Congratulations to alumna Dr. Vivian Deidre Rodríguez-Rocha (PhD '24) for earning the 2025 National Women’s Studies Association x University of Illinois Press First Book Prize Recipient, awarded at the NWSA conference in Puerto Rico last week! The work is from her dissertation.

Students in GEOG 2N: Apocalyptic Geographies visited the Scotia Barrens to imagine how descendants of an original settlement might rediscover a post apocalyptic landscape.

Photos by Patrick Caswell

5 Tips On Future-Proofing Your GIS Career. As GIS evolves toward web-based applications, the skills required for a successful GIS career are also changing. Esri’s YPN provides advice on how to future-proof your GIS career by continuing your skill development and through community engagement, mentoring, networking, and attendance at conferences. 1.Stay Connected after You’ve Graduated 2. Equip Yourself to Overcome Challenges 3.Leverage Resources to Grow Your GIS Skills 4. Validate or Demonstrate Your GIS Skills 5. Build Your Presence and Reputation in the GIS Community

As #GIScience evolves toward web-based applications, skills required for a successful #GIS career are also changing. What does it mean to be a GIS professional of the future? Esri’s YPN provides 5 important tips for future-proofing your career with crucial resources you can leverage: buff.ly/5uWOCbh

Thank you to everyone who made Penn State GIS Day a success!

Students, faculty and alumni shared lightning talks in Foster Auditorium and kept conversations going at a reception in the Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information.

Tomorrow is GIS Day!

Lightning talks in Foster Auditorium (11:15 a.m.–12:05 p.m., 1:30–3 p.m.), a 3–4:30 p.m.

A reception at the Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information, then GIS trivia and résumé reviews at 6:30 p.m. in the Hamer Center.

All are welcome!

Ph.D. candidate Suraiya Parvin shared her thesis research, “Placemaking through Food: A Case Study of Bangladeshi Migrants in New York City,” at the Race, Ethnicity and Place conference in New Mexico and helped lead our grad recruitment table. Proud to see her representing Penn State Geography!

Pennsylvania counties face tough choices on spending $2B opioid settlement funds Local governments have a lot of freedom on how to spend the funds, but there’s also confusion and a feeling of moral responsibility to spend wisely after so many lives have been lost.

Postdoctoral scholar Halie Kampman and professor Brian King published a Conversation piece on their research titled, “Pennsylvania counties face tough choices on spending $2B opioid settlement funds”.

theconversation.com/pennsylvania...

Penn State GIS Day 2025 to take place Nov. 17 | Penn State University Penn State University Libraries will observe GIS Day, an annual event celebrating the technology of geographic information systems, on Nov. 17. This year’s activities focus on geospatial presentation,...

GIS Day is Monday, Nov. 17!

Schedule:
11:15 a.m.–12:05 p.m. Welcome + lightning talks
1:30–3 p.m. Lightning talks
3–4:30 p.m. Reception @ Hamer Center, 1 Pattee Library
6:30–8:30 p.m. Games + resume review @ Hamer Center

Info and Zoom Links: www.psu.edu/news/univers...

Mapping a new frontier with AI-integrated geographic information systems | Penn State University With the advent of artificial intelligence, researchers have developed an independent “agent” capable of performing geographic information system functions with minimal human oversight. It's the lates...

A multi-institutional team led by geography researchers at Penn State built and tested four AI agents in order to introduce a conceptual framework of autonomous geographical information systems and examine how this shift is redefining the practice of GIS.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Adult learner finds ‘antidote to aging’ through geography program | Penn State University You might need a degree in geography to chart the career and life experience paths of Bob Myers. Thankfully, he has a few. Myers is a geospatial expert, with two master's degrees and three certificate...

Bob Myers is an incredible alum @pennstategeography.bsky.social - the only person to ever earn multiple Master's degrees in our online program, a tireless advocate for civil rights, and a key supporter of the cartographic work we're doing in the GeoGraphics Lab today: www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Geography alumnus charts new path after decades in federal climate roles | Penn State University Benjamin DeAngelo, a Penn State geography alumnus, has launched Operation Future, a climate adaptation and resilience consulting firm drawing on his nearly 30 years of federal experience.

After nearly three decades in federal service, Penn State Geography alumnus Benjamin DeAngelo is launching a new a consulting and advisory service focused on climate adaptation and resilience called Operation Future.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

National Geographic Explorer and Penn State Geography’s Tiza Mfuni is attending the National Geographic Explorer’s Festival in Johannesburg, where he also led a session on self-reflection for collaboration.

Graduate students to share research at Coffee Hour on Nov. 7 | Penn State University Suraiya Parvin and Naser Lessani, two doctoral candidates in Penn State’s Department of Geography, will deliver research talks as part of the department’s Graduate Student Coffee Hour series at 3:30 p...

This Friday, Suraiya Parvin & Naser Lessani will present their research at our Graduate Student Coffee Hour!

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Graphic against a blue sparkle background featuring text: AAG International Geographic Information Funds Student Paper Awards ($600 per award) Graduate Research Awards (up to $600 per award) Scholarship Awards ($1,200 per award) Nominate by November 15, 2025

AAG is now offering three new awards through the International Geographic Information Funds (IGIF). IGIF offers 3 types of awards to support students' career development in the applied #spatial analysis or geographic information science/systems (SA/#GISS).

Learn how to apply: buff.ly/Fdlg6eR

Dr. Bronwen Powell, Professor of Geography, African Studies and Anthropology at Penn State will give a talk at Emory University on Nov. 7.

lnkd.in/g4MbBrDZ

Thank you to Dr. Thelma Abu for joining our Coffee Hour series to share her research on climate change and mental health. Her talk highlighted how rising temperatures in Ghana’s semi-arid regions are impacting emotional well-being and community resilience.

Congratulations to Ava Blansfield, Logan Madden and Isabel Rivera on earning the EMSAGE Laureate designation this fall. This honor recognizes leadership, service, global engagement and academic excellence. We are proud of these students for going above and beyond.

Penn State undergraduates reflect on Malawi fieldwork with ECODRYFOREST project | Penn State University For two Penn State undergraduates, July 2025 brought an experience far from campus classrooms. Geography majors Jesse Ehrlich and Cadence O’Brien spent a month in Malawi as part of the ECODRYFOREST pr...

Two Penn State Geography undergrads spent a month in Malawi with the ECODRYFOREST project, working in forests and villages alongside local researchers.

Read their story: www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Geography student’s research shines light on teen vaping boom  | Penn State University Naomi Bird, an undergraduate student majoring in geography and comparative literature at Penn State, worked with Emily Rosenman and Louisa Holmes, both associate professors of geography, to help inves...

As a teen, Naomi Bird witnessed the sudden vaping boom among her peers. Research she did as an undergraduate student at Penn State gave her a greater insight into what she was witnessing.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Erica Smithwick to participate in panel on communicating climate research | Penn State University An Oct. 29 virtual event hosted by the University Climate Change Coalition will bring together several climate scholars, including the director of Penn State's Earth and Environmental Systems Institut...

Today at 4 p.m. ET: Erica Smithwick, professor of geography and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, joins a UC3 virtual panel, “Communicating Climate Research in an Uncertain Climate.” Free registration!

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

An anatomy of inscrutability of the unconventional oil and gas development-water-health nexus in Pennsylvania In this paper, we conceptualize the relationship among unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD), water quality and public health as an inscrutabl…

Doctoral student Owen Harrington published his first article in Energy Research & Social Science on the UOGD–water–health nexus in Pennsylvania, using interviews and a community focus group.

Read: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Join us Friday, Oct. 31 for a Coffee Hour talk by Dr. Thelma Abu, assistant professor at UConn.

She’ll explore the invisible mental health impacts of extreme heat in Ghana and share insights for building more comprehensive climate adaptation strategies.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Miss Friday’s Coffee Hour? Mook Bangalore, assistant professor of environmental policy at Penn State, joined us to explore how floods impact communities in the Global South and how researchers can define, measure and respond to these climate challenges.

📺 Watch the talk: youtu.be/NC_aRr5HxkQ

Penn State helped shape Harrison Cole’s path to National Geographic Museum | Penn State University Work on large-scale map installations at Penn State helped shape alum Harrison Cole’s path to one of the world’s most recognizable names in cartography, National Geographic.

The National Geographic Society hired PSU Geography alumnus Harrison Cole to design maps for the National Geographic Museum of Exploration, currently under construction in Washington, D.C.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

Graduate fieldwork in Malawi connects restoration, data and community | Penn State University For two Penn State geography graduate students, fieldwork in Southern Africa offered more than a research assignment. It provided a front-row view of how science, community and collaboration come toge...

For two PSU geography graduate students, fieldwork in Southern Africa offered more than a research assignment. It provided a front-row view of how science, community & collaboration come together in the effort to restore landscapes undergoing rapid environmental change.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

New publication with my #UCSF colleagues about #cannabis budtenders and their #medical recommendations: doi.org/10.26828/can...

@ssripennstate.bsky.social
@pennstategeography.bsky.social
@pop.psu.edu
@ctcre-ucsf.bsky.social
🛟 #geosky #AcademicSky #publichealth

Tomorrow!

Flood impacts in Global South focus of Geography Coffee Hour | Penn State University Mook Bangalore, assistant professor of environmental policy in the Penn State School of Public Policy, will deliver a talk about flooding impacts in the Global South at the Department of Geography's C...

Extreme floods are increasing worldwide, but their consequences are not equally shared.

Mook Bangalore, assistant professor of environmental policy at Penn State, will explore how climate extremes affect households across the Global South at Coffee Hour this Friday.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

New Penn State geography course examines what sustainability means | Penn State University A new Penn State geography course is giving students the chance to question what sustainability means and how it can be practiced in everyday life.

Want impact, not doomscrolling? GEOG 340 pairs big questions with local fieldwork, project design and practical optimism. Learn how it works in our feature on Thinking Sustainably.

www.psu.edu/news/earth-a...

☕ Join us for our next Coffee Hour at noon on Friday, Oct. 17 in 401 Steidle and via Zoom as Dr. Harrison Pickney presents, "Race and Place: Exploring the complexities of who belongs where".

psu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...