Report of the Honors Committee, 2006

The Honors Committee of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers (SEDAAG) each year recognizes outstanding student and faculty achievements. Serving on the 2006 committee were: Katie Algeo, chair (Western Kentucky University); Scott Curtis, chairelect (East Carolina University); Sharon Cobb (University of North Florida); Graham Tobin (University of South Florida); and Qingfang Wang (University of North Carolina-Charlotte). The 2006 Honors Committee congratulates the following individuals who received awards at the recent annual SEDAAG meeting in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors individuals with significant and sustained records of accomplishment in research, teaching, and service within the discipline of geography and to the recipient's educational institution. The Honors Committee designated two Lifetime Achievement Awards this year, to Professor Stanley D. Brunn and to Professor Owen J. Furuseth.

Dr. Brunn received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He is the most peripatetic of this year's honorees, having taught at the University of Florida and Michigan State University before joining the faulty of the University of Kentucky in 1980. In the intervening years, however, he has been a visiting or volunteer professor at no fewer than 14 institutions, from Almaty State University, Kazakstan, to the University of Lund, Sweden. His teaching and research interests include political, social, and urban geography, time-space geographies and innovative cartographies, with a regional focus on Central Asia. His extensive publication record and the breadth of his writing make it difficult to succinctly pigeon hole him. Recent work includes the just released volume Wal*Mart World, as well works on the geopolitics of natural disasters, gated communities, and music geographies. He is the former editor of both the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and Professional Geographer. Dr. Brunn has previously received SEDAAG's Research Honors (1996) and Service (1992) awards. He has twice served as Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky and was appointed State Geographer of Kentucky. In a nominating letter, a former student recalled a session at an NCGE meeting honoring Dr. Brunn with a Distinguished Mentor Award, "Half a dozen or so of his former advisees spoke at that meeting. It was evident that they all shared my high regard for Stan as perhaps the formative influence on their academic lives."

Dr. Furuseth completed bachelor's and master's degrees at East Carolina University and earned a Ph.D. from Oregon State University before returning to North Carolina in 1977 to join the faculty at UNCCharlotte. His professional interests emphasize regional planning, spanning the urban, the rural, and where the twain do meet. His research is notable for both its scholarly achievements and its practical applications. He has edited or contributed chapters to 29 books, including the recently released Latinos in the New South, and he has been a vigorous contributor to the planning process in the greater Charlotte region. One nominator notes that "he is UNC Charlotte's only faculty member to be recognized as a recipient of all three faculty performance awards" - research, teaching, and service. He has also garnered other awards in past years - AAG John Fraser Hart Award for Research Excellence (1990), SEDAAG Research Honors (1998), Fulbright Senior Research Scholar (2003), and Southeastern Geographer's Best Article (2004). He has regularly taken on service roles within SEDAAG, and since 2003, he has served as UNC-Charlotte's Associate Provost for Metropolitan Studies and Extended Academic Programs. A former student aptly sums up his lifetime of achievement: "He builds bridges between the [academic and applied sides of geography] and instills in his students an appreciation for how one side informs the other and how geography can be used to further our theoretical and analytical understanding of the world as well as to contribute to our local communities."

Honorary Life Membership Award

Dr. John W. Florin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received an Honorary Life Membership in the Southeastern Division. Dr. Florin received his master's degree and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. He has a 37 yr record of distinguished service to geography on the faculty at UNC-Chapel...