Who are We?

Founded in 1975, the Geography Department at Virginia Tech is part of the College of Natural Resources. Department offices, labs, and facilities are located in Major Williams Hall in the Upper Quad area of the Virginia Tech Campus (building #7 grid 3M).

The Department offers both B.A. and M.S. degrees. We participate in the College of Natural Resources doctoral program in Geospatial and Environmental Analysis.

What do we do?

We work in a wide variety of careers in teaching, research, planning organizations, business, Information Technology,and government. To explore further, look at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) website on careers.

Important Events and Achievements

• Congratulations to Lisa Kennedy who, with collaborator Kam Biu-Liu of Louisiana State University, has received an award from the National Science Foundation to study Caribbean Maritime Forest Ecosystem's response to fire and hurricanes.

• Congratulations to Lynn Resler and Korine Kolivras who have a new publication that recently appeared in the Journal of Geography:

  Resler, L.M. and K.N. Kolivras. 2009.  A field-based technique for teaching about habitat fragmentation and edge effects.  Journal of Geography 108: 210-218.

• John Boyer (Plaid Avenger) on WDBJ-7 news.

• Lindsey Haller, a geography senior, has been invited to jon Phi Beta Kappa based on her outstanding academic performance.

• Kirsten de Beurs class in Remote Sensing and Phenology is currently highlighted in Sensing Our Planet: NASA Earth Science Research Features.

Congratulations to our graduate students who have recently received scholarships and fellowships:

• Tammy Parece: Virginia Lakes and Watershed Association and the Love of Learning Grant.

• John Powers: Shikar Safari Club International.
  

• Korine Kolivras has a new publication:

  Kolivras, K.N. and Scarpaci, J.L. 2009.  Between Corporatism and Socialism: Navigating the Waters of International Education in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.  Journal of Geography 108(3):121-131.
  

• Larry and Mina are happy and proud to announce the arrival of their grandson Raymond Gaskill, born on Monday August 24, 2009.

• Lynn Resler (PI) and co-investigators Diana Tomback (University of Colorado at Denver) and George Malanson (University of Iowa) were awarded a grant ($439,006) from the National Science Foundation, Geography and Spatial Sciences division for a 4-year project, entitled "Implications of an Invasive Forest Pathogen for Alpine Treeline Dynamics".This study is the first systematic investigation of the implications of exotic disease upon alpine treeline dynamics and will shed light on how an exotic and invasive disease, coupled with the impacts of climate warming, can alter the structure and function of a critical global ecosystem through mortality of a keystone and foundation species.                         

• Congratulations to Arvind Bhuta and his advisor Lisa Kennedy, who received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grant for his proposal "A Multi-Scale Analysis of Disturbance, Dynamics, and Climate-Growth Relationships in Mountain Longleaf Pine Forests, USA.".

• Kirsten deBeurs (PI) along with Geoffrey Henebry of South Dakota State University and Grigory Ioffe of Radford University recevied word of a major grant from NASA to study "Land Abandonment in Russia: Understanding Recent Trends and Assessing Future Vulnerability and Adaptation to Changing Climate and Population Dynamics".

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Our Mission Statement

The mission of the department of Geography at Virginia Tech is to foster an appreciation and understanding of the diversity of Earth’s physical and cultural environments, the importance and value of a spatial perspective, and an understanding of the complex interrelationships between peoples and their environments at a variety of scales.  Our goal is to provide students with the intellectual and technical skills to synthesize information, become critical thinkers, develop into better and more informed citizens, and find success in employment or further academic training.

Our department emphasizes teaching and scholarship involving four themes: 1) human-environment relationships – how culture, gender, economy, and politics affect people’s use of and interaction with the environment; 2) international development – the relations between developed and developing countries and the impacts of globalization at local, national, and regional levels; 3) environmental systems – the interrelations among patterns of climate, landforms, vegetation, soils and water, including the factors and processes that produce those patterns; and 4) geospatial analysis – the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), computer mapping, and remote sensing in geographic analyses.