration. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Corey Martz, Community Engagement Through Photovoice: Understanding Community Strengths and Concerns in the Face of Urban Change. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Meghan McCarroll, Water Literacy of "Day Zero": Learning From a South African Water Crisis. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Kelly Measom, Using Historic Maps to Characterize Medieval Field Patterns in the Czech Republic. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Katherine Roselius, Partisan Media Fragmentation: How Climate Change is Framed in American Online Partisan News Sources. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Byron Schuldt, Denver's Evolving Heat Island: The Dual Impacts of Urbanization & Greening. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Anna Sveinsdóttir, From the Street to the Courts: The Judicialization of Environmental Struggles in Guatemala. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Sophie-Min Thomson, Creating a 3D Model of The Town of Morrison, Colorado From Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Data. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Jessica Villena Sánchez, Aging Mobilities in the Global South, Mexico City Case. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, April 3-6, 2019, Washington, DC.

Student Map Contest Winners

FIRST PLACE - Jack Oberg

map of paranormal activity in Colorado

 

SECOND PLACE - Jaden Hutchins

map of cardiovascular disease in Georgia

 

THIRD PLACE - Cedar Haugen

map of drug charges in Denver

 

HONORABLE MENTION - Kathryn Armstrong

map of superfund site locations in relation to income in Denver

Undergraduate Research

Ngoc Nguyen, Partners in Scholarship Grant

Accessing nutrient water pollution and heavy metal concentration in sediments in To Lich River, Hanoi, Vietnam

Given the fact that Hanoi population has been tripled in the last 20 years and the number and capacity of water treatment plants remain unchanged, I decided to conduct a research evaluating the pollution level in one of our city's main rivers (To Lich River) on summer 2019. To Lich River has been subjected to extreme pollution since a large amount of industrial and domestic wastewater has being discharged into it. Nevertheless, there has been very few studies in the past addressing its pollution level and water quality. In this research, various water quality parameters (Dissolve Oxygen (DO), NH4+, NO3-, PO43-, etc.) and 25 heavy metal concentration in 0-10 cm sediments were measured in 19 locations along the river. The results will be presented at the American Association for Geographers (AAG) Conference in April 2020. This project is just a step towards my dream of coming back and doing something meaningful for Vietnam, my home country for the last 18 years.