Photo by David Fornander.
The department of geography and regional development at The University of Arizona has been one of the leaders in training top graduate students in the country. This is reflected in the number of doctoral students funded by the National Science Foundation. Currently, nine students are pursuing their degrees with the help of NSF doctoral dissertation research improvement grants.
J.P. Jones, head of the department, thinks this may be a record number for any geography department in the country. "This award may be the most prestigious award graduate students can receive in support of their research."
"NSF doctoral dissertation grants are extremely competitive," said Leslie Tolbert, UA vice president for research, graduate studies and economic development. "The number and breadth of these awards in geography recognizes the quality of graduate education in this program, and it is emblematic of the many excellent graduate programs we have at the UA."
"Each submission is evaluated by several external reviewers and by a distinguished panel," said Jones. "With an award rate of around 25 percent, the panels fund only the most promising work. The research has to contribute to basic knowledge, be methodologically sophisticated and have high societal significance and scientific merit."
Jones attributed the department's recent successes at obtaining NSF grants to a number of factors, most notably excellent students and committed faculty.
"But there are other factors that have helped: a strong professional development program, rigorous courses in research design and proposal writing and a supportive network of students committed to collaboration," he said. "Students are also aided by college-level seed funding from the UA Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, and by an environment that encourages them to push at the frontiers of social and environmental knowledge.
"One theme present in all of these awards is the importance of social and natural science fieldwork," Jones said. "These students can be found collecting data on worker coops in Argentina, neighborhood governance in Brazil, genetically modified plants in Guatemala, the coffee economy and water reuse in Mexico, gender geopolitics in Turkey, medicinal plants in South Africa, and the political and hydrological aspects of climate change in the western U.S. The world really is geography's laboratory."
RD graduate students and their funded projects include:
John Paul Jones
Head, geography and regional development
520-621-1652