Sarah Burch, Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Governance and Innovation in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management, has been appointed to the College of New Scholars at the Royal Society of Canada. The citation reads:
Prof. Peter Johnson has been working with local high school students in a geotechnical program to explore and demonstrate map data capture using novel balloon technologies. You can find more information at his blog site Geospatial Participation.
Geography and Environmental Management MES student Sarah Tam was recently selected as a top 3 Young Talent winner (out of 70 international applicants) to attend and present her work at the World Tourism Forum.
GEM Professor, Dr. Richard M. Petrone was elected the new President of the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) last week at the Annual Meeting in Vancouver. The CGU, formed in 1945 when the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) convened the first meeting of an Associate Committee to advise it on the needs of geophysics, and now represents the interests of Canadian geoscientists through annual scientific meetings, awards programs, interactions with funding agencies, and advocating for the role of science in society and policy-making.
Twelve innovative projects will share a US$10 million competition pool to tackle flooding in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. The partnership between the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) and Z Zurich Foundation of Zurich Insurance, will see grants of up to US$1m awarded to teams offering innovative solutions to issues affecting flood-prone communities in the Horn of Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Almost 400 initial Challenge entries were whittled down to a final 12 solutions considered to have the greatest potential impact.
Several scholars (faculty and graduate student researchers) from the Department of Geography and Environmental Management will be presenting papers, leading sessions or will be members of expert panels at the American Association of Geographers meeting to be held in Boston, MA, from 5-9 April, 2017.
Two geography professors, Susan Elliott and Johanna Wandel, were awarded funds as part of Waterloo’s submission to the Queen Elizabeth Advanced Scholars (QES-AS) 2016 call, which funded projects at 23 Canadian universities.
Toronto's hot housing market has more young adults living at home with their parents. Geography and Environmental Management professor Nancy Worth spoke with The New York Times on the trend that shows 56.5 percent of people in their 20s (PDF) in the Toronto area still live with their parents, compared with 42 percent nationwide. Professor Worth said, despite negative stereotypes of lazy millennials free-loading in their parents' basements, many of these educated young professionals are actually making smart, strategic choices.
Susan J. Elliott, Professor of Geography, has been appointed to the Federal Food Expert Advisory Committee (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/consult/frac-ccra/index-eng.php). The Food Expert Advisory Committee (FEAC) was established to provide Health Canada's Food Directorate (FD) with broad expert advice on its regulatory and administrative oversight of foods.
Five undergraduate and three graduate students recently attended the annual Canadian Risks and Hazards network (CRHnet) symposium on 22-25 November in Montreal. Students presented results from research carried out as part of the “Indonesia field course” (Geog 430C/692) run by Dr. Brent Doberstein in May 2016.