KU students take honors in regional geography competitions

LAWRENCE -- University of Kansas students took home honors in two competitions at the annual Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Regional meeting of the American Association of Geographers, held Oct. 2-4 at Kansas State University in Manhattan.

Scott Pusich, KU doctoral student in geography from Manhattan Beach, Calif., tied for sixth in the individual competition. Pusich's placing qualified him to compete on a regional team with the other top six finishers in the national competition during the AAG national meeting March 14 through 19, 2004, in Philadelphia.

A team of six geography KU students took second place out of 10 teams in the regional GeoBowl geography competition, which tested them on both physical and human geography.

In the graduate student paper competition, Matthew Ramspott of Blair, Neb., and Rex Rowley of Las Vegas, Nev., won the $100 first place prize, and Angela Gray of Sioux City, Iowa, $50 for second place.

In the GeoBowl competition, teams competed in three rounds of team and individual questions, facing a different team each time, with both team and individual total scores being kept. KU's team finished second behind the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Micah Shilling, master's degree student in geography from Ozark, Mo., said it was the first time in recent years that KU had sent a team to the competition. She said that the conference's being held in Manhattan led to much greater participation than in the years it was held in Colorado, Montana or Utah. KU has hosted the event three times, most recently in 1998.

Ten KU students presented papers at the conference. GeoBowl participants and those presenting papers all are geography majors, unless noted. Their hometowns, year in school, parents' names and high school alma mater, if available, are listed below.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence
Scott Campbell, doctoral student, presented "Mapping the TV Landscape: The Distribution of Television Program Settings."

Brian Wardlow, doctoral student, presented "A Crop Mapping Prototype Using Intermediate Resolution EOS (Earth-Observing System) Data-Early Results" with Stephen Egbert, assistant professor of geography.

GRAHAM COUNTY
From Hill City
Julie Renee Robinson, senior in biology and geography, daughter of Richard and Deborah Robinson; Hill City High School graduate. She presented "Some Applications of Isotope Analysis to Reconstruction of Late Quaternary Environments in the Central Great Plains" with Karen L. Willey, student, and William C. Johnson, professor of geography.

SHAWNEE COUNTY
From Topeka
Ratna Radhakrishna, doctoral student, presented "The Politics of Participatory Fieldwork in a Case Study of Indigenous Latin America."

CALIFORNIA
From Manhattan Beach
Scott M. Pusich, doctoral student, son of Lucy Nelsen; GeoBowl participant and member of team placing second in regional geography;qualified to compete on a regional team in the national competition during the AAG national meeting March 14-19, 2004, in Philadelphia.

IOWA
From Sioux City
Angela M. Gray, master's degree student, daughter of Frank and Cindy Gray; second-place winner for her paper, "Critical Geopolitics of African Displacement."

KENTUCKY
From Lexington
Sarah Leanne Smiley, doctoral student, daughter of Roger Smiley; presented "Ugandan Perspectives Toward Debt Relief."

MINNESOTA
From Crystal
Christopher John Atkinson, doctoral student; GeoBowl participant and member of the KU team placing second in regional geography.

MISSOURI
From Chesterfield
Karen L. Willey, doctoral student, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Willey; Parkway West Senior High School graduate. She presented "Some Applications of Isotope Analysis to Reconstruction of Late Quaternary Environments in the Central Great Plains" with Julie Robinson, student, and William C. Johnson, professor of geography.

From Ozark
Micah Renee Shilling, master's degree student, daughter of Michael and Donna Shilling; GeoBowl participant and member of the KU team placing second in regional geography.

NEBRASKA
From Blair
Matthew Edward Ramspott, doctoral student, son of Ed and Pam Ramspott; GeoBowl participant and first-place winner for the paper "Object-Based Classification of Rural Northeast Kansas Grassland Cover Types Using High Resolution Aerial Imagery" (with Rex J. Rowley). He also was on the KU team placing second in regional geography.

NEVADA
From Las Vegas
Rex Jacob Rowley, master's degree student; son of Rexine Rowley; GeoBowl participant and first-place winner for the paper "Object-Based Classification of Rural Northeast Kansas Grassland Cover Types Using High Resolution Aerial Imagery" (with Matthew Ramspott). He also was on the KU team placing second in regional geography.

NORTH CAROLINA
From Raleigh
Joshua Stewart Campbell, master's degree student, son of John Campbell; Highland High School graduate. He presented "Archeological Predictive Model for the High Plains of Southwestern Kansas."

RHODE ISLAND
From Cranston
Peter James Gogol, senior, son of Sharyn M. Caldwell; GeoBowl participant and presented "Association of Soil Moisture and Leaf Litter Moisture with Nymphal Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis Say) Activity" (with Christine Zolnik and Thomas N. Mather of the University of Rhode Island). He also was on the KU team placing second in regional geography.

TEXAS
From Odessa
Christopher W. Post, doctoral student, son of Gail and Diane Post; presented "Company Town Culture: Sunflower Village, Kansas, from 1943 to 1959."

SOUTH KOREA
From Seoul
Sun Yurp Park, doctoral student, presented "Soil Organic Matter Content and its Relationship with a Topographic Factor in a Floodplain Environment: An Approach Based on SSURGO and GIS Techniques."