Department Events
Our faculty and students participate in conferences, speaking engagements and lectures which provide great opportunities to learn, travel and meet other students and professionals.
Past Events
2025 American Association of Geographers (A.A.G.)
Annual Meeting
March 24-28, 2025
Detroit, MI
This meeting, which anticipates in-person attendance of over 6,000 faculty, students, and practitioners, travelling from over 30 countries, will be held in Detroit for the first time in 30 years.
Dr. Patrick Lawrence, Chair and Professor, and Dr. Minxuan Lan, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Geography and Planning have been appointed to serve on the local arrangements committee for the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. They will be involved with general conference planning, including focusing on opportunities for students, organization of special sessions, and assisting with local field trip arrangements.
Dr. Lawrence anticipates that upwards of 20 of fellow faculty and students from the department will participate in the 2025 AAG Annual Meeting in Detroit with presentations on their recent research activities.
The AAG is the largest professional organization for geographers in the world with close to 10,000 members and provides networking, professional development, training, promotion of job and career opportunities, and educational resources to its members.
In addition to Drs. Lawrence and Lan, many other faculty and students in the department have regularly attended the AAG annual meeting as well as the East Lakes Division Regional meeting held each fall. In 2023 that regional meeting was hosted by the UToledo Department of Geography and Planning.
2024 American Association of Geographers (A.A.G.)
Joint Regional Meeting of the East Lakes and West Lakes Division
October 2024
Ten students and three faculty from the Department of Geography and Planning, College of Arts and Letters, recently attended the 2024 joint regional meeting of the East Lakes and West Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). The Association is the largest professional academic and professional organization for geography in the world with over 10,000 members from more than 30 countries. The 2024 ELDAAG/WLDAAG joint regional meeting was held at Western Michigan University with 180 attendees (100+ students) from 30 geography programs across 8 states.
An annual event at the meeting is a student presentation competition where for the East Lakes Division a total of 17 awards are handed out for the best poster and oral paper presentations. Students from the department secured 5 of those awards-among the most from a single geography program. Congratulations to all our students and special acknowledgment of the award winners-list below. Of special note, Elizabeth White (B.A. Geography) received one of two awards provided by the AAG National Council to the Best Student Presentations at the regional meeting, which provides support for her to attend and give the presentation at the 2025 annual international meeting of the AAG to be held in Detroit next March.
(Pictured above - from left to right: Eve Corlett, Elizabeth White, Pramila Paudyal, Fariha Mustafa, Sage Lail, Yusuf Tayo, Stephen Yankera, Dorcaslove Quartey)
Our Regional A.A.G. Award Winners
- Undergrad oral presentation 1st-Elizabeth White
- AAG Award for Best Undergraduate presentation-Elizabeth White
- M.A. presentation 2nd(tie) Fariha Mustrafa
- Ph.D. presentation 2nd Pramilla Paudyal
- Ph.D. presentation 3rd Oluwaseun Ibukun
UToledo department of geography and planning 60th anniversary
Open House
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023
More than 50 alumni joined us for an open house the weekend of UToledo's Homecoming, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the UToledo Department of Geography and Planning. Those attending enjoyed refreshments, tours of the department, historical displays and the announcement of the first class of GEPL Outstanding Alumni!
2023 GEPL Outstanding Alumni
- Dr. Jay Gatrell (M.A. Geography 1996), Eastern Illinois University, President
- Kari Gerwin (M.A. Geography 2006) TMACOG - Vice President, Water Quality Planning
- Tom Gibbons (M.A. Geography 1998) City of Toledo, Principal Planner
- Dr. Weronika Kusek (M.A. Geography 2010) Northern Michigan University, Associate Professor
- Dr. Isabelle Nilsson (SISS Ph.D. 2015) UNC-Charlotte, Professor
- Hans Rosebrock (B.A. Geography 1988, MA Geography 1991) FirstEnergy (retired)
- Dr. Nate Torbick (M.A. Geography 2004) Hummingbird Technologies, CSO
4th annual OhioView Multi-University Geospatial Workshop
Friday, February 4, 2022 and Friday, February 25, 2022
Workshop theme: “Online GIS and Open Source Remote Sensing”
- Building Explorer or Guided Map Tours with ArcGIS StoryMaps (beginner level)
- Dr. Bradley Shellito, Youngstown State University
- Mobile Data Collection with Online Forms and ArcGIS Survey 123 (beginner level)
- Ms. Robbyn Abbitt, Miami University
- Satellite image processing using Google Earth Engine (intermediate level)
- Dr. Umesh Haritashya and Dr. Vibhor Agarwal, University of Dayton
