International Geographical Union - Home of Geography · Web view2008 Election Candidate Information...
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International Geographical Union 2008 Election Candidate Information Contents Page Candidates for President Slovakia--Manfred M. Fischer, Vienna Univ. of Economics & Business Administration................................. 2 USA--Ronald F. Abler, Pennsylvania State University........... 4 Candidate for Secretary General and Treasurer South Korea--Woo-ik Yu, Seoul National University.............. 9 Candidates for Vice President Australia--Ruth Fincher, University of Melbourne................ .............................................................. 11 Belgium--Eric Lambin, Université Catholique de Louvain .............................................................. 12 Canada--Mark Rosenberg, Queens University .............................................................. 12 China-Beijing--Qin Dahe, Academy of Sciences of China .............................................................. 14
Transcript of International Geographical Union - Home of Geography · Web view2008 Election Candidate Information...
International Geographical Union
2008 Election Candidate Information
Contents
Page Candidates for PresidentSlovakia--Manfred M. Fischer, Vienna Univ. of Economics & Business Administration....... 2USA--Ronald F. Abler, Pennsylvania State University.............................................................. 4
Candidate for Secretary General and TreasurerSouth Korea--Woo-ik Yu, Seoul National University................................................................ 9
Candidates for Vice PresidentAustralia--Ruth Fincher, University of Melbourne........................................................................................................................................................................................................................11Belgium--Eric Lambin, Université Catholique de Louvain........................................................12Canada--Mark Rosenberg, Queens University..........................................................................12China-Beijing--Qin Dahe, Academy of Sciences of China........................................................14China-Taipei--David Chang-yi Chang, National Taiwan University.........................................16Czech Republic--Ivan Bičik, Charles University of Prague.......................................................17Denmark--Christian Matthiessen, University of Copenhagen....................................................18Egypt--Mahmoud, Mohamed Ashour, Ain Shans University....................................................20France--Gérard Salem, Université Paris-Nanterre.....................................................................22Germany--Dietrich Soyez, University of Köln...........................................................................24Israel--Aharon Kellerman, University of Haifa.........................................................................25Italy--Giuliano Bellezza, University of Viterbo.........................................................................27Japan--Yukio Himiyama, Hokkaido University of Education...................................................29Mexico--Irasema Alcántara Ayala, National Autonomous University of Mexico.....................31Netherlands--Jef Vandenberghe, Free University of Amsterdam..............................................32Nigeria--Michael O. Filani, University of Ibadan......................................................................34Russia--Vladimir Kolossov, Russian Academy of Sciences......................................................36Saudi Arabia--Mohammad S. Makki, King Saud University.....................................................40South Africa--Michael Meadows, University of Cape Town.....................................................42Tunisia--Habib Dlala, University of Tunis.................................................................................43
International Geographical Union
2008 Election Candidate Information
Candidates for President
Manfred M. Fischer, Vienna University of Economics and Business [email protected]
Nominated by Slovakia
Manfred M. Fischer. Dr. rer. nat. (geography and mathematics; Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen, Germany, 1975); habil. degree (human geography, University of Vienna, 1982), Professor of Economic Geography and GIScience, Vienna University of Economics, and Dean for Social Sciences.
Services to the IGU: Chair, Commission on Mathematical Models, 1988-1996; full member, Commission on Modelling Geographical Systems, 1996-present; organisation of packaged sessions at the Regional Conferences in Beijing (1990) and Prague (1994), the International Geographical Congresses in Washington (1992) and The Hague (1996).
Professional Experience: Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, University of Vienna, 1975-1988; Visiting Professor, Oskar Lange Academy of Economics, Wroclaw, 1978; Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1988; Professor Vienna University of Economics, 1988-present; Dean for Social Sciences, 2002-present; Director, Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1996-1999; Editor-in-Chief, Geographical Systems (1994-1998); Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Geographical Systems (1999-present); Editor, Springer Book Series Advances in Spatial Science (1994-present); past or present membership on editorial boards: Geographical Analysis, Environment and Planning A, Annals of Regional Science, Papers in Regional Science, International Regional Science Review, Sistemi Urbani, Urban Systems, Tourismus Journal, Geographica Helvetica, URISA Journal, Acta Geographica Sinica.Other Affiliations and Honours: member, International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, 1995; corr. member, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1996; foreign member, The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1999; member, Third Academic Committee, State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1999; fellow, Regional Science Association International; member of organising and programme committees of more than 50 international conferences.
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Research Interests: economic geography, technological change and regional development, regional housing and labour markets, geocomputation and spatial analysis; geographic information science, transportation and GIS-T.
Publications: more than ninety articles in Geographical Analysis, Progress in Human Geography; Environment and Planning A; Journal of Regional Science; Annals of Regional Science; Papers in Regional Science; Regional Science and Urban Economics; Networks and Spatial Economics; Computers, Environment and Urban Systems; Transactions in GIS, and many other journals; 30 monographs/books including Spatial Analysis and GeoComputation (Springer, 2006), and Innovation, Networks and Knowledge Spillovers (Springer, 2006); more than one hundred book chapters and encyclopedia articles, including the contribution on Spatial Analysis in the International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences (Elsevier, 2001).
Priorities for the IGU: The profound changes that are occurring in society are sources of great opportunity for the profession and the IGU. In recent years the basis has been laid in a stronger and more widespread appreciation of the value of geography and the insights of geographers. I see the role of the IGU Presidency as important in three ways in helping the IGU build on this momentum: in the role of a listener, as an important element in the process of ensuring that the IGU’s activities accurately reflect the needs and desires of its members; as a leader, in nurturing current initiatives of the IGU and developing opportunities for new ones; and as a builder of bridges between the IGU and other organisations and activities in which professional geographers have a stake, or where opportunities lie for increased participation by geographers. It is especially important for a small discipline like geography to have a strong interdisciplinary presence in areas such as environmental research and management, global change, public policy, demography, economics, and international studies.
As computer and information technology invade more aspects of our lives, we must be prepared to change as the world changes, and by doing so put ourselves in a stronger position to influence or to help initiate practice and policy. We must begin the process in which we are seen as leaders and innovators, not as followers and imitators in the advancement of science. The IGU can – via increased representation in the community of scholars, business and government – contribute to improving the practice of geography. Recent IGU Presidents have taken the Union well along this path towards improved imagery and improved respects by initiating programs designed to unify the discipline and enhance its image within the scientific community generally. As President I would continue that spirited march into the future.
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Ronald F. Abler, Pennsylvania State [email protected]
Nominated by USA, China-Beijing, and South Korea
Ron Abler has been active in the International Geographical Union (IGU) since 1976. He was a charter member of the IGU Study Group and the IGU Commission on the Geography of Communications and Telecommunications from 1984 to 1992. Following his 1996-2000 term as Vice President, he was elected IGU Secretary General and Treasurer in 2000 and served in that capacity through 2006, when he again became an IGU Vice President.
Abler's research has explored the ways societies have used intercommunications technologies at different times and places. He has written numerous research articles and is co-author or editor of several books, including Spatial Organization: The Geographer’s View of the World (with John Adams and Peter Gould), A Comparative Atlas of America’s Great Cities: Twenty Metropolitan Regions, and Geography’s Inner Worlds: Pervasive Themes in Contemporary American Geography (with Melvin Marcus and Judy M. Olson). From 1994-2002, Abler was Scientific Administrator for the Association of American Geographers’ innovative Global Change and Local Places project; he edited the book summarizing the project’s findings: Global Change and Local Places: Estimating, Understanding, and Reducing Greenhouse Gases (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Abler has acquired extensive experience in scientific leadership and administration. He is Professor Emeritus of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University, where he was on the faculty from 1967 to 1995 and was Head of the Department of Geography from 1976 to 1982. From 1984 to 1988, He was Director of the Geography and Regional Science Program at the U.S. National Science Foundation, where he expanded funding for physical geography and coordinated the establishment of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). He was Vice President, President, and Past President of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) from 1984 to 1987, and Executive Director of the AAG from 1989 through 2002.
Abler has been a member of the boards of directors of numerous academic and non-profit organizations in the United States, including the American Council of Learned Societies, GIS/LIS, Inc., the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the International Geographic Information Foundation, the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation, and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Sciences. He was the elected Chair of Section E (Geology and Geography) of the multidisciplinary American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1998, and has been a member of the Program Committee for the 2006, 2007, and 2008 AAAS annual meetings. Since 2004 he has been the IGU’s liaison with the International Council for Science (ICSU) and International Social Science Council (ISSC).
Abler was made a Fellow of the AAAS in 1985. Among the other organizations that have recognized his contributions to geography are the Royal Scottish Geographical Society,
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which awarded him its Centenary Medal in 1990, the Association of American Geographers (Honors in 1995), the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers (the Victoria Medal in 1996), and the American Geographical Society which conferred on him its Samuel Finley Breese Morse Medal in 2004.
Ron Abler est actif au sein de l’Union Géographique Internationale (IGU) depuis 1976. Il était un membre de la Charte du Groupe d’étude de l’IGU et de la Commission de l’IGU pour la Géographie des Communications et des Télécommunications de 1984 à 1992. A la suite de son mandat de 1996 à 2000 en tant que Vice-président, il a été élu Secrétaire-Général et Trésorier de l’IGU en 2000 et a servi en cette capacité jusqu’en 2006, lorsqu’il est devenu une nouvelle fois Vice-président de l’IGU.
Les recherches de M.Abler ont exploré les manières dont les sociétés ont utilisé les technologies d’intercommunication à différentes périodes et dans différents endroits. Il a écrit de nombreux articles de recherche et est co-auteur ou éditeur de plusieurs livres, y compris Spatial Organization: The Geographer’s View of the World (avec John Adams et Peter Gould), A Comparative Atlas of America’s Great Cities: Twenty Metropolitan Regions, et Geography’s Inner Worlds: Pervasive Themes in Contemporary American Geography (avec Melvin Marcus et Judy M. Olson). De 1994 a 2002, Abler était Administrateur Scientifique du projet innovant sur les Places locales et le Changement global de l’Association des Géographes Américains, il a édité le livre qui résume les résultats du projet: Global Change and Local Places: Estimating, Understanding, and Reducing Greenhouse Gases (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
M. Abler a acquis une expérience significative en termes de leadership dans la science et d’administration. Il est Professeur Émérite de Géographie à la Pennsylvania State University, ou il est resté dans la faculté de 1967 à 1995 et occupait le poste de Chef de Département de Géographie de 1976 à 1982. De 1984 à 1988, il était Directeur du Programme de Géographie et Science Régionale à la Fondation Américaine des Sciences, où il a développé les fonds pour la géographie physique et a coordonné la création du Centre national de l’Information et l’Analyse Géographique (NCGIA). Il a été Vice-président, Président, et Ancien Président de l’Association des Géographes Américains (AAG) de 1984 à 1987, et Directeur exécutif de l’AAG de 1989 à 2002.
M. Abler a été un membre des conseil de direction de nombreuses organisations à but non lucratif et académiques aux Etats-Unis, y compris le Conseil Américain des Sociétés Savantes, le Consortium des Associations pour les Sciences Sociales, la Fondation Internationale de l’Information Géographique, le Centre National d’Information et d’Analyse Géographique, la Fondation des Ressources Naturelles Renouvelables, et le Consortium Universitaire des Sciences de l’Information Géographique. Il a été élu Président de la Section E (Géologie et Géographie) de l’Association Américaine pour le Progrès de la Science (AAAS) en 1998, et a été membre du Comite de Programme pour les rencontres annuelles de l’AAAS en 2006, 2007, et 2008. Depuis 2004, il a servi de liaison entre l’IGU et le Conseil International pour la Science (ICSU) et le Conseil International des Sciences Sociales (CISS).
M. Abler est devenu un Associé de l’AAAS en 1985. Parmi les autres organisations ayant reconnu ses contributions a la géographie figurent la Société Royale Ecossaise pour la Géographie, qui lui a décerné sa Médaille du Centenaire en 1990, l’Association des Géographes Américains (Distinction honorifique en 1995), la Société Royale pour la Géographie/l’Institut des Géographes Britanniques (Médaille Victoria en 1996), et la Société
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Américaine pour la Géographie qui l’a décoré de sa Médaille Samuel Finley Breese Morse en 2004.
Priorities for the IGU/ Priorités pour l’UGI. The challenges the IGU Executive Committee will face during its 2008-2012 term, include:
Participation. Recent years have seen an increase in IGU Corresponding Members, but many member countries have been unable to pay their dues and therefore cannot vote on IGU matters. I fear that more countries will be non-voting Observers in the Tunis General Assembly than in Glasgow in 2004.
Shrinking Revenue. The IGU now receives less income than it had in 2004 and 2000 because of declining dues payments. The IGU’s Commissions and Task Forces deserve more financial support than the IGU provides. Additional non-dues funds for IGU operations must be secured if the IGU is to remain effective.
International and Interdisciplinary Scientific Leadership. The IGU plays a prominent role in international science and in such coordinating international organizations as the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC). The increasing awareness of the value of traditional geographic concerns regarding human use and abuse of the earth will raise new opportunities for geographic leadership. The IGU must respond to as many as its limited capabilities permit, and should use Adalberto Vallega’s Cultures and Civilizations for Human Development (CCHD) initiative as a means of achieving international scientific leadership.
Continuity. There will be an almost complete turnover of the IGU Executive Committee in 2008. Over the long term, offset terms for members of the IGU Executive Committee will prevent such majority turnovers in the future. Over the short term, the death of Adalberto Vallega and the inability of current First Vice President José Palacio-Prieto and current Secretary General and Treasurer Woo-ik Yu to continue on the executive committee could impede IGU effectiveness.
Home of Geography. The status of the Rome Home of Geography must be settled. The Home of Geography has been of value, but at an aggregate cost to IGU of more than $100,000 since it was established in 2000. Sharply decreased funding from Italian sources and the inability of the IGU to support the Home of Geography requires quick resolution.
Priority for Priorities. To avoid dissipating the energy and time of those who serve the IGU, the IGU Executive Committee must henceforth rigorously evaluate the benefits and costs (including opportunity costs) of each IGU program aor project. We can best enhance geography’s stature in international science by doing a few things well, rather than many things only adequately; we should reserve IGU energies for projects for which it possesses a strong comparative advantage.
There are no easy solutions to these dilemmas, and I cannot promise that all will be resolved, or resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. If I am elected IGU President, however, I promise to do my best to build a stronger IGU by addressing these challenges by applying the lessons I have learned in 32 years of participation in IGU and in my many years of leadership in volunteer organizations similar to the IGU.
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Les défis que le Comité exécutif de l’UGI devra relever lors de son mandat 2008-2012, incluent:
Participation. Ces dernières années, nous avons constaté une augmentation du nombre de membres correspondants de l’UGI, cependant de nombreux pays membres n’ont pas été en mesure de payer leurs contributions. Par conséquent, ils n’ont pas pu voter sur les questions relatives à l’UGI. Je crains qu’un plus grand nombre de pays s’avéreront être plus des pays observateurs sans droit de vote lors de l’Assemblée générale de Tunis que lors de l’Assemblée de Glasgow en 2004.
Réduction des revenus. L’UGI reçoit désormais moins de revenus qu’elle percevait en 2004 et en 2000 en raison du ralentissement des paiements des contributions. Les Commissions et les Groupes de travail de l’UGI méritent un soutien financier plus important que celui fourni par l’UGI. Des fonds supplémentaires en parallèle aux contributions doivent être garantis pour le fonctionnement de l’UGI si celle-ci doit rester efficace.
Leadership scientifique interdisciplinaire et international. L’UGI joue un rôle proéminent dans la science internationale et ainsi dans la coordination des organisations internationales telles que le Conseil international pour la Science (ICSU) et le Conseil international des Sciences sociales (CISS). La reconnaissance croissante de l’importance des problèmes traditionnels relatifs à la géographie concernant l’utilisation et l’abus des ressources de la planète par les humains créera de nouvelles opportunités pour l’émergence d’un leadership pour les questions de géographie. L’UGI doit fournir autant de réponses que ses capacités limitées lui permettent, et devrait se servir de l’initiative Cultures et Civilisations pour Développement Humain (CCDH) d’Adalberto Vallega en tant que moyen d’aboutir à un leadership scientifique international.
Continuité. Il y aura un renouvellement quasi complet du Comite exécutif de l’UGI en 2008. Sur le long terme, les mandats compensatoires des membres du Comité exécutif de l’UGI empêcheront que de telles rotations en majorité se produisent à l’ avenir. Sur le court terme, le décès d’Adalberto Vallega et l’incapacité de l’actuel premier Vice Président José Palacio-Prieto et de l’actuel Secrétaire General et Trésorier Woo-ik Yu à rester au sein du comité exécutif pourrait miner l’efficacité de l’UGI.
Maison de la Géographie. Le statut de la Maison de la Géographie à Rome doit être réglé. La Maison de la Géographie a eu de la valeur mais à un cout global s’élevant à plus de 100.000 dollars pour l’UGI depuis sa création en 2000. Une chute marquée des apports de fonds de l’Italie et l’incapacité de l’UGI à soutenir la Maison de la Géographie requiert une solution rapide.
Priorité pour prioritiés. Afin d’éviter de dissiper l’énergie et le temps de ceux qui servent l’UGI, le Comite exécutif de l’UGI doit dorénavant évaluer rigoureusement les avantages et les coûts (y compris les coûts d’opportunité) de chaque programme ou projet de l’UGI. Nous pouvons améliorer au mieux la place de la géographie dans la science internationale en faisant certaines choses de la bonne manière, plutôt que
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plusieurs choses, seulement de manière appropriée; nous devrions réserver l’énergie de l’UGI aux projets pour lesquels elle possède un avantage comparatif.
Il n’existe pas de solutions simples à ces dilemmes, et je ne peux pas promettre qu’ils seront tous résolus, ou résolus à la satisfaction de tous. Cependant, si je suis élu Président de l’UGI, je promets de faire de mon mieux pour établir une UGI plus forte en relevant ces défis, en appliquant les leçons que j’ai tirées lors de mes 32 ans de participation à l’UGI et de mes nombreuses années de leadership dans des organisations de volontariat similaire à l’UGI.
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Candidate for Secretary General and Treasurer
Woo-ik Yu, Seoul National [email protected]
Nominated by South Korea)
Yu has served on the faculty of Seoul National University for many years, including terms as Chairman of its Department of Geography (1989-1990), Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences (1993-1995), Director of the Institute of Korean Regional Studies (1995-1996), and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs (2000-2002), He earned his doctorate at the University of Kiel, Germany in 1980 after competing his BA and MA in Geography at Seoul National University.
Yu has been a visiting professor or scholar at the University of Paris IV, the University of California-Berkeley, and the Department of Environmental Studies at the Korean Military Academy. He was recently appointed Chief of Staff for Korean President Lee Myung-bak, having been a key advisor to President Lee since Lee served as the Mayor of Seoul. Yu has been
active in domestic and international geographical societies, and was the Secretary General of the 29th International Geographical Congress held in Seoul in August 2000.
Yu has written more than one hundred papers and books on geography. The main focus of his research lies in socio-cultural geography and regional policy in Korea. He has also written hundreds of essays on journals and newspapers, as well as an innovative and popular series of photo essays on distinct and intriguing places in Korea.
Priorities for IGU. It would be a great honor for me to be elected to continue my service as Secretary General and Treasurer of the IGU through 2010. If elected, I will do my utmost to carry out the duties entrusted in me by working in close cooperation with the IGU Executive Committee and with IGU Commissions and Task Forces. I will use the experience gained from serving in various positions in the Korean government, non-governmental organizations, Seoul National University, the Korean Geographical Society, among others, to:
1. find ways to strengthen ties among the IGU Commissions, Task Forces, and National Committees;
2. help organizing forthcoming congresses and regional conferences. I believe my experiences as an organizer for the 29th IGC held in Seoul in 2000 will be useful in this regard;
3. increase geographical contributions to people and the world, in particular, in the areas of environment, regional policies, tourism, and international cooperation. In order to achieve this goal, various activities will be geared to extending researches, education, and social services of geography;
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4. find ways that will promote the activities of regional geographical societies in solving regional problems. For example, I will try to organize the East Asian Geographical Association. I will also try to encourage countries thus far excluded from international society to join the IGU; and
5. take initiatives in realizing 'Living with Diversity', the main theme of the Seoul IGC in 2000. A success of this spatial culture movement will contribute to making the culturally varied earth a better place to live for all people.
I believe that my skills, experience, and love for my work and for geography will benefit the IGU in the short and over the long term.
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Candidates for Vice President
Ruth Fincher, University of [email protected] by Australia
Ruth Fincher has been a member of the academic staff of the University of Melbourne since 1985, following six years on the faculty of McGill and then McMaster University in Canada. An urban and social geographer, she has held a number of leadership positions at the University of Melbourne, including Professor of Urban Planning, Professor of Geography, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, and most recently Director of a university-wide, interdisciplinary research institute, the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. She has held visiting positions at the University of Minnesota, the University of Auckland, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Peking University. Within the IGU, she chaired the Gender and Geography Commission (1996-2000) and was its representative for Australia (1989-1992; 1992-6). She has been President of the Institute of Australian Geographers (2001-4) and its Vice
President (1999-2001; 2004-6). She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, in the Geography category.
Priorities for IGU. I have priorities for the IGU of two kinds: first, a priority about geographers’ contributions to contemporary international debates on the interactions between social practices and environmental change, and how the IGU might facilitate this; and second, a priority about increasing the inclusiveness of the organisation.
Geography as a discipline is particularly well-placed to contribute to contemporary international discussions about the social contributions to, and effects of, environmental change. Intellectual conversations between social and environmental scientists are, after all, a central part of our discipline. This interface is something we understand. It follows that geographers have much to contribute to global research initiatives about society and environments. My first priority for the IGU is, therefore, to explore ways to encourage the participation of its members and Commissions in the work of international groups with this social-environmental charter. Perhaps some specific collaborations between IGU Commissions could be sought to give such research questions particular priority, too. My interest here is in seeing how the IGU could facilitate the voices of geographers being heard more clearly in international discussions about such matters, which are so very central to our discipline.
The IGU is already an organisation whose conferences and Commission meetings welcome participants, rather than selecting them. Of course this is a tradition in many of our national geographic organisations as well. However, there are always ways inclusiveness may be extended. My interest in extending the inclusiveness of the IGU’s conferences and commissions suggests several areas for focus and action:
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1. encourage Commissions and the IGU itself to propose meetings in an ever wider variety of world regions;
2. continue to think of ways to support geographers from areas with fewer resources to attend our meetings;
3. encourage the growth of participation in our meetings by postgraduate research students (in Australia we have established a special fund to support travel by young researchers to IGU conferences overseas – perhaps this could be replicated elsewhere and even centrally within the IGU);
4. consider expanding the number of languages treated as official for IGU conference purposes.
These complex matters of inclusiveness should always be important for a major international organisation, and I am particularly interested in keeping them at the forefront of our organisational endeavours, as is the IGU Commission for Gender and Geography with which I have long been associated.
Eric Lambin, Université catholique de [email protected]
Nominated by Belgium
Professor Lambin has withdrawn his candidacy.
Mark Rosenberg, Queens [email protected]
Nominated by Canada
Mark Rosenberg received his Honours B.A. (1975) from the University of Toronto and his M.Sc. (1976) and Ph.D. (1980) from the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science. He is currently a Professor of Geography and cross appointed as a Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He has previously held academic appointments at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Ottawa and Carleton University and has been an academic visitor at the LSE, University of Nottingham, the University of British Columbia and University of Canterbury. In 1999, Mark Rosenberg received the Award for Service to the Profession of Geography given by the Canadian Association of Geographers. In 2001, he was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New
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Zealand. In 2006, Mark Rosenberg became the first winner of the Queen’s University Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision in the Social Sciences and Humanities. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal on Aging and a North American Editor of Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy. He is author or co-author of over 325 publications and scientific papers presented at various national and international meetings.
Mark Rosenberg is the Chairperson of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Health and the Environment (2000-2008). On behalf of the four global change programs (IHDP, DIVERSITAS, IGBP and WCRP), he is the Co-Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Earth System Science Partnership on Global Environmental Change and Human Health (2008-2010). Since the mid 1980s, Makr Rosenberg has held national and international posts in the Canadian Association of Geographers (Secretary-Treasurer, 1991-1997; Chairperson, Medical Geography Study Group, 1987-1990), the Canadian Regional Science Association (President, 1991-1992), the Association of American Geographers (Chairperson, Medical Geography Specialty Group, 1998-2000) and various board and executive positions in demography and gerontology associations.
Mark Rosenberg’s research interests are in the geography of health and health care and global change, health and the environment. Through his research and contributions to the IGU and various national associations (especially the Canadian Association of Geographers) and international bodies (especially the International Human Dimensions Program), Mark Rosenberg has worked tirelessly to promote the sub-field of medical geography and geography in general and to build and support for the recognition of medical geographers in health science research around the world. With his leadership and support over the past eight years as Chairperson of the IGU Commission on Health and the Environment, medical geographers have held meetings in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, Jamaica, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. One of the key ingredients to his leadership, has been the support of students and new post-doctoral geographers at these meetings.
Priorities for the IGU. I am deeply honoured to have been nominated by the Canadian National Committee for Geography to be a vice-president of the IGU. Should I be elected, I will work as hard over the next four year as I have worked for the past eight years to promote geography around the world. My priorities for the IGU would be:
1. To develop and implement a strategy working with the commissions, task forces and national committees to encourage a new generation of post-doctoral geographers to become active participants in the IGU;
2. To develop and implement a strategy working with the commissions, task forces and national committees to increase the participation of geography students in the IGU;
3. To develop and implement a strategy working with the commissions, task forces and national committees to see more IGU meetings in countries in the developing world;
4. To use the experience I have gained through national associations, the IGU and with the four global change programs to increase the participation of geographers in international research.
I am convinced that I can translate the successes I have had in leading the IGU
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Commission on Health and the Environment over the past eight years into new successes for the IGU. Together, we can increase the participation of a new generation of post-doctoral geographers, of geography students, and geographers from the developing and developed world to grow the IGU and increase its role in international research.
Qin Dahe, Academy of Sciences of [email protected]
Nominated by China-Beijing
Dr. Qin Dahe is a worldwide pioneer and leader in the research of present physical processes and biogeochemistry in snow and ice. His research is also characterized by very broad subjects in glacial geomorphology and climatology, and dynamic mixing of methodology development and problem solving. In 1980’s, As a glaciologist and climatologist, Qin initiated both the research on the snow-firn-ice densification process in China, and the glaciochemical research on mountain glaciers, as well as on Antarctic ice sheet. During his mid-career, Qin probed the impact of glacier fluctuation on climate change, particularly in the region of Mt. Chomolungma (Mt. Everest). His work established himself as an authoritative of cryosphere and Global Change. He used to be the chief scientists of the projects supported by National Natural Sciences Foundation, the Basic Research Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Key Innovation Projects of CAS as well as related bilateral cooperation programs between China and the United States, Australia and France etc.
Since 1995, Qin has moved his research to an even higher level by broadening his scope to study the worldwide climate change and the impact of human activities. His group has been coring the glacial ice in the northern slope of Mt. Himalayas at 6500m asl. for years to collect the climate record in the glacier at the mid-lower latitude on high mountains. His group has been doing glaciology research, as well as environmental and climate change, in Antarctica and Northern polar region, too. Qin’s work has been broadly recognized by the international climate research community. In 1995, he was elected as a Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a key international organization providing assessments of the state of knowledge on climate change under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), for the Third Assessment Report (TAR). In 2002, Qin was elected as the co-chair of the Working Group I of IPCC for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).
Qin has published ca. 250 papers in primary journals and received many national awards, as well as awards from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the State Oceanic Administration and Province Gansu in natural science. Qin has been the Director General of
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the Key Laboratory for the Ice Core and Cold Region’s Environment (LICCRE) in CAS since 1992. In 2000, he moved to and became the Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration. He has also serve on many advisory committees and review panels for academic institutions and agencies in China and WMO. Dr. Qin Dahe is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). In recent years, Dr. Qin has been leading the scientific Assessment on Climate and Environment Change and Response Strategies in China, Meteorological Development Strategy in China, National Assessment Report on Climate Change, Cryospheric processes in China and their climatic, hydrologic and ecologic effects and adaptation. etc.
Priorities for IGU. If elected as a Vice-President of IGU, certainly I will play my role in the Executive Committee and devote myself to enhance the flourishing of the Union and the progress of geography internationally. My key objectives in the coming four years would be:
To promote geographical studies and the study on global environment change worldwide. At present, with global environment change and globalization, more acute problems related human security will occur extensively. As a Chinese geographer, my main studies on present physical processes and glacial geomorphology, climate change with the impacts of human activities cooperated with international experts will be benefit for the integrated study on geographical sciences. I believe contribution from geographers all over the world will make more progress for the sustainable development of our Earth.
To broaden the inter linkages among different regions in the world and to intensify the activities of IGU. The Geographical Society of China (GSC) is now in preparation for the 33rd IGC in China, if it could be decided to be held in China, as a Vice-President, I will try my best for the success of 33rd IGC working together with massive members of GSC.
To strengthen collaboration between IGU and other international organizations. Based on my academic experience from service to many advisory committees and review panels for WMO, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and IPCC, as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the past Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, I could also play an important role to facilitate international co-operations on the study and application of geography.
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Chang-Yi David Chang, National Taiwan [email protected]
Nominated by China-Taipei
Chang-Yi has been serving on the faculty of National Taiwan University since 1976 and conducting a number of environmental resource management projects for National Science Council (NSC) since then.
Since 1981, Chang-Yi has actively involved in IGU commission, conference and congress meetings and was the president of the Geographical Society of China-Taipei, the Chair of IGU National Committee-Taiwan, and also a member of National Committee for ICSU between 1999 and 2003. Chang-Yi serves as the Chair of IGU Commission on Islands after more than twenty years experience of participating the IGU activities. Chang-Yi is currently serving as an active member of National Council for Sustainable Development in central government, a
board member of IHDP-Global Change Commission Academia Sinica-Taiwan, an advisory board member of Environmental quality, EPA, the president of National Park Association. As a volunteer worker, Chang-Yi has also served at the Taipei Yunho Community University as the president to assist with adult continuing education and social-cultural reform since the year 2000.
Having published more than one hundred research articles, reports and books related to human geography, environmental resource management and policies. Chang-Yi has been a visiting professor and scholar at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Texas at Austin, Nanjing University and Lund University.
Priorities for the IGU. If I am elected to serve as an IGU Vice President, I shall do my best to promote all the IGU activities. Since Geography is an integrated discipline, the characteristics of Collaboration, Communication, Cooperation, and Coordination (4 Cs) are the most important essences in the process of geographical education and capability building. As geographers, we can apply and promote these abilities more appropriately.
1. Communication: Dialogues among geographers in various subfields and between geographers and colleagues in related disciplines are the musts for future research collaboration. With the experience of membership in several IGU commissions since 1982 and now as the chair of IGU Commission on Islands, I shall be delighted to communicate with all the related commissions and working groups for collaborative research.
2. Collaboration: Under the increasing globalization, collaborations among geographers and between geographers and colleagues in other related disciplines are becoming more important than ever before. As a member of IHDP (The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change) in Taiwan, I shall promote both basic and applied research in the related topics and regions.
3. Cooperation: With my experience as member of the Taiwan National Committee for ICSU (International Council for Science) and the President of Geographical Society of
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China-Taipei(1999-2003), I shall enhance international cooperation among IGU National Committees and among Scientific Unions.
4. Coordination: As a board member of the Taiwan National Council for Sustainable Development and the president of a volunteer worker network associated with Taipei Yunho Community University, I shall try my best to coordinate some international sustainability research and training projects related to the conservation and management of environmental resources. I am confident of my ability to do this because of my experience in organizing The First Meeting of IGU Study Group of Marginal Regions (1993), The Fourth Asian Urbanization Conference (1994), Advanced Training Workshop an Land Use and Land Cover Change for START (2002), the Inaugural Joint Meeting of IGU Commission on Islands and IGU Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledges and Rights (2007); and various environmentally related interdisciplinary projects since 1977. It will be a great honor to be elected as a vice president to continue my service at IGU, and I will assist the newly elected IGU president and cooperate with the IGU Executive Committee, Commissions and Task Forces. If elected, I shall also gain supports for IGU from related international organizations and different agencies of Taiwan Government.
Ivan Bičík, Charles [email protected]
Nominated by the Czech Republic
Ivan Bičík is working many years at Charles University in Prague - Faculty of Science as a specialist for human geography, long-term development of land-use, problems of the agriculture and rural space etc. His work included e.g. positions of Faculty of Science vice-dean (1990-1994), Chief Executive of the Department of social geography and regional development (1994-2000), President of the Czech Geographic Society (1994-2006). Editor-in-Chief of the Czech journal Geographic Outlook (1992-2008). Member of the International Geographical Union Commission Land Use/ Cover Change since its start in 1997, since 2006 Head of this commission.
Ivan Bičík has written more over 100 arcticles in scientific journals (partly as a co-author), 8 monographies or parts in a monography (also a co-editor), 15 textbooks for university and secondary school levels, about 25 articles oriented on the support of teaching in geography. He has organized a lot of conferences, e.g. in 2001 he was head of organization committee of international conference IGU LUCC „Land Use/Land Cover Changes in the Period of Globalization”.
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Priorities for the IGU. Region I come from has experienced very dynamic changes that are to a large extent specific and unrepeatable and they result from globalization trends and joining European Union as well, but they are also results of catch-up of processes in the developed world realized by long-term development. Hence it is necessary to pay attention to problems and to processes in Central and Eastern Europe. I believe that one of the possibilities of my personal activity in the case of election is to cooperate in larger integration of central- and east-European geographers in IGU activities. Beyond this I would like to contribute to better publicity of top-level research in this region in internationally respected journals with significant citation rating.
In light of my research interest I offer cooperation with IGU commissions which are focused on relative problematic as Land Use/Cover Change commission, which I am leading. Especially I prefer cooperation with Sustainability of Rural System and Local Development commissions, eventually with other commissions focused on local, regional and global level of nature-human interactions. My personal survey in the past made me possible to look at scientific activities of other international scientific organizations like European Society for Environmental History or International Association of Landscape Ecology respectively. I would like to conduce to coordination of mutual activities of conference and work commissions between IGU and above named organizations.
My specific personal interest and long-term experience is a long-term orientation to education systems in Czechia and especially in geography. I am very interested in the idea of my colleagues from chemistry which formulated „eurobachelors“ in chemical subjects; I think that similar heading in geographic fields of study would contribute for next development of geography. From this point of view it is possible to use my scientific and organization experience in these fields in IGU, eventually in relation with other scientific societies.
Christian Matthiessen, University of [email protected]
Nominated by Denmark
Professor. M. Sc., Ph. D., Dr. scient. Knight of the Dannebrog. Research fellow 1969-72, assistant professor (urban geography) 1972-75, associate professor (urban & regional geography) 1975-87, professor (urban geography, regional development & planning geography) 1988-. Whole career at Institute of Geography - University of Copenhagen, Denmark. President for the Danish National Committee of Geography (1998- ), general secretary (1990-1998). Danish delegate to the International Geographical Union 1998-. Member steering comittee Commission on Urban Geography at the International Geographical Union 2000-, president 2008-. Vice president of the Royal Danish Geographical Society (2007-), member board of directors 1986-. Board of directors European Institute of
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Comparative Urban Research (1988-). Board of directors Center for Regional and Tourism Research (2003-), president 2006-. Board of directors Wonderful Copenhagen (2003-). Member of Academia Europaea. Member of The Danish National Committee of International Committees of Scientific Unions (1998-). Director & chairman Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen 1986-90, 1996-99. Member of the Danish Government Commission on Infrastructural Investments 2006-08. Chairman research council of the Oresund Institute 2003-. He has contributed to the scientific discussion with more than hundred research publications and to the public debate with an equal large number of essays.
Priorities for the IGU: Face to face contact is of paramount importance to establish lasting and trustful relations between people. This is a general statement but is also the backbone for our subject, geography. Consequently meetings are the key to securing and forwarding geographical research and organisation. Congresses, regional congresses, symposia, meetings of commissions, working groups and task forces as well as interrelation to other subjects and programmes must be kept high on the agenda, and effort to secure and extend attendance for young and established and for rich and poor members of the geographical community should be increased. When this is said, it must also be stated that the potential of modern communication and information technology should be utilised to its limits in parallel with increasing development of face to face contact. Communication and networking within the geographical community must be of quality and quantity. Recruitment to the global geographical research community should also be high on the agenda. Young scholar’s programmes, cheap possibilities to attend meetings, competitions, Ph.d. courses (for example organised by commissions or working groups) should be expanded. Geographical institutions of developing nations should be interrelated with those of the developed world in a respectful way of mutual benefits (my own institute has for example access to laboratory facilities at the University of Ghana and provide guest facilities in Copenhagen for staff from Ghana). Tradition and renewal must go hand in hand. The International Geographical Union with all its institutions is and must be the most important global framework of reference for our subject, but must at the same time provide new departures for ideas and innovation. The IGU is a player on the international research scene and must take responsibilities, which range from addressing the climate debate to engaging in issues of peace and understanding between cultures and civilisations. Being an urban geographer I have a focus, but I am interested in the whole broad subject of geography and relates actively to all disciplines.
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Mahmoud Mohamed Ashour, Ain Shans [email protected]
Nominated by Egypt
Mahmoud M. Ashour is Professor Emeritus of Physical Geography at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. He earned a BA in Geography and Cartography at Alexandria University (1964), and the MA (1974) and PhD (1979) in Physical Geography with a specialization in Geomorphology from Ain Shams University.Since 1964, Ashour has served as Surveyor and Chief Surveyor of the Geological Survey of Egypt (1968-1973), Chief Surveyor of the Geological Survey of Libya (1973-1977), Lecturer, Ain Shams University, 1977 – 1981, Visiting Research Fellow, Sheffield University, U.K., 1981 – 1982, Lecturer, Ain Shams University, 1982 – 1983, Lecturer & Associate Professor, Qatar University, Qatar, 1983 – 1988, Associate Professor & Professor, Ain Shams University, 1988 – 1995 , Visiting Professor, U.A.E. University, United Arab
Emirates, 1991,Visiting Professor, Sultan Qabous University, Oman, 1992 ,Professor and Head of the Department of Geography U.A.E. University, United Arab Emirates, 1995 – 1999 , Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Director of GIS unit, Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, 1999 -2003. and Emeritus professor since 2003.
Ashour is the author and co-author of more than 30 research articles, including: (1983) Calcareous Duricrusts in North-Western Libya, Journal of Arid
Environment, London, 6, 203, 213.(1986) Geomorphological map of Qatar Peninsula, presented at the Twentieth
International Symposium on Remote sensing of Environment, Nairobi, Kenya December.
(1987) Surficial Deposits of Qatar Peninsula, in Desert Sediments: Ancient and Modern, Geological Society of London, Special publication No, 35, pp.361 – 367, London,
(1993) Recent Changes in The River Nile Channel, Bull. Egyptian Geog. Soc., vol. 64 pp.113-133.
(1994) Morphological Evidences of Climate Changes in the Western Desert of Egypt, Presented at the international Symposium and Work shop on Paleoenvironmental Records of Desert Margins and Paleomonsoons Variation during the last 20 Ka. Xian, China. 14-23.
(1999) The Quaternary Geology of a playa in Farafra, Western Desert of Egypt, Annals Academi AE Scientiarum Fennic AE Geologica-Geographica 160, pp.49 – 112 Helsenki,
(2003) Quaternary environmental change in the Western Desert of Egypt: Evidence from Cave speleothems, spring tufas and playa sediments, Z. Geomorph. N.F. Suppl – vol. 131 pp. 59-87.
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(2006) Desertification in Egypt, A Case Study, Presented at The International Geographical Conference, Brisbane, Australia.
He as also written or co-authored a number of books, among which are Principles of Physical Geography, 2nd ed. (in Arabic) Dar El-Kalam, Dubai, 2003 and Principles of Cartography (in Arabic) Dar El-Kalam, Dubai, 1998.
Ashour has been and active participant in geographical societies and in the IGU Board Member of the Geographical Society of Egypt , including Member of The Egyptian Quaternary society , Member of the Hazard and Risk Commission, I.G.U. ,Referee of the Promotion Committee for Professors and associate professor . Egypt, Member of the L'Institut D' Egypt, Chair of the IGU commission “ Arid Lands, Humankind and Environment, 0402, Coordinator of the Mediterranean Renaissance Programme (MRP)and Mediterranean Network, IGU Correspondent Member of the Cultures and Civilization for Human Development , IGU.
He has been director and co-director of numerous research projects, including Sand Dunes in Qatar 81 – 83 (Qatar University), Sabkhas in Qatar 85 – 88 (Qatar University) ,Playa deposits in Egypt 1993. joint project ( Ain Shams university , Egypt and Helsinki university , Finland ,Coordinator for the UUP between Ain-Shams Univ. and Georgia Univ. U.S.A. ,Sand accumulations in Egypt ( Five years project) in cooperation with 9 local and overseas institutions (commenced this year).
He also supervised more than 30 PhD and MA, Thesis in Geomorphology and related disciplines.
Priorities for IGU: Besides fulfilling the general objectives of the IGU, It would be a great honor for me to be elected as vice president of the IGU through 2012. If elected, I will do my best to carry out the duties entrusted in me by working in close cooperation with the IGU Executive Committee and with IGU Commissions and Task Forces. I will use the experience gained from serving at international, organizations to:
Encouraging and supporting Arab and African geographical societies to join the IGU. Developing academic and research networks in order to cooperate with them (e.g.
Desert Net, UNCCD, ACACIA, IGCP, INQUA). Organizing meetings to bring together geographers, especially to reestablish better
interactions with colleagues in the Arab world and Africa since these have not participated much in the IGU.
Promote geographical international researchers particularly those related to global problems such as climatic changes, pollution, immigration and poverty related problems. In order to achieve this objective, various activities will be geared.
I believe that my experience through working with bi-national and international teams in research and teaching activities since 1964 and my excellent relations with many geographical and scientist all over the world will benefit the IGU and geography.Besides fulfilling the general objectives of the IGU, my first tasks after election would be;
1. Instigating Arab and African geographical societies to join the IGU;2. Developing academic and research networks in order to Cooperate with them (e.g.
Desert Net, UNCCD, ACACIA, IGCP, INQUA);
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3. Organizing meetings to bring together geographers, especially to reestablish better interactions with colleagues in the Arab world and Africa since these have not participated much in the IGU.
Gérard Salem, Université [email protected]
Nominated by France
I am honored to submit my candidacy for one of the positions of Vice-President of the International Geographical Union on the occasion of the renewal of its board at the Tunis Congress in August 2008. This candidacy is part of a tradition of French and European geography which has been open to the world and, for decades, a major contributor to the functioning of the IGU.
Personal information: I am 56 years old. After completing the equivalent of a B.A. and M.A. degree in geography (University of Paris 1 – Sorbonne), I went on to receive my Ph.D. in African Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (E.H.E.S.S.) in Paris. Additionally, I completed a two-year degree (D.E.S.S.) at the Institut Politique de Paris (with a focus on urbanization and national and regional development), and a degree in epidemiology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris. As a researcher with ORSTOM, I worked from 1980-1988 in Senegal, as part of a primary health care program, and then I was a Visiting Professor at the University of Montreal from 1989-1992 where I taught Geography of Africa and Medical Geography. Since 1997 I have been a Professor of Geography at the University of Paris-Nanterre where I am Director of the Master’s program in Medical Geography and of the research program “Space, Health and Territories.”My domains are thus the environment, geography of health, and social geography in general, with a particular interest in urban geography in all geographic areas. I have published more than 200 articles, chapters and books. Every year I take frequent professional trips to Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, and I have developed solid connections with a number of European countries for whom I would like to be the representative without any exclusion.
Priorities for the IGU: My personal trajectory attests to my interest in collaborating across disciplines, international collaborating, and a central role for geography in debates about the future of our planet. These aspects help to define three priorities for the IGU:
1. Geography that is open to other disciplines without losing its primary strength: an interdisciplinary dynamic depends on deepening our own approach and reinforcing the links between different components of the discipline (environmental, social, cultural) and developing quantitative and qualitative approaches that are complementary
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2. Geography that is open to the world: the International Geographical Union is one of those privileged spaces for scientific, as well as personal, exchanges, in a multi-polar world, full of different currents. It is essential to maintain, and broaden, the scientific and cultural diversity of the IGU. Greater access to our meetings and debates, particularly of young teachers and researchers, is equally a necessity.
3. Geography attentive to pressing contemporary issues: the geographic community must affirm its expertise in matters of the environment, economy, food, health, etc., provide insight to the central debates and influence decision-making.
In this way, I intend to consecrate a significant portion of my time as Vice-President to attaining these objectives.
J'ai l'honneur de présenter ma candidature à l'un des postes de vice président de l'Union Géographique Internationale à l'occasion du renouvellement de ses instances lors du congrès de Tunis en août 2008. Cette candidature s'inscrit dans la tradition d'une géographie française et européenne ouverte sur le monde et contributrice majeure, depuis des décennies, aux fonctionnements de l'UGI.
Renseignements personnels : Je suis âgé de 56 ans. Après une licence et une maîtrise de géographie (Université Paris 1- Sorbonne), j’ai préparé un Doctorat en Études Africaines à l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. J’ai par ailleurs obtenu le DESS de l’Institut Politique de Paris (filière urbanisation et aménagement du Territoire) et le Diplôme d’épidémiologie de l’Institut Pasteur de Paris. Chercheur à l’ORSTOM, j’ai travaillé de 1980 à 1988 au Sénégal dans le cadre d’un programme de soins de santé primaires, puis ai été Professeur invité à l’Université de Montréal de 1989 à 1992 où j’ai enseigné la géographie de l’Afrique et la géographie de la santé. Je suis depuis 1997, Professeur à l'Université Paris -Nanterre où je dirige le master de géographie de la santé et le Laboratoire Espace, Santé et Territoires.
Mes domaines sont donc ceux de l’environnement, de la géographie de la santé, de la géographie sociale, avec un intérêt particulier pour le milieu urbain dans toutes les aires géographiques. J’ai publié plus de 200 articles, chapitres et ouvrages. Je réalise chaque année de fréquentes missions en Asie, en Afrique et au Maghreb, et ai pu développer des liens solides avec de nombreux pays européens dont je souhaite me faire le représentant sans exclusive aucune.
Priorités pour l’UGI. Mon parcours personnel témoigne de mon intérêt pour les collaborations pluridisciplinaires, pour les collaborations internationales, et la pleine place de la géographie dans les débats sur l’avenir de notre planète. Ces trois aspects me semblent cerner des priorités pour l’UGI
1. une géographie ouverte sur les autres disciplines mais gardant son fil conducteur : la dynamique interdisciplinaire passe par l'approfondissement de notre démarche propre et le renforcement des liens entre les différentes composantes de la géographie (dimensions environnementales, sociales, culturelles), le développement de la complémentarité des approches quantitatives et qualitatives.
2. une géographie ouverte sur le monde : l’union Géographique Internationale est un de ces lieux privilégiés d'échanges scientifiques mais aussi personnels, à l'image
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d'un monde multipolaire, traversé par des courants divers dont il importe de garder la variété scientifique et culturelle. L’accès du plus grand nombre à nos réunions et débats, notamment des jeunes enseignants et chercheurs, est également une nécessité.
3. une géographie attentive aux grands défis du moment : la communauté géographique doit affirmer sa capacité d’expertise dans les domaines environnementaux, économiques, alimentaires, sanitaires, etc., éclairer les débats et aider à la décision.
J’entends ainsi consacrer une part significative de mon temps afin de contribuer à la réalisation de ces objectifs.
Professor Dietrich Soyez, University of Kö[email protected]
Nominated by Germany
Until my retirement in early 2007, I served in the Faculty of Science at the University of Cologne for 15 years, including several terms as Departmental Chair. I have acted as President of the Association of Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries (1995-1997) and Chair of Germany’s IGU National Committee (2000-2004). I completed my studies in Germany (Universities of Bonn and Saarbruecken) with a Staatsexamen/State Examination in Geography and Romance Languages in Saarbruecken in 1969. Furthermore, I was awarded a B.A. (Honours) in Geography, French and Ethnography as well as a Fil.lic. in Physical Geography, followed by a doctorate in Geography, at the University of Stockholm/Sweden in 1966, 1971 and 1974 respectively. My second German academic thesis (Habilitation, 1981) was concerned with Environmental Economic Geography. Other current fields of interest are Political Geography and Industrial (Heritage) Tourism.
I have been a visiting professor at Université Laval/Canada (1990), Université de Paris X/France (2003) and Sun Yat-sen University/P.R. of China (2003, 2007, 2008). I have written or edited a number of books and published more than 130 academic papers. I have been or continue to be a member of the Editorial Boards/Foreign Correspondents’ Committees of several international geographical journals. Recently I have served as a member of the International Evaluation Commission of Human Geography Undergraduate and Graduate Programmes at Swedish universities.
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Priorities for the IGU. The main motivation for my nomination by the German Society of Geography is to ensure the smooth co-ordination and co-operation of the IGC Cologne 2012 organisational committee with the IGU Executive Committee between 2008 and 2012. Thus my objectives for the potential mandate are clear: I will do my very best to act in a way that will enable both sides to make IGC 2012 a success, not only from a purely organisational point of view, but also regarding the conceptual and topical thrusts that will be considered crucial by all parties involved.
During the IGC Glasgow 2004 General Assembly, my Cologne colleague Frauke Kraas, now chairing the IGC Cologne 2012 Organisational Committee, and myself outlined crucial specifics for a ‘down-to-earth’ IGC Cologne 2012, such as cost-efficiency, a special focus on young geographers from Africa, South America and Asia as well as dedicated efforts to explain recently emerging spatialities in Europe, to mention just a few issues. However, much detailed interactive work remains to be done during the next couple of years, and new challenges relating to specific facets of the future organisation will most certainly emerge. I am very confident that the views of both the EC and the Cologne organisational committee can be harmonized by an interaction that will doubtless be both efficient and trusting.
This said, I would like to emphasize that I fully support the mission statements and statutes of the IGU, and that it would be my pleasure to contribute actively to other tasks, both general and specific, that the EC may wish to assign to me during a potential mandate.
Professor Aharon Kellerman, University of [email protected]
Nominated by Israel
Aharon Kellerman was born in 1945 in Haifa, Israel. He completed his Bachelor’s degree studies in Geography and Jewish History at the University of Haifa, in 1969. In 1971, he received a High School Teaching Certificate. He then went on to complete his Master’s degree in Geography, with honors, at the Hebrew University in 1972. In 1976, he completed his Doctoral degree, also in Geography, at Boston University in the US.
Prof. Kellerman has advanced from teaching assistant to full professor at the University of Haifa, Israel. In the past, Prof. Kellerman has held an assortment of visiting and affiliate academic positions: Oxford University, UK; Bar-Ilan University, Israel (16 years); University of Maryland, College Park, US (six times); Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; University of Miami, US; and Boston University, US. He served as Vice President of Administration at the
University of Haifa (1995-2004), focusing on the initiation and implementation of large-scale projects, e.g. quality assurance (ISO9000) and information systems (ERP/SAP). Later on he served as Manager of College Development, Academic College for Israel (under construction)
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(2005-2007). He is currently Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Haifa, and President, Safed College, Israel.
Prof. Kellerman has had much committee and administrative experience throughout the years, including his chairing of the Department of Geography at the University of Haifa, chairing its M.A. and Doctoral Committees, as well as the Joint Research Committee of the University of Haifa and the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology). In addition, he has been involved in many professional organizations, including being the President, Vice President and Council Member of the Israeli Geographical Association. He has gained extensive domestic and international review and editorial experience, in his service for journals, books and granting agencies. He chaired the International Review Committee for the Department of Geography, Ben-Gurion University (2000).
During 2000-2008 he has served as chair of the Commission on the Geography of the Information Society of the International Geographical Union (IGU), which he founded, following his service as member and vice-chair for the IGU Commission on Telecommunications and Geography (1984-2000). He further serves as chair of the Israeli National Geography Commission, which currently organizes the IGU 2010 Regional Meeting. In recent years he has been member of the steering committee of the IGU Cultures, Civilizations, and Human Development (CCHD) project, and is a member of its management team, side by side with being a member of the executive committee of the IGU Mediterranean Renaissance Project (MRP).
His list of publications includes five books; five monographs; over 60 refereed articles; 40 book chapters; proceedings; book reviews, etc. He has had an extensive involvement in professional meetings, with over 90 paper presentations in both domestic and international conferences, and has gained a wide dissertation and thesis supervision record. In addition, he has been involved in domestic and international consulting activities. His work has earned him many awards and grants during his career, such as those from the Fullbright Foundation; the Association of American Geographers (AAG); the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture; the Ben-Shemesh Award (Jewish National Found); and those of the Moshkovitz Foundation and the Burda Foundation (twice).
Priorities for the IGU. In my view, the IGU has two major potential spheres of activity: first, the worldwide geographical community, and, second, the global academic community at large, as well as world public opinion and affairs. Traditionally, the IGU has accentuated the first, and more internal, sphere of activity, but more recently it has moved also into the second, wider and more external, one, and I think that this trend should continue to develop.
I believe that IGU activity within the global geographical community has been stabilized over the years through regional or world meetings every two years respectively, and through continuous work by some 34 specialty commissions. I would like to see these activities complemented by the following directions:
1. New fields: Continued encouragement of new specialties in order to assure a healthy expansion of the field into new areas of geographical inquiry.
2. Geography teachers: Assistance to be provided to geography teachers at large and to those in developing countries in particular, maybe using communications media recently becoming widely available, notably SMS.
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3. Publications exposure: Exploration of possibilities for the enhancement of international dissemination of academic geographical knowledge, notably by facilitations of mutual exposures of publications in English and French.
4. IGU website: This website should provide extensive links to the widest variety of geography websites and resources, so that it will turn into a major working tool for geographers worldwide.
5. IGU Communications with individual geographers: Executive Committee minutes should be distributed to IGU Commission chairs, and through their mailing lists to geographers worldwide, in order to foster bonds between individual geographers and their representative world organization in a globalizing world.
At the wider global sphere, I think that IGU should present a visible prominence. This objective could be achieved, for instance, through the following actions:
1. Interdisciplinary projects: Such projects should be of general public value accentuating timely global concerns, such as the IGU Cultures, Civilizations, and Human Development (CCHD) project, initiated by the late IGU President Adalberto Vallega. Another such project should focus on the environment and sustainable development. Alternatively, the IGU should be involved, as such, in already existing global projects.
2. Geographical expertise: This should be made available to global media and decision making through the development of lists of geography experts in various fields and specialties, who will be available to the media for geographical interpretations of news and world events, as well as to decision makers for consulting and study.
Professor Giuliano Bellezza, University of [email protected]
Nominated by Italy
I have been Teacher of Geography at the Faculty of Humanities in the University of Rome “La Sapienza” from 1964 through 1972, than changed to Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Bari until 1976; again in Roma until 1994, and after as Full Professor in the Faculty of Preservation of Cultural Heritage of the University of Tuscia (Viterbo). Here I have been Head of the Department for the Study and Valuing of Historical and Artistic Heritage, since 2003.
I was a member of the Commission which drew up the proposals for the reform of Italian secondary school curricula (1988-1991), and organiser of countless Refresher Courses for the various Ministries of Public Education, of University; of Scientific and Technological Research, as well as for the Italian Association of Geography Teachers (AIIG), and the Italian Geographical Society. From 1990 to 1994 I collaborated with UNICEF’s Multidisciplinary Courses on Development Education at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”; from 1994 to 2001 I was responsible for organising these courses at the University
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of Tuscia. I have been teaching in courses for postgraduate studies in several Italian Universities. I have undertaken studies and research in English, American, French and West Indian Universities, also giving lectures and holding seminars.
In 1978 I was the first Secretary of the Association of Italian Geographers. From 1982 to 1988 I was a member of the Working Group on Resource Management in Drylands of the IGU, carrying out study visits and field works in Egypt, India and Australia (where I presented a paper in the 1988 IGU International Congress). In 1999 I published “Geografia e Beni Culturali” (Geography and Cultural Heritage) (ed. FrancoAngeli, Milan), and since the following year became a member of the Commission on the Cultural Approach in Geography, presenting papers at IGU Congress in Seoul and Regional Conference in Durban.
In 2003 I was appointed Director of the Home of Geography, the permanent seat of the International Geographical Union, and ever since I followed participating, even as such, in several international Meetings, presenting papers in Philadelphia, Roma, Cairo, Hyderabad, and Taipei. Since 2005, following the demand of the IGU EC, started producing and disseminating the quarterly IGU-Home e-newsletter.
In 1986 I was a member of the archaeological mission to Ebla (Syria), led by Paolo Matthiae, and in 2005 and 2006 with the Department I was chairing in the University of Tuscia I was involved in a mission in the Gulf of Mandalya (Turkey), producing a report on the environment of a paleochristian church on the small island of Küçüc Tavsan Adasi and of the region from were the stone and marble materials were imported. Now, still with the my Department, I am working in Cappadocia, once again in the reconstruction of paleo-environment, this time of the medieval Christian rock churches.
Since 1999, heading a group of undergraduates, final-year students and Ph.D. students, I have been creating a Geographic Information System on the distribution of cultural and environmental heritage in southern Tuscia. Since 2005 I am a member of the Committee for the Celebration of Christopher Columbus.
Priorities for the IGU. Since the IGU Congress of 2000 in Seoul I began giving co-operation to the IGU Executive Committee (EC), and after my appointment as Director of the Home of Geography I participated to nearly all of the EC Meetings. This gave me a good knowledge of the working of the organisation, and some ideas in order to improve our action. One of the main goals should be the diffusion of the work of the Geographers: to better say, the common people should know the practical potential importance of our research. Territorial planning or environmental impact assesses are but two of the many initiatives taken all over the world by research groups including no geographers: and the results are all but brilliant. On the other hand, the results of our research are often used by other specialists (architects, engineers, economists, geologists, sociologists …). It is time to take a strong action in this direction in order to receive assignments from entities like UN Agencies, World Bank, IMF so on. Let us see how the EC can help, proposing to these bodies big themes of practical research on environment, real sovereignty of small States, unequal exchange, human rights in the minorities and so forth.
First of all, we must improve the efficiency of our own organisation, where we find the EC, the National Committees (NC) and the Special Committees (SP). The last are only two, Ocean 21 and World Map on the State of the Environment: very interesting issues, but what is being done? The second one’s director Nikita Glazovsky, died in 2005: did something happened ever after?
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About the NCs, they are the base of IGU, which lives on their contribution. Just a minority fulfil this duty, as many Countries simply can’t afford expenses. But in the HofG I receive back many of the IGU-Home e-newsletter which I am composing and sending, because the address they gave to the IGU Secretariat doesn’t exist. Possible explanation: I have been told that some local NC’s Chair is appointed by the government for political reasons, to non-geographers. Put order in the NC situation should be one of the main tasks of the Tunis Congress 2008: IGU shouldn’t honour as member any useless entity.
Then there are the Commissions and Task Forces, working on a better standard. In November 2005 I participated in the Meetings of two commissions in Taiwan, and I asked the Chairs to help me strengthening a bottom-up way of information. Great success: I received reports on their meetings on November 12th, and 5 days all has been diffused with the newsletter #10. Diffusing the results obtained by the geographical research: this is the best way to stop the irritating and interrogative expression on the face of people asking “what is your profession”, when we answer “I am a geographer”.
If elected I’ll try to fulfil whatever the EC will ask me; if I were to choose, I will try to pursue and help the efficiency improvement of all of the IGU branches.
Professor Yukio Himiyama, Hokkaido University of [email protected]
Nominated by Japan
Professor Himiyama was born in 1949 in Japan. He received his Master’s degrees in Physics at the University of California at Los Angeles, USA, and at Tohoku University, Japan, and his Ph.D. in Geography at King’s College London, UK. He joined Hokkaido University of Education in 1980 as a Lecturer in Geography, becoming an Associate Professor in 1983, and then Professor of Geography in 1989. He has been deeply involved in lifelong learning and community planning as well as geography education in the
university, holding directorial posts successively, and is currently acting as special adviser to the president of the university. The annual Children’s Environmental Map Contest, which he initiated with his ex-students and others in 1991, has been developing as the most influential and the only international map contest in Japan.
He has written more than a hundred and fifty papers and books on geography, land-use change, environmental sciences and education. He has been an editor of Land Use Policy since its birth in 1984, and has contributed to the journal’s evolution in the globalizing world. His strong commitment to global environmental issues may be evidenced by his role as the editor of “Sustainable Development Review: Japan” of Encyclopedia of Life-support Systems (UNESCO-EOLSS), which covers over twenty major environmental themes in detail.
His achievements in construction of historical land-use database of Japan based on thousands of old and new topographic maps, and in publication of the Atlas – Environmental
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Changes in Modern Japan in the early 1990s provided him with academic bases of initiating and chairing IGU-LUCC (IGU Study Group/Commission on Land Use/Cover Change). The eight years’ chairmanship of IGU-LUCC offered him a great opportunity to work together with world geographers and environmental scientists, resulting in a number of successful meetings, publications, and projects on land use/cover changes.
Professor Himiyama has also been very active in the Science Council of Japan for over a decade as secretary general or a member of a number of committees, such as Geoscience, Earth-Human Sphere Science, Human Geography, Teachers’ Scientific Skill, IYPE, IHDP and IGU, and has contributed to several SCJ proposals to the Government, public lectures and science cafes. With his firm background in both physical and human sciences, he is also playing a key role in organizing human geographers and physical geographers in the Council.
Priorities for IGU : The people in the world are divided in various ways. There are gaps between the haves and have-nots, misunderstanding between different regions or cultures, and barriers between social and natural scientists. If the world is to overcome its crucial problems such as global environmental problems, coordination and cooperation of the people are of particular importance. Geographers are supposed to be well prepared to tackle the global problems by overcoming these gaps, and IGU has in fact been making such efforts, if not always successfully. The world and the global environment are changing very rapidly, and the roles geographers are expected to play are ever increasing. I believe that IGU assumes new and heavy duty to meet these expectations of the society. Therefore, if elected as a Vice President of IGU, I will do my best to pursue the following:
1. To strengthen geographers’ involvement in global issues, particularly global environmental problems. Geographers can, and should, do much more in tackling various global environmental problems, with their global-local, multi-disciplinary, spatial and regional views. The IGU Executive Committee can take active roles in initiating or promoting relevant projects, with recognition of extreme urgency of the problems.
2. To promote cooperation of geography with the other disciplines. IYPE (UN International Year of Planet Earth) is a good opportunity for geographers to cooperate with other earth-scientific communities with a common goal, namely “Earth Sciences for Society”.
3. To realize the ideal of “Geography for Society” at local, national, regional, and global levels. Outreach activities are becoming increasingly important throughout the world, and IGU should put higher priority on it. Much can be learned from the experiences of IYPE.
4. To help national and regional efforts to promote geography and geography education. One way of realizing it will be to increase the number of regional conferences and thematic meetings which IGU sponsors, so that more countries are given a chance. It also helps geographers to visit and see the countries/regions which otherwise they may not have a chance to visit.
5. To make IGU meetings more open and accessible to all who wish to attend. International Geographical Congresses and Regional Conferences are often too expensive to attend for the majority of geographers in developing countries and senior and younger geographers. This situation has to be changed by all means.
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Professor Irasema Alcántara Ayala, National Autonomous University of [email protected]
Nominated by Mexico
From the time when I started my professional life at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)--my alma mater--after coming back from abroad, I have had the pleasure to participate in some activities of the International Geographical Union. First of all, from 2002 to 2005, I had the special duty of representing IGU in the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI), an NGO that works as a mechanism for the delivery of scientific and technical knowledge to local government officials, policymakers, and all those involved in disaster management. Likewise, since the Glasgow Conference, I have been involved with the Megacities Taskforce.
Happily in April 2007, I had the privilege to represent IGU during the conference “Global Scientific Challenges: Perspectives from Young Scientists”, as part of the activities organised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the International Council for Science (ICSU). The main goal of the conference was to have young scientists discussing and addressing some of the most important scientific challenges within a multidisciplinary and international atmosphere. The latter experience was fascinating given the fact that in the discussions, it was clear that among such a vast quantity of scientific fields, geography was indeed a key in addressing, understanding and solving the most significant issues of the globe. After a couple of days of work in that forum, I was chosen to represent Latin America in a final interview that really made me proud as I was waving the geography flag.
More recently, I gladly accepted the invitation of acting as the IGU theme leader of the “International Year of Planet Earth” (IYPE) related to the topic of Deep Earth: from crust to core”.
Priorities for the IGU. Perceptibly, at this moment, I cannot offer as most of my senior colleagues, a lifetime erudition to IGU, although I sincerely hope for a relentless feedback from other scholars and students during my entire life. Nonetheless, from my petite experience, I strongly believe that some of the new routes to be drawn for the geography of the XXI Century’s need to be delineated by young geographers. Therefore, the main objective of my candidature, would be to work in the integration of the Young Geographers Network of IGU in order to develop national-regional and international cross-cutting collaboration research projects. Such projects would consider significant issues that would be established by the priorities of the working groups. Among those topics, given its geographical nature, disaster prevention and management would be a main concern.
Pertaining to the last point, undoubtedly the number of disasters and people affected by them have increased considerably in the last decades, in both developing and developed countries. Examples such as the aftermath derived from the Tsunami of Southeast Asia in 2004, and hurricane Katrina a year later in New Orleans, illustrate precisely the complexity of the interactions among all elements that determine risk. Risk results from coupling the
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potential impact of a natural hazard with the vulnerability of the exposed community. Geographers can indeed contribute to a major extent to the understanding of the spatial-temporal dimensions of such complexity, as specifically the impact of disasters calls the attention of scientists -from both social and “pure” sciences- towards undertaking a closer look at the disaster construction process, and a better comprehension of the duties and rights of all concerned actors. As a result of the lack of simplicity of disasters, development and implementation of prevention strategies, in addition to risk management, would be only achieved by getting involved into an holistic approach reinforced above all, with solid and down-to-earth actions to reduce vulnerability; the latter being indeed the challenge of the present, derived from the lessons of the past, in light of the wisdom of the future. All of it is an endeavour and commitment that can and must be undertaken by our IGU community.
Besides all the successful activities carried out hitherto by IGU members, definitely the challenge at the threshold of the new millennium requires a global action not only among geographers, but surrounded by Earth scientists and experts from other disciplines to work together building a safe world.
Finally, in joint effort with all the EC-IGU members, I would be delighted to actively participate in the establishment and fulfilment of the strategic goals for the period 2008-2012, which with no hesitation must be based on an spherical communication flow among the four hemispheres.
Professor Jef Vandenberghe, Free University of [email protected]
Nominated by Netherlands
Academic titles: -lic. (physical) geography and geology -dr. in sciences (physical geography)
Functions: -docent at the Instituut voor
Aardwetenschappen of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (until1976)
-senior lecturer, associate professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 1976; full professor in 'Quaternary geology and Geomorphology' since 1996.
Management positions: Secretary of the Department of Hydrogeology and Quaternary Geology Head of the Department Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology; Head of the Department Palaeoclimatology and Geomorphology; Board member of the research school ICG; Vice-dean and member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences.
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Research activity. The Department of Palaeoclimatology and Geomorphology focuses on the research and teaching of paleoclimatology, and marine and fluvial system dynamics. Vandenberghe is teaching courses in 'geomorphology' and 'earth and economic sciences'. His expertise for research is in the field of palaeoclimatological reconstructions, periglacial environments and loess studies. His research extended over many regions in west and east Europe, as well as in Surinam, China and Indonesia. He supervised a large number of undergraduate and some 30 PhD students. He published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and 12 special issues of international journals. He has been (is) member of the editorial board of 6 international journals. He has been member of the advisory nomination committee for several professorships abroad and member of review committees for scientific quality. He has been full member of several INQUA Commissions and coordinator of the IGBP-PAGES PEP III group on Mid-Latitudes. He is now chairman of the international organization FLAG (Fluvial Archives Group).
Important to mention is that he was chairman of the IGU-Commission 'Climatic changes and periglacial environments', and is (was) full member of the IGU-Commissions on 'Cold region environments' and (formerly) 'Frost action environments'. He is also official liaison officer between IGU and IPA (international Permafrost Association).
Several projects were supervised by him in the framework of the EU, the ESF, and bilateral Academy and National Science Foundation co-operation programmes between The Netherlands and China, and the former Soviet Union.
Prof. Vandenberghe is guest professor for the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Earth Environment in Xian (China) and visiting professor at the Nanjing University (China), and member of the German ‘Akademia der Wissenschaften’ (Leopoldina).Excellent disciplinary knowledge, established during the past decades, has a narrow scope and lacks the capacity to solve multi-faceted problems. Therefore, it should be assembled in transdisciplinary frameworks where scientific excellence can meet societal and environmental needs, economic potentials, and political decision making. My contribution in the progressing development of geography within IGU will be in crossing disciplinary limits and opening perspectives for embedding socio-cultural and physical geographical research in such frameworks.
What are the incentives for such a broad orientation and what are the barriers? Geographical environments are heterogeneous, and have different internal dynamics. Therefore the individual physical processes, institutional management and societal impact are environment specific. Sustainable living in specific geographical environments needs adequate scientific knowledge of the processes that (inter-)act in them. But knowledge of the physical processes has to be incorporated in its economic infrastructure, and has to be associated with new perceptions in socio-cultural institutions and management policy. However, intertwining between natural dynamics and human activities within a geographical environment is non linear and not systematically structured. Integrating this diversity and complexity is a challenging job for which geographers are best equipped.
I will promote the development of initiatives that develop such interactions. Organisation of transdisciplinary operations are by definition complex, risk full and poorly structured, while crossing of traditional disciplinary borders is appealing and challenging. Therefore, the development of design and set-up of such novel forms of scientific co-operation need the inspiration, stimulation and support from a large, interested organization like IGU. In
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my opinion, IGU must help to create networks, submit proposals at the international scene, and initiate joint publications both in research and popular magazines.
The practical realization of this theoretical consideration is illustrated for two geographical environments. First, the desert margin is a particular landscape where both climatic changes and economic (agricultural) exploitation may disturb subtle geomorphological and hydrological equilibriums. Potential risks for soil erosion, river flooding, desertification and ecological degradation regard directly society and geo- and ecodiversity. They are addressed by an active IGU Commission (COMLAND). Second, the implications of both human actions and natural climate changes on physical properties, natural resources (including energy supply) and living conditions of specific environments are highly relevant. Such natural or human induced changes may concern, coastal defense, floodplain occupation, permafrost degradation, etc. A few IGU Commissions touch(ed) such interrelationships.
What is my background and expertise in this respect? After graduation in geography and geomorphology I am now professor in Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology. I initiated recently a new educational programme 'Earth and Economics' at my university to create the opportunity for students to become experts in a specific discipline (economy, earth science), but with a basic knowledge and fully aware of the potentials of the 'other geographical discipline(s)'. It is a new geography, not anymore in the tradition of the geographer 'who knows something from everything', but an 'integral geography' where process integration is becoming a science. In my opinion IGU could develop in a comparable way.
Professor Michael O. Filani, University of [email protected]
Nominated by Nigeria and USA
M. Filani has served on the Faculty of the University of Ibadan for thirty-five years including terms as Chairman Consultancy Services Unit, Faculty of the Social Sciences (1981 – 1984), Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences (1985 – 1987), Head, Department of Geography (1990 – 1993), Member, University Governing Council (1991 – 1995), and Deputy Vice – Chancellor (Administration) (1993 -1995).
Filani has been a visiting Professor or scholar at the University of Iowa, USA; University of Ado – Ekiti, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago - Iwoye, and Tai Solarin University of Education, all in Nigeria.
Filani has been very active in the Nigerian Geographical Association in which he was President (1997 – 1998), the Social Science Academy of Nigeria where he was also President (2001 – 2003) and at the International Level as Member, Executive
Committee of the International Social Science Council (2002 – 2006).
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Filani has served in various capacities for the Nigerian Government as consultant on transport development and policy matters and regional planning, and other national parastatals and international organizations such as the Organization for African Unity (OAU now AU), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UNHABITAT, UNDP and Cities Alliance. He served as a Member of the Study Group on Telecommunications of IGU (1987 - 1996). He is currently the President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Nigerian Section.
Filani has written and published more than 85 papers and books on economic geography, transport and regional development.
Priorities for IGU. It would be a great honour and privilege for me to be elected as a Vice – President of the IGU. If elected, I will do my very best to carry out all the duties and responsibilities assigned to me by working effectively in cooperation with the Union’s Commissions and Task Forces. I will utilize the experience gained from serving in various positions at the University of Ibadan and in the national and international organizations and also the Nigerian Geographical Association to:
1. contribute effectively and in various ways to the workings of the IGU Commissions and Task Forces;
2. find ways to promote and coordinate the activities of regional geographical associations most especially in developing countries in general and Africa in particular;
3. motivate and mobilize geographers in conjunction with other social scientists to devise ways of making developing countries understand better the concepts of globalization and sustainable development, their usefulness and attendant problems; and
4. develop a feasible agenda for sustainability of geography as a discipline in African countries.
I am convinced that, using my experience, skills and commitmentto the discipline of geography in particular and Social Sciences in general, will benefit the International Geographical Union and the world at large.
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Professor Vladimir Kolossov, Russian Academy of [email protected]
Nominated by Russia
Vladimir Kolosov - Professor, PhD 1979 Moscow State University, habilitation 1992 (Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1993 he created the Centre of Geopolitical Studies at the Institute of Geography and is its Head. He is also Professor at the Moscow Institute of International Relations of Russian Foreign Ministry.
His research interests lie in the fields of political geography and geopolitics, social geography, world cities and large metropolitan areas. He is the author, editor or co-editor of 14 books and has more than other 350 publications, including the most popular textbook on political geography in Russia (two editions, 2001 and 2005) and more than 100 papers in English and French. Among his main works are: Political Geography: Problems and Methods (Leningrad, 1988), The Spring-89: The Geography and the Anatomy of Parliamentary elections (Moscow, 1990, with Nikolai Petrov and Leonid Smirnyagin), L’Atlas de la Russie et des pays proches (Paris, 1995, with Roger Brunet and Denis Eckert), The Geopolitical Situation of Russia: Representations and Reality (Moscow, 2000; an Italian version: Turin, 2001), The World in the Eyes of Russian Citizens: Myths and Foreign Policy (Moscow, 2003), La Russie: espaces, villes, réseaux (Paris, 2007), etc. He was a guest editor of two special issues of Eurasian Geography and Economy (with John O’Loughlin and Gerard Toal). Vladimir Kolossov was the principal investigator or headed the Russian part of 24 research projects supported by INTAS (EU), CNRS (France), National Science Foundation (USA), Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli (Italy), Open Society Institute and different Russian foundations. A number of scholars in Russia and France prepared their PhD thesis and passed their habilitation under his tutorship. A personal entry on Vladimir Kolossov is included in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Elsevier: Oxford etc., 2008) among 150 human geographers of all times and all over the world. He received three times the stipend of the President of Russian Federation.
Vladimir Kolossov acquired an extensive experience of teaching and research at foreign universities and laboratories. He got the scholarship of Brussels Capital Region (1991) and International Boundaries Research Unit (University of Durham, UK, 1992), the Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1997). In 1999-2003 Vladimir Kolossov was nominated as Professor at the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail (France). He was also visiting professor in the universities of Paris-Sorbonne IV, Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Bordeaux and Tampere, and lectured in Russian, Ukrainian, Dutch, British, and American universities. He is on the editorial boards of Political Geography, Geopolitics, BelGéo, Eurasian Geography and Economy, Annales géographiques.
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Since 1991 he is involved in IGU activities – first as a member and in 1996-2004 – as Chair of the Commission on Political Geography. In this period the commission was one of the most active in IGU, met three times a year. Each conference resulted in the publication of a monograph and/or a special issue of an international journal. Vladimir Kolossov organized in Russia three conferences of the Commission and participated in the organization of several conferences abroad, and in the editing of their proceedings. In October 2006 he was elected Vice-President of the International Geographical Union. As a member of IGU Executive, he has been the liaison with the programme “Cultures and Civilisations for Human development” initiated by IGU President Adalberto Vallega and tried to establish its contacts with UNESCO, made a presentation on behalf of IGU at a conference of its international experts. In 2008 he organized a meeting of the Executive in Moscow, where they discussed in particular the perspectives of IGU Congresses and regional conferences. Vladimir Kolossov initiated the invitation of the 33d IGC to Russia and was the main author of this application. He is Deputy Chair of IGU Regional Network of New Independent States and IGU liaison with this network.
Professeur Vladimir Kolossov est né en octobre 1953 à Moscou. Il a passé son doctorat en géographie en 1979 à l’Université d’Etat de Moscou et son habilitation en 1992 à l’Institut de Géographie de l’Académie des Sciences de Russie. En 1993 il a créé et dirige jusqu’à maintenant le Centre d’études géopolitiques de l’Institut de Géographie. Il est professeur à l’Institut de Relations Internationales du ministère des affaires étrangères de Russie à Moscou.
Ses intérêts scientifiques concernent la géographie politique et la géopolitique, la géographie sociale, les villes mondiales et les grandes metropoles régionales. Il est auteur, directeur ou co-directeur de 14 livres et a publié plus de 350 ouvrages, y compris le manuel de géographie politique le plus populaire en Russie (deux éditions, 2001 et 2005) et plus d’une centaine d’articles en anglais et en français. Entre ses livres on peut noter La géographie politique: problèmes et méthodes (Léningrad, 1988), Printemps-89: la géographie et l’anatomie des élections parlementaires (Moscou, 1990, avec Nikolai Petrov et Leonid Smirniagin), L’Atlas de la Russie et des pays proches (Paris, 1995, avec Roger Brunet et Denis Eckert), La situation géopolitique de la Russie: représentations et réalité (Moscou, 2000; une version italienne - Turin, 2001), Le monde dans les yeux des citoyens russes: les myths et la politique étrangère (Moscou, 2003), La Russie: espaces, villes, réseaux (Paris, 2007), etc. Il a coordonné avec John O’Loughlin et Gerard Toal deux numéros spéciaux de la revue Eurasian Geography and Economy, dirigé ou était directeur de la partie russe de 24 projets de recherches soutenus par l’INTAS (UE), le CNRS (France), National Science Foundation (USA), Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli (Italy), Open Society Institute et des différentes fondations russes. Un nombre de chercheurs russes et français ont fait leurs thèses ou passé leur habilitation sous la direction de Vladimir Kolossov. Un article personnel lui est consacré dans L’Encyclopédie Internationale de la géographie humaine (Elsevier: Oxford etc., 2008) entre 150 géographes humains de tous les pays et toutes les périodes. Il a reçu trois fois la bourse du Président de la Fédération de Russe.
Vladimir Kolossov a acquis une grande expérience d’enseignement et de recherches aux universités et laboratoires étrangers. Il a reçu la bourse de la Région Capitale de Bruxelles (1991), de l’Université de Durham, International Boundaries Research Unit (Royaume Uni, 1992) et la bourse de Fulbright à l’Université de Colorado à Boulder (1997). En 1999-2003 Vladimir Kolossov a été nommé professeur à l’Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail. Il a aussi été
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professeur invité aux universités de Paris-Sorbonne IV, de Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, de Bordeaux-III et de Tampere et a fait cours aux unversités russes, ukrainiennes, hollandaises, britanniques et américaines. Il est membre des comités de rédaction de Political Geography, Geopolitics, BelGéo, Eurasian Geography and Economy, Annales géographiques.
Il participe aux activités de l’UGI depuis 1991 – d’abord en tant que membre et en 1996-2004 comme président de la Commission de géographie politique. Pendant cette période la commission était une des plus actives de l’UGI et se réunissait trois fois par an. Chaque colloque aboutissait à la publication d’un livre ou d’un numéro spécial d’une revue internationale. Vladimir Kolossov a organisé en Russie trois colloques et participé à l’organisation d’autres colloques de cette commission à l’étranger et à la publication de leurs actes. En octobre 2006 il a été élu vice-président de l’Union Géographique Internationale. En tant que membre de son Comité Exécutif il assurait les liaisons avec le programme “Cultures et civilisations pour le développement humain” initié par le Président de l’UGI Adalberto Vallega et a essayé d’établir les contacts avec l’UNESCO. Il a intervenu au nom de l’UGI à un colloque des ses experts internationaux. En 2008 il a organisé à Moscou une reunion du Comité Exécutif consacrée notamment à une discussion sur les perspectives des Congrès et des colloques régionaux de l’UGI. Vladimir Kolossov a initié l’invitation de 33me Congrès International de Géographie en Russie et a été l’auteur principal des documents respectifs. Il est president adjoint du Réseau régional des nouveaux pays indépendants de l’UGI et y représente son Comité Exécutif.
Priorities for the IGU. I have served as IGU Vice-President for only a part of the term (since November 2006) and would like to continue the work I began about two years ago.
First, I would like to increase and redesign IGU contacts with international organizations and social sciences unions – in particular, UNESCO, International Regional Studies Association, etc. Our objective is to highlight the euristic potential and to improve visibility of geography. The initiative “Cultures and Civilizations for Human Development” launched by IGU President (2004-2006) Adalberto Vallega should become a useful tool of the renovation and the creation of international networks. It can be transformed in a wide programme including a range of interdisciplinary research projects. They are divided into six large themes: 1) relation between global and local cultures; 2) cultures of nature; 3) world cultural images and geopolitical imagi-nations; 4) civilizations as human heritage; 5) practice of cultural diversity and 6) globalizing cultures. I proposed and try to develop a number of comparative international projects which could interest several IGU Commissions and Task Forces. In particular, they concern the role of national media in the shaping of national world geopolitical visions and representations on foreign counties. National media are a powerful force creating mass representations on the outer world and they are often responsible for the persistence of negative stereotypes, social myths and mistrust among peoples. It would be also extremely important to stimulate and to broaden comparative studies of the role of geographical education in the creation of social representations on foreign countries and global problems, the analysis of school textbooks, etc. There is a project of a comparative Atlas of Local Cultures and Heritage: its objective is to identify the geographical areas suitable for preservation of the living local cultures and improve the methods, instruments and forms for heritage preservation at the local, regional and international levels, etc. Such projects could enhance integration between different branches of geography, earth and social sciences.
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Second, as Deputy-Chair of IGU Regional Network of New Independent States (NIS) I will continue to improve their involvement in IGU activities. Geographers from nine NIS cooperate in this Network but only Russia and Ukraine were IGU members by late 2007. The newly established (2007) Network can contribute to further integration of NIS’ scholars into the international geographical community.
Third, if the General Assembly accepts the proposal of our National Committee and selects Moscow as a venue of the 33th International Geographical Congress in 2016, I will work on its programme and on making it accessible to all interested geographers.
Having a certain experience of international cooperation, I hope that I will be able to fulfill these plans. Since the early 1990s, I am constantly involved in joint international projects supported by European and American foundations, and organized several international conferences. In 1996-2004 I had the honor to chair the IGU Commission on Political Geography. I know personally many leading scholars from NIS and other countries.
J’ai été élu vice-président de l’UGI en novembre 2006 – c’est-à-dire, seulement pour une partie du terme et voudrais continuer le travail que j’ai entamé il y a environ deux ans.
Premièrement, je voudrais renforcer et redéfinir les contacts de l’UGI avec les organisations internationales et les unions de sciences sociales – en particulier, l’UNESCO, l’Association internationale d’études régionales, etc. Notre objectif est de souligner le potential euristique de la géographie et de la faire plus visible. L’initiative “Cultures et civilisations pour le développement humain” lancée par le Président de l’UGI Adalberto Vallega en 2004-2006 doit devenir un instrument util pour la refondation et la création des réseaux internationaux. Elle peut se transformer en un vaste programme comprenant des projets de recherches interdisciplinaires. Ils se divisent en six grands sujets: 1) relations entre les cultures globales et locales; 2) cultures de la nature; 3) images culturelles, identités nationales et images géopolitiques; 4) civilisations comme un héritage de l’humanité; 5) pratique de la diversité culturelle et 6) les cultures de la mondialisation. J’ai proposé et essayerai de développer un nombre de projets comparatifs internationaux qui puissent intéresser les Commissions de l’UGI. En particulier, ils concernent le rôle des média dans la création des visions géopolitiques du monde. Les média sont une puissante force qui forme les représentations populaires sur le monde extérieur, et ils sont souvent responsables de la persistence des stéréotypes négatifs, des myths sociaux et du manque de confiance entre les peuples. Il serait très important d’approfondir des études comparatives du rôle de l’éducation géographique dans la création des représentations sur les pays étrangers, la politique et les problèmes mondiaux, une analyse des manuels scolaires, etc. Il existe un projet de l’Atlas comparatif des cultures locales et de l’héritage: son objectif est d’identifier les territoires, où les cultures locales vivantes doivent être préservées, et d’améliorer les méthodes, les instruments et les formes de la protection de l’héritage au niveau local, régional et international. Des projets pareils peuvent stimuler l’intégration entre les branches de la géographie, les sciences de la terre et les sciences sociales.
Deuxièmement, en tant que président-adjoint du Réseau régional des nouveaux états indépendents (NEI) je continuerai mes efforts pour les associer aux activités de l’UGI. Les géographes de neuf nouveaux pays indépendants coopèrent au sein de ce Réseau, mais seulement la Russie et l’Ukraine étaient membres de l’UGI à la fin de 2007. Ce Réseau récemment créé (2007) peux contribuer à l’intégration des géographes des NEI dans la communauté géographique internationale.
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Troisièmement, si l’Assamblée Générale accepte la proposition de notre Comité national d’organiser le 33me Congrès International de Géographie de 2016 à Moscou, je voudrais travailler sur son programme et le faire accessible à touts les géographes intéressés.
Ayant une certaine expérience de la coopération scientifique internationale, j’espère que je serai capable de réaliser ces plans. Depuis le début des années 1990 je suis constamment impliqué dans les projets internationaux soutenus par les fondations européennes et américaines et ai organisé plusieurs colloques internationaux. En 1996-2004 j’ai eu l’honneur de présider la Commission de géographie politique. Je connais personnellement plusieurs chercheurs de haut niveau dans les NEI et dans d’autres pays.
Professor Mohammad S. Makki, King Saud [email protected]
Nominated by Saudi Arabia
Biographical Notes: Professor Makki has completed his B.A. in Geography at King Saud University in 1971. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Urban Geography from Durham University, U.K. in 1976 and 1979 respectively. Prof. Makki served at King Saud University for many years, including terms as deputy chairman and chairman of the geography department (1982-1984; 1984-1994), director of the Research Center of the College of Arts (1995-1997), and Chairman of the Geographical Places names Unit (1999 till now). He held the post of Treasurer, Secretary General, Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Saudi Geographical Society. Professor Makki Chaired the Editorial Board of Research Paper, Research Studies, and the Arab Journal of GIS. He served as an
Editorial Member and Editorial Advisory Board at AWG, Al-Darah Magazine, Medina Research Center Magazine, and King Saud Magazine (Arts). He worked as expert advisor at the Ministry of Housing, Ministry of Interior, and the Supreme Council for Riyadh Development. He won several prizes and awards including King Abdul Aziz Award, First Grade (2000), and the prize of the Organization of Islamic Capitals and Cities (2007). Professor Makki has published more than 60 papers and books in Urban Geography, Population Geography, and Medina City Geography. He has also written several essays in journals and newspapers explaining modern geography to the public.
Priorities for the IGU: I feel that the establishment of the IGU is one of the outreaching products of recent history. Although the IGU was very successful in several aspects, one of which is developing interaction with world systems and organizations through geographer members in the IGU, I feel there is more to be done to participate equally in such interaction, especially with the developing world. During the 85 years of the IGU history the IGU international conferences were held only once in the Arab world, and the second one is coming in Tunisia in 2008, while it has assembled, for example, more than six times in Europe.
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However, the broad vision of my nomination, if I am elected for the job, will concentrate, in addition to what is required and decided by the IGU Executive Committee, on the following aspects:
1. To focus on changing inferior attitudes toward geography in developing world, and shedding more light on geography’s potential as a problem-solving science.
2. Putting the geographical and environmental problems of the Arab World in the context of the IGU international interest. These problems include desertification issues, water consumption, and environmental awareness to reach sustainable development, land use reservation in rural areas, population growth and immigration.
3. Encouraging the active committees of the task forces in the IGU to facilitate the involvement of non-English speakers to participate in their activities by, for example, making the whole exam or, at least, the question, in native languages of the participants, and keep the answers in English. I believe such step, will enhance the cooperation between nations and encourage more participation which is very beneficial to confirm and develop geographical thought and approaches throughout the whole world.
4. Encourage the study groups in the IGU to stick to their scientific goals and give more attention to diverse areas of the world, especially the Arab geographers, to participate in their projects. I believe that the engagement in the IGU activities, through these groups and task forces, will enhance self-confidence about the importance of geography as a field which can contribute positively in development of natural and human resources with no discrimination based on region, country, race or religion.
5. Encouraging Arab countries to be members of the IGU.6. Encouraging Arab geographers to be corresponding members of the IGU.7. Encouraging Arab countries to participate in activities which broaden the vision of the
young generation towards geography through for example, the geographic Olympiads. This participation should be regarded as an important step in the implementation of a strategy to optimize and enhance the visibility of Arab geography in the international arena.
8. Encouraging more involvement of female geographers, especially in the Arab World, in the wide spectrum of activities and organizations in the IGU.
I believe that intensifying work to achieve the scientific and social goals of the IGU will verify the fact the geography can lead to peaceful life, enhanced relations between societies, and contribute to the dialogue of civilizations.
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Professor Michael Meadows, University of Cape [email protected] by South Africa
Professor Michael Meadows is a fully bred South African, not withstanding that he was born in the United Kingdom in 1955. He has lived and worked in South Africa for the past 24 years. He acquired his tertiary education in the following fields and places: BSc (Honours) in Geography and Biological Sciences at the University of Sussex (1976), PhD in Physical Geography, University of Cambridge (1982). Academic experience is as follows: Lecturer: Liverpool John Moores University UK 1979-83; Lecturer, Rhodes University, South Africa 1983-86, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa 1986 to present. He is currently Head of the Department of Environmental & Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town (2001 onwards). Formerly President of the Society of South African Geographers (2003-2006) and
Editor of The South African Geographical Journal (1993-2006), Michael Meadows is currently President of the Southern African Society for Quaternary Research and is also a Fellow of the Society of South African Geographers and past member of the IGU National Committee for South Africa (1994-2006). He is formerly Honorary Secretary of the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau (2000-2004) and is a founder member of the Steering Committee for the IGU’s Commission on Land Degradation. Michael was Scientific Programme Secretary for the 2002 IGU Regional Congress held in Durban, South Africa. Publications produced include: approximately 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals as well as many book chapters, a monograph and several edited or co-edited editions of international journals. He regularly presents research findings, in the fields of late Quaternary environmental reconstruction and in human impact on environments including land degradation, at international conferences and was a Plenary Speaker at the IGU Regional Congress in Brisbane Australia in 2006.
Priorities for the IGU. Professor Meadows sees his potential role in the IGU Executive Committee as contributing to the objectives and outcomes of the Union through the promotion and encouragement of the existing fundamental goals and objectives of the IGU as prescribed in its charter, in particular in promoting Geography through study, research, knowledge and discourse, as manifested by its commissions and task forces. In particular Professor Meadows would seek to foster these goals in the African continent and further develop networks between African nations in the name of Geography. Although many Geographers in Africa are at a disadvantage with respect to their ability to access resources that enable them to participate fully in the activities of the IGU, Professor Meadows aims to use his communication skills and existing network of contacts to develop and extend the capacity of the continent’s Geographers in the context of the academic teaching, research and social responsibility roles of the discipline. He is especially keen to see Africa’s major social, economic, political and environmental problems gain a higher profile on the agenda of the various IGU instruments. Professor Meadows has research expertise in the field of human interactions with the
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environment, particularly as this relates to land degradation, and this is a critical problem in Africa that contributes to the continued marginalisation and vulnerability of a very substantial proportion of its population. Professor Meadows would aim to bring such issues into focus for relevant IGU Commissions and Task Forces and encourage them, where appropriate, to engage with geographical research problems related to poverty alleviation in Africa and in other parts of the developing world.
Professor Habib Dlala, University of [email protected]
Nominated by Tunisia
Habib Dlala has been teaching at the University of Tunis for more than 30 years where he was elected head of department (1993-1996) and dean for two consecutive terms (1999-2005). In 2005, he started a research unit on “Economic functions and urban changes” of which he is the director. On June 28th 2006, he took in charge the editorial board of the Tunisian Journal of Geography. He is president of the national committee in charge of reforming the study of geography in the Tunisian undergraduate studies and head of the national geography aggregation (French variation for Master) exam. He acts as president of the organizing committee for the 2008 IGU congress and president of its executive committee (2004-2005).
Habib Dlala earned a third cycle doctorate in 1976 from the University of Bordeaux III (France) and a state doctorate in 1986 from the University of Louis Pasteur – Strasbourg I (France). He has also taught at
other prestigious higher education institutions (Tunisian “Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs” and at the “Ecole Normale Supérieure”). His main research interest is in the fields of industrial geography, development and town planning.
Habib Dlala has published six books, edited four and published more than 40 articles in refereed journals. He has also edited the five first volumes of the Encyclopaedia of the Arab World Geography commissioned by ALECSO (The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization).
Habib Dlala has also taken part in the designing of the geography curricula and textbooks for the Tunisian primary and secondary education. He is also a town and country planning consultant with a number of specialised companies. He is member of the founding group of quality assurance in higher education and an auditor at the ministry of Higher Education, Scientific research and technology.
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Priorities for the IGU. Fully supported by the Tunisian geographers’ community, I present myself as a candidate for the IGU executive bureau. I do so believing in the permanent aims of the union, the same belief that motivated me to actively participate in Glasgow 2004 and make Tunis 2008 happen. Once elected, I will do my best, with your help to fulfil the following aims:
1. Broaden the IGU action specially in poorly represented areas by encouraging the following:
a. Promote the adhesion of geographers of the Mediterranean, Arab and African regions and favour their participation in different committees and task forces.
b. Advance the debate on promoting condition for sustainable development for the Mediterranean, Arab and African regions.
2. Deepen the IGU cooperation with different international organisations and associate the Union to different world debates such as global warming, technological risks and culture dialogue.
3. Strengthen the position of geography as a science and its contribution to knowledge and human welfare.
4. Diversify the discipline’s areas of expertise by helping national associations of geographers to actively take part in education reforms and planning policies
5. Value and strengthen different programs made to encourage women geographers, young geographers and geographers from developing countries to take part in international scientific networks.
6. Establish an online academic review that publishes scientific research and research on teaching methods.
Once elected, I will try my best to broaden and deepen the IGU scope and quality of action using the international network of Tunisian geographers. So if you vote for me, you vote for all other Tunisian geographers who will be glad to contribute to the union’s glow.
I sincerely hope that once elected and with you help, I can realise all of these objectives.
Bénéficiant de la confiance des géographes tunisiens, je me déclare candidat aux élections organisées par le Bureau Exécutif de l’UGI. Nul doute que ma candidature se justifie au départ par l’intérêt que je porte aux objectifs permanents qui guident l’action de l’Union et qui m’ont exhorté à participer activement, avant et après « Glasgow 2004 », à la concrétisation du Congrès de « Tunis 2008 ». Cette candidature s’inscrit donc dans le prolongement de cette action.
Dans ce cadre je m’engage à œuvrer à la réalisation des objectifs et suivants :1. L’élargissement du rayonnement de l’UGI dans le monde, particulièrement dans les
régions encore relativement peu représentées, en adoptant des stratégies appropriées et en mobilisant de nouveaux moyens. Il convient notamment de :- Promouvoir l’adhésion des géographes méditerranéens, africains et arabes à l’UGI et favoriser leur participation à ses activités scientifiques et à ses différentes structures (commissions, groupes de travail) ;
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- Souligner les conditions d’un co-développement durable, profitable à cet l’ensemble régional Méditerranée- Afrique- Monde Arabe et aux communautés locales qui le peuplent ;- Stimuler les relations interculturelles de façon à instaurer un dialogue de cultures rapprochant les peuples de la région ;
2. La consolidation des programmes de l’UGI pour une plus grande visibilité et une meilleure présence de l’Union sur la scène mondiale et ce en développant la coopération avec les organisations internationales et en impulsant la participation à l’organisation de grands débats planétaires sur des questions d’actualité (changement climatique, dialogue des cultures,…) ;
3. Le renforcement de la place de la géographie parmi les autres sciences et l’affirmation de sa contribution à la société d’aujourd’hui et au bien être de l’homme ;
4. L’élargissement du domaine de compétence et d’expertise de la discipline de manière à aider les associations nationales à participer à l’élaboration des réformes de l’enseignement et à la diffusion des programmes et appuyer les structures spécialisées à accomplir les tâches relatives à la planification territoriale et à l’évaluation universitaire (audit/accréditation) ;
5. La promotion de la place de la géographie dans la société et la définition de programmes d’action appropriés en faveur notamment des femmes géographes, des jeunes géographes et des géographes de pays pauvres ;
6. La valorisation de l'offre de réflexion des compétences nationales en identifiant et en diffusant les travaux des jeunes chercheurs et des chercheurs confirmés. Il est important que ces compétences intègrent les réseaux scientifiques internationaux en place pour prendre part aux débats scientifiques qui s’y déroulent ;
7. Le lancement d’une cyber-revue scientifique de haut niveau consacrée à la diffusion électronique des résultats de la recherche en géographie et ceux relatifs aux méthodes d’enseignement et d’opérer une mise en réseau des structures d’enseignement et de recherche à l’échelle régionale et internationale. Ces actions pourraient être lancées, au moindre coût et avec le concours des compétences locales, à partir de la Tunisie.
Plus généralement, mon action au sein de l'UGI s’appuiera sur les bonnes relations tissées par les géographes tunisiens à l'échelle régionale et internationale et mettra à profit la proximité géographique de la Tunisie par rapport aux pays méditerranéens, arabes et africains.
Nous espérerons mériter votre confiance pour contribuer, activement, et avec vous, à la réalisation de tous ces objectifs.
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