Desktop News | May 2024

From the Department of Geography | Congratulations to Dr. Changzhen Wang for receiving the prestigious J. Warren Nystrom Award at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting on April 16-21, 2024 in Hawaii! Her winning paper entitled “Overlapping Cancer Service Areas: Delineation and Implications” received two rounds of competition for her original ideas and significant contributions to the advancement of geographic knowledge, and the quality and effectiveness of written style and oral presentation. The paper has been published in Transactions in GIS in 2024.

Changzhen is a dean’s postdoc research associate in the Department of Geography and the Environment at The University of Alabama. She will join our department as an Assistant Professor from August 2024. Changzhen received her Ph.D. in geography from Louisiana State University in August 2022. Her research focuses on developing and applying GIScience, complex network analysis, computational methods, and geovisualization in health, transportation, and urban studies.

The Nystrom Award is an esteemed honor established by the AAG. It’s named after J. Warren Nystrom, a former AAG Executive Director from 1966 to 1979 and a prominent geographer, for his exceptional contributions to geographic thought and education. As an annual prize, this award recognizes exceptional papers based on a recent dissertation in geography within three years, emphasizing their significance and originality.