Dear UT Geography Community: We have the somewhat unexpected but very special opportunity to host Dr. Shaowen Wang in the UT Department of Geography, allowing us to bring even greater attention to the already well planned program for Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day festivities. Dr. Wang is a highly accomplished Professor of GIS and Computer Science at the University of Illinois (https://www.geog.illinois.edu/people/shaowen), Founding Director of the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, and Associate Director for the CyberGIS & Lead of Earth and Environment Theme of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Obviously, Dr. Wang's noted work connects very strongly with existing and emerging interests and expertise within the Department and ORNL. Moreover, hosting Dr. Wang allows us to highlight even more the strength and centrality of our GIS program on campus. Associate Head Ron Kalafsky and I are in the process of making final arrangements, but I need to ask all of you to save some important dates to your calendar. I would ask both students, faculty, and relevant staff to participate in Dr. Wang's visit. He will arrive in Knoxville on November 14, give a talk on Nov. 15, and depart Nov. 16. During that entire time, he will meet with various folks in the Department, on campus, and possibly at Oak Ridge. You will soon see additional details about location and specific time for a number of events. Please also note that in addition to Dr. Wang's visit, we will also have a Distinguished Geography Awareness Week Speaker (Dr. William O'Brien), who will talk about the role of segregation and white supremacy in the formation of the state parks in the American South. That talk will be held on Nov. 17 (more to come on that as well). Dr. O'Brien's talk is sponsored by us as well as the Critical Race Collective and the Southern Inequalities Working Group-both of which are multi-disciplinary initiatives on the UT campus. It is an EXCITING time to be a GEOGRAPHER. Thank you, Derek Derek H. Alderman, PhD Vice President, American Association of Geographers Professor & Head, Department of Geography Betty Lynn Hendrickson Professor of Social Science University of Tennessee 304C Burchfiel Geography Building Knoxville, TN 37996-0925 Voice: (865) 974-0406 Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://geography.utk.edu/about-us/faculty/dr-derek-alderman/ http://derekalderman.wordpress.com/ http://utk.academia.edu/DerekAlderman https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Derek_Alderman https://twitter.com/MLKStreet -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To review the archives of CLUBGGY or Join/Leave the list go to: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/clubggy.html