Geography has been taught at Elmhurst College since the 1950’s, previously having been the Department of Geology under the auspices of Dr. Helen M. Strong (AAG Newsletter, June 2004). The department was renamed the Department of Geography & Environmental Planning in 1978 and a major in Environmental Geosciences was formed by Dr. Paul F. Ries in 1990. The department changed its name again in 2005 to the Department of Geography & Geosciences. The current department is comprised of two full-time faculty positions and seven part-time adjunct faculty.

The Department of Geography & Geosciences is located in the Computer Science and Technology Center (CSTC) at Elmhurst College, which opened in 1988 and is home to mathematics, as well as the computer science and information systems, and the foreign language department. The Geography Department, located on the third floor, has three dedicated laboratories/project rooms. The GIS/Cartography and Remote Sensing Lab consists of 24 work stations with laptop computers including ArcGIS 9.3 software. Also found within this lab is the Douglas Carter Physical Geography Collection. The collection is a personal library of books and articles donated by Mrs. Douglas Carter.

The Computer and Research Project Lab has four Pentium based PC's with Internet accessibility as well as two Hewlett-Packard Inkjet Printers, a Hewlett-Packard flatbed scanner, a digital plotter and a digitizing tablet. Software on these computers includes ESRI's ArcGIS 9.3, Idrisi32, PCARCINFO, PATHFINDER-GPS support software along with standard word processing software and multi-media atlases. Also incorporated into the Remote Sensing and GIS classes is the Geoexplorer GPS unit which was received as part of an equipment grant from Trimble Corporation. Students use the Trimble GPS along with Trimble Pathfinder Office, for collection, editing, and downloading of information into ArcGIS 9.3. This lab stores a complete set of sheet topographic maps of the Northern Illinois area and serves as the student lounge/project work room.

The Gamma Xi chapter of GTU (Gamma Theta Upsilon) has been a large part of student activities in the Department since its inception in 1968. The ECGS (Elmhurst College Geographical Society) also serves as an organizing component of student activities such as field trips, social gatherings, and service activities. In the past, these have included attending conferences and participating in local Earth Day activities.

 Map of EC Alumni [.pdf] 9.1Mb

Quest Lecture Speaker
Dr. Jared Diamond

 
Dr. Mike Lindberg (L) and Dr. Rich Schultz (C) from the Department of Geography & Geosciences with Dr. Jared Diamond (R)

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