Alumni

Recent Alumni News

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Geography Professor and CSDE Affiliate Dr. Kam Wing Chan and Ph.D. Alum Dr. Xiaxia Yang (postdoc at King’s College, London) have recently published a commentary in Caixin Weekly, a major economics weekly in China. The title of their commentary is "The Secret of Chinese… Read more
The UW College of Arts & Sciences is pleased to announce three Graduate Medalists for 2023. The Graduate Medal honors exceptional graduate students who completed their doctoral degrees this year, with medalists selected on the basis of nomination letters from faculty... Isaac Javier Rivera Graduate Medalist in the Social Sciences PhD, Geography Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Isaac Rivera says his dissertation is the product of years of collective dreaming and collective organizing in… Read more
Thank you very much to David Prytherch, Professor of Geography at Miami University, for contributing this article. With heavy hearts we mourn our dear friend and colleague Stanley Toops, who passed away yesterday of a failing heart. We're proud Stan called Miami home for 32 years, but he was a man of the world -- a quintessential geographer -- whose curiosity knew no bounds. He visited so many places and touched so many people through his teaching, research, mentorship, and friendship… Read more
Patti Shah Karam wasn’t in a healthy head space. It was the day before Thanksgiving and big holidays are hard for her, as she’s mostly estranged from her family. But [UW Geography B.A. Alum] Thai Nguyen, a 31-year-old peer mental health counselor who was at Shah Karam’s Shoreline apartment for their weekly meeting, helped pull her out of bed and out of a funk… Read more
Thank you very much to UW Geography Ph.D. Alum Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, Emeritus Director, Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at University of Illinois, for contributing this article. John Parr, a member of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) since the mid 1960s, passed away at his home in London in early January 2023. John was born in the U.K. and graduated from University College, London, with a degree in economics in 1962. In 1967, he completed his Ph.D. in… Read more
The high-profile reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 is generally considered a conservation success: Gray wolf packs inside and outside the park gradually established new populations. In Washington, wolves were largely absent for decades until a pack was identified in the northeastern part of the state in 2008. But wolf recovery also has been controversial. Over time,… Read more
UW Geographers learn to understand their discipline as, essentially, "The Why of the Where." This phrase has even been memorialized on an original UW Geography logo design! After years of developing critical spatial analysis, research skills, and various technical methodologies in college, as students get closer to graduation they are frequently wondering about the relevance of… Read more
Natasha Rivers declared geography as her major in the spring of her first year in college. "I didn’t know what opportunities lay ahead. I just knew I loved studying geography," she said. She followed up with a Ph.D., a stint teaching in academia and then a job as the first district demographer for Seattle Public Schools. That was all before her current role as the sustainability and measurement director for BECU,… Read more
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Bukhari Shakil Work Experience: Technology Consultant, Ernst & Young Network Network Network Don’t stress if you don’t get into your major. Try lots of things and fail lots of times. Figure out what you wanna do and try to meet people doing those things. What worked for me was aggressive networking, which has given me many referrals. Finally, always try to help others with their journey – you get what you give.… Read more
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