Department of Geography, University College London

Editorial: The las t twelve mont hs have seen

impo rtant changes in the life of theDepartment and of the Col lege. WhenGeo g raph y l eft t h e cramp ed b utinti mate surroundings of Foster Courtin 197 9 to move to the vast concretebox of Bedford Way, we were told itwas a temporary move and we wouldsoon be rehoused wi th in t he mainCol lege quadrangl e. That, of course,was not to be. We also wondered howwe would fil l the large spaces, the newteachi ng room s and labo ratories. Inthe following years the Departmentgrew and grew, every space that couldbe subdivi ded was subdivided, and the‘probl em of space ’ became desperate,t h reat en in g to hamp er i mpo rt an tinit iati ves in teachi ng and research.

Ex p an s i o n up wards i n to t h ePsy chol ogy Department or sidewaysinto the Insti tute of Education provedimpos si ble, so the moment ous deci-sion was taken to accept additional

space in anot her buil ding. On page 2our new head o f department , Pet erWood, explains what wi ll happ en.

At the Col lege level, Provos t SirDerek Rob erts will retire and will berepl aced in Apri l 19 99 by Professo rChristopher Llewellyn Smith FRS,currently Director-General o f CERN(the European Laborator y for Particle

Ph y s i cs ) . Th e Co l l eg e faces t h econtinuing challenge of abso rbing -ever-more sect ions o f the medicaltraini ng facili ties in cent ral London,not only changing i ts size but alsomodifying i ts internal composi tionwhich has important impli cations forfinanc ial dist ribution and subjec t rep-resentati on.

The 1997 Recepti on for Geogr aphyAlumni was held in the Department on6 June. This was foll owed by a dinneri n Co l l eg e fo r memb ers o f t h egraduating year o f 1967 and by anext ernal meal for those graduating in1972. I wish to record my thanks toLinda Newson and Roger Kain, and toDave Emerson for making thos e twoevent s so success ful and memorable.

Th e 1 9 9 8 Re c e p t i o n f o rGe o g rap h y Al umn i wi l l t ak eplace on the evening of FridayJun e 5 f ro m 5 . 3 0 - 7 . 3 0 . Th ec o s t wi l l b e £ 5 p e r p e rs o n .Pl ea s e le t Hug h Clo ut kno w ifyou wis h to attend prio r to May31. Member s of staf f are l ook-i n g f o rw ard t o s e e i n g l arg en umb ers o f o l d f ri en ds . Th i sw i l l b e f o l l o w e d b y t h eCo l l eg e’ s An nual Al umn i Dayon Saturday June 6.

March 17 1998 was a ‘red l et t erday ’ when s tuden t s and s t aff fêt edAnne Oxenham on the occasi on of her60 th b i rt hday . Anne is known toprobably everyone who reads th i sNewsl etter and I feel sure that we allapprec iate her help and kindne ss in somany ways across the years. After achallengi ng st int as head of depart-men t Ri ch ard Munt o n h ad t wowell-deserved sabbati cal terms, part ofwhich was spent at the Univer si ty ofCalifornia, Berkeley. He reports on

GeographyNewsletterfor former students

No 9 Summer 1998 £2

In this is sueEditor ial ... ... .. ... ... .. ... .. ... 1Es c ap e f ro m B e df o rd Way :Mo re Space - i n Chandl e rHo use .. .. ... ... .. ... ... .. ... .. ... 2Two Ina ugural Lectu res ... .. ... 3Anne Oxenha m at Sixt y .. .. ... 4St aff News . ... .. ... ... .. ... .. ... 4Cultur al Geogr ahers go to Pari s6Wi n d Ero s i o n i n Euro p e : amajor resea rch ini tia tive. .6ES RU - t h e En v i ro n me n t aland St udy Resea rch Unit . .. ... 7UCL Geographe rs at the AAGconfer ence in Boston 1998.. .7Masters De grees ... ... .. ... .. ... 7

Bill Mead and graduates of 1967

2

hi s time in California, below. GeraldManners too k formal ret irement buthas conti nued to deliver his final yearcourse on the Geography of Energy. Iwould like to record my than ks to hi mfor hi s excellent work in organi zingalumni activi ties and recept ions, andedi t i n g ei g h t i s s ues o f t h i sNewslett er. It is, indeed, a hard act tofoll ow.

Energy i s no t lack ing fo r HughPrin ce who n o t on ly fi n i s hed h i sdo cto rat e b ut p ro duced a h ig h l yacclaimed research book , which is

described later on. Jo hn Adams hasbeen awarded a personal Chair . RickBat t arb ee h as recei ved a h ig h erdoctorate (D.Sc) from the Uni versi tyof London for h is body of researchp ub l i cat i o n in t o en v i ro n men talchange.

Hug h Cl o ut h as b een el ect ed aFell ow of the Briti sh Academy and hasbeen re-elected to serve for a furtherthree years as Dean of the Faculty ofSocial and Histor ical Sciences . DavidLowenthal has received the VictoriaMedal o f t h e Ro y al Geog rap hicalSociety, and Frank Carter was awardedthe Edward Heath Award of the RGS forresearch i n to t h e g eo g raph y o fEastern Europe. On a sad note, JimBi rd, who was on t he s t aff i n t h e

1960s prior to becoming profess or atSouthampt on, died in April .

The Department was del ighted tolearn that Martin Parry, Professo r ofGeo g rap h y an d Di recto r o f t h eJack son En vi ron men t In s t i t ut e atUCL, had been awarded an OBE in theNew Year’s Honours ’ Lis t “for ser-vices to the envir onment and climatechange ”. Joh n Davi dson, who gradu-ated in Geography and went on to theMSc in Conser vation befor e a disti n-guished career in nature cons ervation,was also awarded an OBE on the same

occasion. Congratulat ions to themboth. Jeremy Luckett , (graduate o f1 9 7 4 ) curren t l y Di rect o r, Xero xProduction System s, has been made aFellow of UCL, as has Michael Cross(g raduat in g i n 1 97 6 ). Mo recongrat ulations!

Escape fromBedford Way:

More Space - inChandler

HousePe ter Wo o d writes: Some of us

stil l remember the Department’ s move

from Fost er Court to Bedford Way in1 9 7 9 . I t was t o b e a s h o rt t erm‘decant ’, while a large area around theo ld DMS Watson Library was to beredeveloped. Then we would moveback to the Col lege rectangle. Well,t he money never materi al ized, andFoster Court and DMS Watson are sti llthere, it seems li tt le changed from theday we moved out. Few will doubt thatt h e mo v e was g o o d fo r t h edep artmen t , wh at ev er on e th i nk sab o ut Den y s Las dun ’s des i g n fo rBedford Way. It g ave us space t oex p an d an d, fo r a few y ears , t h i sseemed enough.

By the mid 1990s , however, wewere bursti ng at the seams. Staff (nowover 70 of them in teachi ng, researchand support) and student numbers (340undergraduates and 100 postgr aduates)had grown by around 40%. The moretechni cal aspects of the subject, suchas GIS, remot e sen si ng and phy si calgeography laboratories, especial lyn eeded mo re s p ace. Th ere wereamb i t i ous p l ans t o at t ract furtherresearch funds , s taff, and graduat es tuden ts and new Masters teach ingneeded to be accommodated.

So , aft er a p ro longed period oflobbying by Richard Munton , t heCol lege has come up with new spacein Chandler House, about 6 minuteswalk away to t he eas t , sharing theb ui ldi n g wi t h t h e Dep art men t o fHuman Communicat ion Science. Alate 19t h cent ury building , it used tobelong to the Nation al Hosp ital andh as b een acqui red by th e Co l l eg ethrough medical school mergers. Ito ffers a qui et er an d, i f p ro p erl yrefurbish ed, a more elegant env iron-ment than Bedford Way. The locationis not ideal, and we are to be spli t forthe first time in our modern hi st ory.In some ways ther efore this will be abigg er culture change even than themove t o Bedford Way.

Chandler House nevertheless gi vesus the opp ortunit y to develop a stat e-of-the-art computer l aboratory fo rteaching and research (GIS, remotes ens i ng an d en v i ro n men t al mo d-el l i n g ). From n ex t Sep temb er i t

Location of Chandler House

3

should provide at tract ive new spacefor academic and research staff and stu-den t s , an d fo r Mas t ers t each i n ggenerally. Bedford Way wil l st ill be8 0% of t he department , i ncludingmost undergraduate teach ing , mostsupport services, human geographywork and the Envi ron ment al Chan geResearch Cent re. Thes e wil l benefitfrom space released by expansion intoChandler House. This, however, onlyreally relieves current ove rcrowding.We est imate that the new space inboth buil dings will be full as soon asit is occupied!

Two InauguralLectures

Pro fes sor Pet er Wo od g av e h i sinaugural lecture in Nov ember 1997on ‘The rise of consultancy and theprospect for regions’ , summarisingthe con clusions of hi s research intothe spectacular growth of consult ancyactivi ties in recen t years. He arguedthat this is an import ant symptom ofwider changes in business pract ice asp art o f t h e search fo r s p eci al i s texpert i se. Consul t anci es are al soincreasi ngl y important catalyst s for

competi tive econ omic develop ment.Effective consultancy , which makes adifference to client performance, oft endep en ds o n l en g t h y p ro cess es o fint eraction, requiring a high degree ofmutual underst anding. The respo nsi -bil it ies of in-house staff to managemust be complement ed by the outsideexpert ise and experience of consul-t an t s . As f i rms op erat e on wi dergeog raph ical s cal es , an d market sopen up, so the int ernati onal exper i-ence of t he major consul tanci es i sbecoming es peci al l y s ign i fi can t ,link ing local chang e to global prac-tice.

Many smaller consultancies con-t i n ue t o t h ri v e, h o wev er, b yspeciali sation and close col labo rationwith cl ient s. Consul tancy growthitself is conc-entrated in part icularregions, such as southern Britain, butconsul tancy influence is much widerthan thi s, speeding the pace of eco-nomic development everywhere.

Professor John Salt ’s inaugurall ecture, del i v ered in March 1 998 ,focused on the idea that int ernat ionalmigrat ion can be conceived of as adiverse global business , with a vastbudget an d p rov idin g hun dreds o f

thousands o f jobs worldwide. Thepoint was i l lustrated from four per-spectives .

First , int ernational migration maybe conceived of as a publ ic business,from the po in t o f v iew of nat ionalgovernment s . Sending co unt ri es ,especially, have an interest in pro-mot in g emigrat ion b ecause o f t heenormous sums of money ($71 bi ll ionp.a. according to on e est imate) theyg ain i n remi t t ances an d s av in g s .Seco n d, i t i s a p ri v at e b us i n ess ,viewed form the perspect ive of largeinternati onal companies. They spenda lot of mon ey on transferring staffand sk i l l s between their worldwidesit es. Third, it can be cons trued as aninformal business . A good example ist he ‘Wars aw Bazaar’, es t ab l i sh edsince 1989 as a place for internati onaltrading (rather l ike an ‘internationalcar bo ot sal e’!), and no w prov iding,di rect l y an d i n di rect l y , p erh ap s60, 000 jobs. Final ly, trafficki ng inpeop le (‘human smuggli ng’) is now amajor illegitimate busines s, maki nglarge profi t s for t raffickers, but inwhich many migrants have becomeunwitting victi ms.

The serious business of drinking and talking

Smiles all round !

AnneOxenham at

SixtyThose of us who observe Anne’s

cont inuing energy and enthusi asmon a daily basis could hardly beli evethat 17th March was her 60th bi rth-day. Cunningly laid pl ans by GeogSoc s parked a spon taneo us l at e-afternoon part y with Champagne, acak e in t h e fo rm of a map ch es t(designed and executed by ClaudetteJohn), and a rich mix of staff ands tuden t s . Flo wers swamp ed t het ab l es , and Bil l Mead ‘said a fewwords’. Anne declared herself ‘gobs-mack ed’, an d s t ag g ered o ff t o acel eb rato ry di nn er wi th fri en ds .Don’t worry - Anne is not contemplat-ing reti rement yet.

After 37 years in the department,she is just preparing for another examseaso n of gathering in course work,and handing out boil ed sweets and tof-fees to her nervous flock. . . s tudentsand staff alike.

Staff NewsRi ch ard Munto n : returned from

his t ravels . ‘After six years at thehelm, I have just enjoyed two terms ofsabba tical leave catching up with thel i terature and developing some newresearch. Three mont hs were spen t atthe Inst itute of Int ernational Studies,Univers i ty of Califo rni a, Berkel eywhere Michael Watts (graduated 197 2)is Director. The Insti tute is the focusof t he Campus’ i n ternat ional p ro-gramme and Mike organi zes a range ofexcellent int er-disci plinary seminarswith speakers from all over the USA.I took part in those on global izati onand envi ronmen tal pol it ics.

Berkeley is the origi nal campus oft h e Un iv ers i t y o f Cal i fo rn i a an darguably the most prest igious stateuniv ersi ty in the USA. It occupi es amagnifi cen t si t e on the ‘Eas t Bay’with good views of the Gol den Gate

Bridge, is home to 35,000 student s,has an excel lent geogr aph y depart-men t an d h ug e l i b rary (o v er 7mil lion vol umes). El Nin~o notwi th-s tanding (2 5 inches o f rain in 7weeks), the Insti tute acted as a mar-vell ous research base as I st ruggl edto get to grips with modern thi nk-ing on the state, property right s anden v i ro n men tal mo v ement s as abasi s for research into sust ainabledevelopmen t and urban governanc e.

So mewh at o p t imi s t i cal l y , Ip l anned some comparat ive workb etween Lo n do n an d t h e SanFranci sco Bay Area but t h e BayArea’s polyce nt ric form (3 centr es -San Jos e, San Franci sco , Oakland)means that Los Angeles (southernCalifornia has a po pulation si milarto south-eas t England) may be a bet-ter comparat or. On the ot her hand,

4

Anne Oxenham and ʻthe cardʼ

Anne Oxenham and the flowers...and the keys

the Bay Area has a beautiful sett ingand pretty strict development contr ols(wi th ‘g reen bel t s ’), i n a co n tex twh ere Cal i fo rn i a’s po p ulat i on i sexp ected to doubl e to 63 mill ion by2040.

On a differen t tack , con tact wasmade with Diana Liverman (graduateof 1976) who runs a centr e on climatechange at the Universi ty of Arizon a(Tucso n). She was one of only fouracademics to take part in a televi sedworkshop on climate change with theUS Presi dent and Vice-Presi dent . Tohave sat next to Bil l Clint on .. .. ’

Mark B as s i n writ es about h isresearch period in the Bi g Apple.

‘During the autumn term, 19 98, Iwas Senior Fell ow at the newly-estab-lishe d Remarque Institute for EuropeanStudies at New York Universi ty . Myresearch pro ject deal t with ideas ofRussian nat ional territory in contem-po rary nat ional i s t t h ink in g . Theperiod in New York was ex tremelyst imulating, thanks to the personalcontac ts at NYU as well as the oppor-t un i t y t o us e t h e r i ch Sl av i ccoll ections at Col umbia University. Iwas able to travel as well and presentmy research in papers delivered at an umb er o f un iv ers i t i es : Harv ard,Col umbia, Clemson (South Carol ina),and the Univers i ty of Califo rnia atBerkeley. All in al l , i t was a mostprofitable experi ence, although at theend of it all I was very happ y to getback home to London’.

Our n ew co l l eag ue, Mat t h e wGan dy t o o k h i s fi rs t deg ree atCambridge and completed hi s PhD atthe London School o f Economics.Between 1 9 92 an d 19 9 7 h e was aLecturer in the School of EuropeanStudies at the Uni versi ty of Suss ex.During th is time he had a fellowshi pun der t h e ESRC’s Gl ob alEnvironmental Change Programmean d was a v i s i t i n g sch o l ar atCol umbia Universit y, New York. Hiscurren t research in terest s focus onnature and society in Europe and NorthAmerica with particular empha si s onaspects of urban and environmentalhi story and cultural representati ons of

nature and Landscape. He is the authorof Recycli ng and the Poli ti cs of UrbanWaste (St Martin’s Press, 19 94 ) andhas publi shed widely on environmen-tal issues.

Mart i n Parry e-mails from theCoo k Isl ands. ‘KIA ORANA . . . Thetradit ion al maori greet ing transl atesas ‘may you live’. Since cannibalismwas widespread in maori society, sucha greet ing p ro babl y real l y mean tso meth in g in t h os e days ! As myst udy leave draws to a close it seemsonl y fair to repor t back on what I’vebeen doing . This has been a reward-ing 9 weeks . In general I’ve beenspending mornings at my desk work-ing on three things : plans for a boo kon vulnerabil i ty to cl imate change(which is part ly why I wanted to stayin t h e Co o k Is l an ds wh ich areextremely vulnerab le), catching upreading , and keep ing abreas t wi tho n g o in g p ro j ect s (arran g i n g fo rdist ributi on of a book on methods ofcl i mat e i mp act as s ess men t , j us tpublished; writ ing up a project withthe Ministry of Agriculture). In theaft ern oo n s I’v e b een work in g onsometh ing that wasn’t in my mindbefore arrivi ng here but very quicklysuggested i tself as deserving at ten-tion.

Th e 1 9 9 2 -3 El Nin~o h ad l ed t owidespread coral loss due to abnorm al-ly high sea temperatures; this coral

has been re-est abl ishi ng it sel f in thepas t 3 years, and normall y would con-tinue to do so, but the current El Nin~oand (agai n) hi gh sea temperatures areapparent ly stall ing that recovery. It’sa good exampl e of effects of ext remeweather, the vulnerabili ty of a sys temand the implicat ions o f changes infrequency of such extr emes due to GHGwarmi ng whi ch may l ead t o mo rein t ens e Nin~os ). I’ve been div i ngregularly t o look at t he p rocess ofcoral re-growth , and have set up amonitoring system . I hope the workwill be con tinued by the dive opera-t ions here after I leave. This reallyneeds marine biologists, of course,but there are none here; I am inter estedb ecause t he l ocal fi sh ery dependstotal ly on a vigo rous coral reef, andt he s mal l i s l an ds s t i l l dep en d o nlagoon fishi ng, with the vi abil ity ofth e very smal l i s l an ds t h us b eingmuch affected by the status of coraldie-back’.

Al an Gilb ert writes of two majorresearch act ivi ties. He spent sevenweeks i n Bogotá i n the summer of1997 as part of a pil ot project on mar-k et eff i ci en cy an d t h e s eco n daryhousi ng market in thi rd world cit ies,or what happ ens to self-help housingwhen it has been improved. This maylead to a bigger fol l ow-up study inIn dia, So uth Afri ca, Nig eri a an dTurkey . Hi s second pro j ect i s on

5

Eric Brown and friends

rent al housi ng in South Africa beingundertaken with colleagues in localuni versities. Alan has made severalvi si ts over th e past four years and isworki ng with Owen Cranksh aw on amaj o r s urv ey o f So weto ,J o h an n es b urg . Decades o f Lat i nAmerican experience put Alan in auni que po si tion to set South Africanhous ing in a much wider geograph icalcontext.

CulturalGeographers

fo to ParisEarly i n March 1 9 9 8 s i x UCL

cul t ural g eo g rap h ers b o arded t h eEurostar for a weekend of intensiveint ellectual and gast ronom ic activi tywi t h t h ei r co un t erp art s at t h eUni versi té de Paris-Sorbon ne. Oncein Paris , two s tops on the expressmét ro took us f rom the Gare du Nord tothe Sorbonne and an elegant recept ionby the Presiden t of the Universi ty.The real work invo lved a suit e of pre-sentations, mainl y in Engli sh, and anexchange of research findings on top-ics as diverse as children’s percept ionof envi ronmen t, eating and ethni city,the representation of cities , gl obal-ization, and the hi story of geograph y.We have been asked to wri t e shortp o s i t i o n p ap ers on Ang lo -Sax o nresearch on a set of themes emergi ngfrom our work, for publ icati on in thejournal Géographi e et Cultures whichis produced by the Esp ace et Cultureresearch team at the Sorbonne. Anexcellent, if exhausting, time was hadby all, with enough spare minutes tovi sit the Marais and then the delightsof the Musée d’Orsay. Our si nceret h an k s t o Pro fes so r Paul Clav al ,Professo r Jean- Rober t Pitte and thei rcoll eagues for their superb hospit alityand their intell ectual stimulation.

Wind Erosion

in Europe: amajor research

initiativeAn dre w Warre n repo rt s : Th e

Department led a consortium whichwon one of the largest awards from theEU En v i ro n men t an d Cl i mat eProgramme in 199 7. WEELS (WindEros io n on European Lig h t So i l s )began in January 1998. The principalinves t i gator is Andrew Warren . Itmay surprise so me people that winderos io n i s a p ro b lem i n no rt hernEurope, but ther e are good reason s tobelieve that it may be as serious aswater erosi on, if no t more so . Winderosion i s thought to have occurred ona seri ous scale since the neoli thic onmany so ils on gl acial outwash sandsin northern Europe. Mos t countrieshad a long hi st ory of regulation s tocon trol blowing. Our earliest sci en-tific reference to the prob lem comesfrom the Proceedings of the RoyalSociety in 1668 . WEELS has fourpartners (apart from UCL there are theUniversit ies at Lund and Wageni ngen,and the Lower Saxony Soil Survey)and three field sites, two in predomi-nan t ly s ugar-beet co unt ry , i n t h eBreck land and Scan ia, an d on e on

maize land in Lower Saxony. It aimsto develop a GIS algori thm to predicterosion from envi ronment al informa-tion and modelling in two categori es.The erosi vity (soi l) data will be col -lected in the field; the erodilbili ty datawill be modelled (a model of wind flowover the sit e) or col lected from hi stor-ical sources (land use).

Finally the predictions wi ll be test-ed usi ng the caesium-137 technique(to measure soi l erosion over the last30 years ) and by re-running actualblowing events through the models.The Lower Saxony GIS system is in anadvanced s t ate of p reparat ion ; t heother two sh ould be in some usableform by the end of 1998 .

ESRU - theEnviromental

and StudyResearch Unit

J ac qui e B urg e s s rep o rt s :‘Effective communication lies at theheart of sus t ainab le development.ESRU, i n t h e Dep artmen t o fGeography, special ises in t ransl a-t ions of env ironmental science forpoli cy-makers and the general publi c.

6

Jon French, Andrew Warren and John Adams

The Unit has p ioneered qual i tat iveresearch meth o do l og i es an d h asgained a dept h of experti se and experi-ence in the pol icy-process by actingas both participants and observers.ESRU works with partners in the pub-l ic, private and vo lun tary sectors;i n cludin g , fo r ex amp l e, En g l i s hNature, the Envir onment Agency, theCo un t ry s i de Co mmi s s io n , l o calauthorit ies and chari ties such as theGlobal Action Plan’.

ESRU projects i nclude:• Public Understanding of Environ-

men tal Ch an g e (UK an dNetherlands);

• Lo cal Ag en da 2 1 an d Pub l i cUnderst anding i n Jersey;

• Social and Cultural Persp ectives inEnvir onmental evaluati on (Pevens eyLevels, New Forest, North Norfolk);

• A Mo del o f Sus t ai n ab l eDevelopment for the EnvironmentAgency of Engl and and Wales;

• London’s Derelict Land: meani ngs,partnership and proce ss.

UCLGeographers at

the AAGconference atBoston 1998

Hugh Princ e writes: The largestever con tinge nt of UCL geog raph ersattended the annual conf erence of theAssociation of American Geogr aphersheld in Bos ton at the end of March.The meeting was the larges t in t heAssociation’s histor y; by the close ofthe meeting 4,305 had register ed.

Contributions to the programmefrom UCL staff covered a wide range oftop ics , from Jon French and NickClifford’s study of the function anddesign of tidal channel networks inres t o red s al t mars h es , t o Cl ai reDwyer’s invest igat ion of contestedsp aces : mosque building and the cul-t ural po l i t i cs o f mul t icul tural i sm.

Richard Denni s and Ceinwen Gi lesraised the quest ion: Were apartmentsreal ly so modern? Ev iden ce fromToronto, 1900- 1940, was revi ewed ina sess ion on h i s to ri cal aspects o fciti es and modernit y.

In a sessi on devoted to reposit ion-ing the manufacturing /servi ce divi dein economic geography, Phil Crangdiscuss ed revi si on ing organ ization algeogr aphies: from manufacturing/ ser-vices to materials, surveil lance anddi spl ay , and Pet er Wood examinedso urces of change in post -industrials o ci ety : p o wer rel at i o n s an d t h eman ufacturin g / s erv i ce di v ide.Matthew Gandy threw fresh light onthe sewers of Paris and the rationa liza-tion of urban space. Davi d Lowenthaldi s cuss ed a g ro up o f p ap ers o nlandscape dominance and affect ionpresented in honour of Yi-Fu Tuan. Healso led a discussion on envir onmen-tal issues in Caribbea n geograph y.

Eri c Bro wn an d Hug h Pri n ceattended different sessions and metmany former students including Davi dBarker (no w at the Uni versi ty of theWest Indies), Brian Berry (Universityof Texas -Dal l as ), Martyn Bo wden(Clark Univers ity ), Matthew Edney(Uni v ers i t y o f Sout h ern Main e),Dan iel Fel sen s t ei n (Heb rewUn iv ers i t y o f Jerusal em), J o ckGalloway (Universi ty o f Toron to),Haro l d Gul l ey (Un i v ers i t y o fWiscons in-Oshkosh), Di Liverman(Univers i t y o f Arizona) and DavidRob in so n (Sy racus e Un iv ers i t y ) .This li st omi ts the many former mem-b ers o f t h e UCL dep art men t n o wemployed in other Bri tish universi-t i es . A g ath erin g o f alumn i an dfriends was held on Friday night at theTop of the Hub on the 52n d floo r ofthe Prudential Building, commandinga spectacular view over the city. Fromthat viewpoint , after a cheering drink,it seemed that UCL geog raphers stoodat the hub of the universe.

Master

DegreesIn addition to the long- establi shed

courses for undergraduates and train-i n g fo r do cto ral s t uden t s , t h eDepartment is invol ved in a growingrange of mas ters degrees. The lastissue of the Newsletter announ ced theMSc on the Publ ic Underst anding ofEnvironm ental Change (convened byJ acqui e Burg es s ) an d t h e MSc i nModernity, Space and Place (conven edb y Ph i l Cran g ). Bo th s t art ed i nSep tember 19 9 7 an d co mpl ementot her master s progr ammes. The MScin Con servat ion (taught joi nt ly withBiology) has run with great successs ince 1960 , wi th support from theNature Conservancy (now Engli shNature). The MSc in Remote Sensingis open to students with good degreesin any of the earth, envi ronmen tal orphys ical sci ences, with candidat esdividing their time bet ween UCL andImp eri al Co l l eg e. Th e MSc i nQuaternary Science is taugh t joi nt lyb y s t aff from th e En v i ro n men talChange Research Cent re at UCL andthe Cent re for Quaternary Research atRoyal Hol loway. UCL Geographystaf f make important contr ibuti ons tothe MSc in Geographi c and GeodeticInformation Syst ems (which is basedi n t h e Dep artmen t o f Geo mat i cEng ineering at UCL) and the MSc inHy dro g eol o g y (admi n i s t ered b yGeological Sciences).

Cl ive Agnew (MRes course coor-di n at o r) wri t es : In 1 99 5 th eGeograph y Department start ed to offera new type of pos tgraduate course, anMRes in Environmental Sciences ormas t ers i n res earch . Th i s was i nrespons e to a government backed ini-t i at i v e dev elo p ed fro m th e 1 9 9 3Wh i t e Pap er o n Sci en ce an dTechn ol ogy that po int ed to the needfor better traini ng of those enteri ng aresearch career and a recognit ion thatnot al l researchers would completedoctorates. The MRes di ffers fromot her masters courses in having a sig-ni ficant research compon ent , last ingup to eight mont hs, and an emphas isupon the development of research,

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transf erabl e and int erpersonal sk il ls.It is currently funded by 10 NaturalEnvironment Research Council st u-dent sh ips and up to 20 students takethe course each year.

It is bel ieved that MRes graduatesshould be abl e to con tribute t o t heo rg an i s at i o n wh i ch wi l l emp l o ythem, as well as to the area of researchthat interes ts them. There are threefun damen t al aims o f t h e UCLEnvironmental Sciences MRes pro-gramme:• To p ro v i de t rain i n g i n res earch

t ech n iques ap p ro p ri at e as afoundation for future doctoral st udyor for a research career in industrial,go vernment al and no n-gov ernmen-tal organi sations .

• To develop an unders t anding andappreciati on of the i ssues relevan t tothe research communit y and its pl acein nat ional economics and g lobalsociety.

• To develop the underpi nn ing ski llsfor the management of research inteams and organisati ons.

These aims are met by dividing theMRes programme into three taughtcomponents: Generi c Research andTransf erabl e Ski lls (G&T); Speci alistEnvir onment al Science Core Courses ;and a Research Project. Teachi ng isshared between several Envir onment alSci en ce Dep art men t s an d UCL’sHi g h er Educat io n Res earch an dDevelopm ent Unit (HERDU) with thelatter taki ng major respon si bili ty forG&T ski ll s training.

Several g raduat es o f t h e co ursehave embarked upon PhDs but manyhave taken up research pos itions witha ran g e o f emp l o y ers fro m t h eWel l co me Foundat io n , t he Ro y alSo ci et y , t h e BBC, an d Nat io n alParks, which supports the noti on thatth e co urs e i s aimed b ey on d t ho sewishi ng to pursue an academic career.

Among New

BooksEach year Departmental coll eagues

produce a number of bo ok s. Amongthe most recent I would like to men-tion:

Mart i n Parry an d Ti m o t h yCarter , Climate, impact and adapta -tion assessment (Earthscan , 1997).This guide to the assessment of theimpacts from, and potential adapta-tion to, chang es of climate is basedon the approach developed by th eauthors fo r t he In t ergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change.

Hugh Cl ou t (editor), The TimesLondon Hi story Atlas, 2nd edit ion(Times Books, 1997). This ‘hist ory’atl as is in fact largely a department alproduct ion, with major sect ions byHugh Prince, Richard Dennis, PeterWood and Hugh Clout. Contr ibuti onsb y co l l eag ues i n t h e In s t i t ut e o fArchaeo logy , Geolog ical Sciencesand Engl ish make th is a t ruly UCLvolume.

Alan Gi lber t (editor ), The Mega-city in Latin Am erica (United NationsUniversit y Press 199 6). This vol umedraws together t he l at es t researchfi n din g s o n t h i s v i t al i s s ue, an dcomp lemen t s Al an ’s Th e Lat inA m eri can Ci t y (Lat in Ameri canBureau, 199 8) which has appeared in arevi sed edit ion as well as bei ng pub-li shed in Spanish.

Raymond Harris, Earth observa -tion data pol icy (Wiley, 1997). Thisbo ok an aly ses dat a p o l i cy i s s ues(governing access , distribution andprice), and recommends how the Earthob servat ion sector can best developappr opriate and useful pol icies so thatthe scientific, operational and com-merci al v al ue o f t h e dat a can b emaximised.

Hug h Pri n c e , Wetlands o f t heAmerican Midwest: a hist orical geog -rap h y o f ch an g i ng at t i t udes(Universi ty of Chi cago Press, 1997 ,396 pp) . Professor Yi-Fu Tuan com-men t s : ‘A mag i s t eri al work o fschol arshi p on changi ng attitudes to

Midwest wetlands that has implica-tions f ar beyond the region. Preciselybecause of the detai ls , the book isable to reveal - as more general isedst udies cannot - how Americans haveused and abused, negl ected and arguedover, deni grated and idealised naturein their ceaseless search for home,prosperi ty , who they are, and whothey oug ht t o be’. And ProfessorWilliam Crono n not es: ‘Hugh Princeoffers an even- handed and richl y tex-tured v i ew of t he lon g s t ruggle t oex p l o i t an d p ro t ect t h e wet l an denvi ronment s o f t he Middle wes t .Long regarded as frust rating obst aclesto p rogress, swamps , marshes andbogs are now seen as indispensableelements of the regi on al ecosy st em.For those who wish to understand theprobl ematic but crucial rol e wetlandshave played, this book i s inva luabl e’.

Bill Pattison William D. (‘Bill’), Pat tiso n who

wi l l be remembered by those whoatt ended hi s lectures in the depart mentin the early 195 0s, died at his home i nValparaiso , Indiana on 16 December1997 at the age of 76. He was deeplyinterested in the hi stori cal geogr aphyo f No rt h Ameri ca, fo cus in g o nChicago and northern Indiana. Hewrote on Beginni ngs of the AmericanRectangular Land Survey Syst em andon the four traditions of geog raphy aswell as articles on Chicag o cemeteriesand ni neteenth-cent ury lantern slidelectures on American landscapes. Heheld posts at UCLA, Northridge andBloomi ngton before being appoi ntedto the Universit y of Chicago in 196 6.He remained there unt il his reti rement,serving as chairman of the Geogr aphydepartment 1976 -78 and Secretary ofthe Department of Education 1981- 82.In 1 9 9 6 h e fo un ded th e Gran dKankakee Marsh Archi ve.

Hugh Prince .

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Produced in t he Drawing Office, Department of Geography, Universi ty Col lege London . Photographs by Chris Cromarty