Bowling Green, Ky. - Faculty, students and alumni from Western Kentucky University's Department of Geography and Geology attended the annual Association of American Geographers conference this past week in Denver, Colo.

The conference this year exceeded all previous attendance records, with more than 5,000 geographers from around the world, the largest group of geographers ever assembled, presenting more than 3,000 papers, posters and workshops.

Representation from WKU's Department of Geography and Geology was especially strong, with 10 faculty, one faculty emeritus, three graduate students, one undergraduate student, four program alumni and one recently hired faculty in attendance.

"Attendance at the annual conference is especially important for growing departments that are looking to attract new faculty and potential graduate students, and gain recognition for their research productivity," said department head David Keeling. "The department's strong presence at the Denver conference demonstrates that Western Kentucky University is an institution of national prominence."

At the conference, the department's faculty and students presented posters and papers on their research, participated in academic workshops on a variety of issues, provided service to the discipline by participating in specialty group organizations, and took field trips around the Denver area.

Dr. Rezaul Mahmood organized three special sessions hydroclimatology and presented a paper titled "Impacts of irrigation on regional-scale temperature in the Great Plains."

Debra Kreitzer and Dr. Keeling presented a poster titled "Stakeholder involvement and land-use planning in a Karst-Biosphere Reserve Environment."

Dr. John All presented research on "High accuracy cartography of caves for environmental planning: south-central Kentucky."

Dr. Richard Deal reported on research conducted last year in the South Pacific in a paper titled "Devolution in Tokelau: Reconciling traditional structures with contemporary needs."

Dr. Katie Algeo presented "Sikhing Identity in Bend it Like Beckham: Sikhs speak" as part of a special session on the geographies of media.

Dr. Jun Yan presented a paper titled "Spatio-temporal data mining in the U.S. domestic airline market using self-organizing maps."

Faculty Emeritus and State Climatologist Emeritus Glen Conner presented "Nineteenth-century weather and time of observation" in a special session on climate change and historical geography.

Faculty members Kreitzer, Dr. Keeling, Will Blackburn, Dr. Michael Trapasso and Scott Dobler attended a variety of roundtable discussions, workshops and special sessions on teaching geography. Dr. Keeling serves on the National Council of the American Geographical Society, which meets each year at the AAG conference to discuss its educational travel program for the coming season.

Graduate student Christina Henry of Sumter, S.C., presented her thesis research titled "The Life Cycle of a warm season severe Eastern Kentucky flash flood" and undergraduate Jessica Phillips of Columbia, Tenn., presented her capstone research project titled "An assessment of the May 2, 2002, flash flood of Buchanan County, Virginia."

Graduate students Daniel Reader and Cari Bourette of Bowling Green attended a full-day workshop on teaching pedagogy.

Four graduate-program alumni also presented research at the conference. Mark Graham, currently in the geography doctoral program at UK, presented GIS-centered research, as did Alan Glennon, who is pursuing a doctorate in GIS at UC-Santa Barbara. Drs. Richard and Mary Snow, faculty members at Embry Riddle University in Florida and alumni of the WKU geoscience master's program, presented research on climate processes.

"Enhancing the quality of faculty and engaging students in the discipline is central to the department's mission of preparing students for success in a global society," Dr. Keeling said. "Attendance at the annual geography conference meets that goal and demonstrates to our peers that geography at WKU is vibrant, dynamic, relevant and growing in importance."

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For information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555.