Success for department of geography

by Joanne Madden

The Geography department is proud to report that fourth year student Guy Schumann recently received the highly distinguished 'Alfred Steers' undergraduate dissertation award for 2004.

His thesis, entitled 'Application of a degree-day model on a Swiss glacierised catchment to determine snow depth for improved neural network discharge forecast' was assessed by Professor Ian Simmons, who commented, "Guy's thesis is an impressive piece of original work with evidence of considerable competence, allied to applicability."

A cheque for £100 will be presented to Guy at the Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers annual general meeting.

The department also recently welcomed Ms Josie Carwardine (BSc University of Queensland) who will be working as a Research Assistant for the next nine months. Josie will work with Dr John Rowan, Professor Rob Duck, Dr Mark Cutler, Dr Olivia Bragg and Dr Andrew Black on a project entitled ‘Development of a Lake Habitat Survey'.

The project is being funded by a SNIFFER (Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum For Environmental Research) research grant.