UTK Geography student Jamie Alumbaugh received AAG research grant

April 25, 2021

UTK Geography student Jamie Alumbaugh received AAG research grant

UTK Geography graduate student Jamie Alumbaugh received a research grant from the Paleoenvironmental Change specialty group at the April 2021 meeting of the American Association of Geographers. The grant will support her dissertation research using ancient sedimentary DNA along with other evidence in lake sediment cores to understand long-term patterns of environmental change and human-environment interactions in the Andes mountains of Ecuador.

UTK Geography Professor Sally Horn received a Lifetime Achievement Award

April 25, 2021

UTK Geography Professor Sally Horn received a Lifetime Achievement Award

UTK Geography Professor Sally Horn received the Karl and Elisabeth Butzer Award for Lifetime Achievement in the study of Paleoenvironmental Change at the April 2021 meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Presented to Sally by the Paleoenvironmental Specialty Group, this award is named after the late Karl Butzer, a geographer who specialized in the study of sedimentary and archaeological evidence of past environments, and his wife and research partner, Elisabeth Butzer, whose continuing research focuses on archival evidence of environmental change. Sally received the award in recognition of her efforts, along with dozens of collaborators and graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee and elsewhere, to document the long-term environmental history of the circum-Caribbean region, South America, and the southeastern U.S. based on lake sediments and other natural archives.

Professor Emerita Dr. Carol Harden received AAG Lifetime Achievement Award

April 12, 2021

Professor Emerita Dr. Carol Harden received AAG Lifetime Achievement Award

Source: http://news.aag.org/2020/12/2021-aag-honors

Dr. Carol Harden, the 2021 recipient of the AAG’s Lifetime Achievement Honors, is the quintessential field scientist, professional association leader, and effective science communicator. She has been at the forefront of advancing geography’s role in the natural sciences, whether in the AAG, National Research Council, National Geographic Society, or National Science Foundation. Over a half-century career, Harden has established herself as one of the leading figures in contemporary physical geography and environmental science. More broadly, she has had a tremendous influence across our entire discipline, owing to the many roles she has played at the University of Tennessee, AAG, National Research Council, and National Geographic Society, and as editor of Physical Geography.

Since the 1980s, Harden has done fieldwork in the Andes, including a year on a Fulbright to Ecuador. Her commitment to international fieldwork and diversity in geography and other field disciplines and her encyclopedic knowledge of physical geography allows her to evaluate critically, and advocate for support of, fieldwork, especially by diverse scholars from around the world. In addition to her Latin American research, she has generated a substantial body of research in the U.S., mainly in Appalachia, on soil erosion, watershed hydrology, water quality, and human impacts.

Harden is currently the Chair of the Geographical Sciences Committee and a Member of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, both for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). She was recently a member of the prestigious and influential Committee on Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society. She has also served as a member and Chair of the Nominations Committee, Geology, and Geology Section, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Harden was a member (2017) and then Chair (2016-2020) of the Geographical Sciences Committee (GSC-NASEM). In 2010-2012, Harden served first as Vice President and then as President of the American Association of Geographers. She is a compassionate listener and a fair-minded leader. Harden is a mentor with an impact on cultivating new and early-career disciplinary leaders. She does this with a clear vision of geography’s role in science, higher education, and society, allowing her to see and realize new opportunities and build new initiatives. A strong sense of collegiality and caring has allowed her to engage in constructive and productive dialog across several disciplinary divides. For these qualities and achievements, the AAG recognizes Carol Harden as the 2021 recipient of the AAG Lifetime Achievement Honors.