Cal State Fullerton geography students and alumni received awards and recognition at the annual statewide conference for the California Geographical Society, held at Cal State Stanislaus. CSUF geography students presented research in the form of posters, papers and maps, both analog and digital.
Three CSUF geography students received competitive research awards — the joint largest number of research award recipients from any single institution in California.
Miranda Esteves earned a second-place award for her paper and analog cartography project titled, “Who Produces Cacao and Who Eats Chocolate?” She also received the competitive travel grant.
Justin Leist-Alston earned a third-place award for his undergraduate poster on “Mapping the Relationship Between Palm Oil Production and Deforestation in Indonesia”
Heather Roberts was recognized with a third-place award for her graduate paper titled, “Hydrosocial History of the San Diego Creek Sub-Watershed.”
Three additional CSUF geography students received competitive travel grants from the CGS to share their research at the conference.
The travel grant recipients include: Haley Courie for her undergraduate poster on “The Effects of Climate Change on Three Water-Centered National Parks: Glacier National Park, Hot Springs National Park and Everglades National Park;” Richard Melgoza for his graduate paper on “Geographic Origin and Evolution of Talented Professional Baseball Players;” and Anna Schiebeck for her undergraduate paper on “Climate Change in Alaska’s National Parks.”
Other CSUF geography students who shared their outstanding research at the conference included:
- Andrew Carias, undergraduate poster: “Expanding Ranges, Emerging Risks: How Climate Change and Human Activity Influence Infectious Disease Vectors”
- Maya Gallardo, undergraduate poster: “Navigating Climate Change in the Fullerton Arboretum: Which Trees Will Thrive or Die?”
- Carlos Garcia, story map: “Invisible, Normalized, Insidious: Locations, Sources and Effects of Noise Pollution”
- Sean Roberts, graduate paper: “Ghosts of War: Raptors, Ruins and the Afterlife of Military Landscape in Irvine and Tustin”
Zia Salim and Robert Voeks, professors of geography and the environment, also presented their research at the conference. Salim presented his paper “Perceptions of the Urban Forest: A Case Study From Suburban Southern California,” and Voeks presented his paper “Misreading Mariposa: Early Adventures With Animals Revealed in California’s Toponyms.”
In addition to recognizing excellent student research, the California Geographical Society presented CSUF alum William Selby ’76 (B.A. geography) with its Outstanding Educator Award for the significant contributions that he has made in scholarship and teaching across his distinguished career.