Quantitative Methods Research Group (QMRG) - Royal Geographical Society with IBG

Call for Papers – RGS-IBG Session on ‘The Spatial Dimensions of Health’

Dan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:48:33 +0000

Abstracts are invited for a session at the annual conference of the the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers in 2010 on the spatial dimensions of health. The session is jointly sponsored by the QMRG as well as the Health geography research group (HGRG) of the RGS. Details are as follows:

The Spatial Dimensions of Health

Session abstract

There is little doubt that geography and health are linked. Whether geography is considered in terms of the ‘geographies’ of individuals; communities and neighbourhoods; services and resources; or diseases- the linkage persists. In light of this, Gatrell and Elliot (2009) state ‘the subject of “health” is a rich source of material that bears study by the geographer’ (p.3). The importance of such study is highlighted by the steadfast presence of spatial disparities in health and healthcare nationally. The intention of this session is to bring together research on the spatial dimensions of health, for the purpose of highlighting ongoing and nascent challenges within the diverse spectrum of health and health geography. The session organisers invite proposals for papers that present empirical contributions within the spatial dimensions of health, ideally with focus on the UK. We welcome proposals that explore:

The spatial dimensions of health inequalities and health behaviours

Place, community and neighbourhood health and healthcare

Spatial methods for developing health statistics

Web 2.0 and health mapping

Reference

Gatrell, A. C. and Elliot, S. J. (2009) “Geographies of Health: An Introduction”, 2nd Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chicester

Keywords: Health, behaviour, inequality, quantitative, space.

Deadline for submitting abstracts is Monday 1st February 2010. Please send abstracts up to a maximum of 250 words and proposed titles (clearly stating name, institution, and contact details) to Daniel Lewis (d.lewis@ucl.ac.uk) and/or Catherine Jones (kate-emma.jones@ucl.ac.uk)

Details of other calls by the GHRG can be found here.

WUN e-seminar series: Dynamic Modeling in a GIS Environment

Alex — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:18:19 +0000

The QMRG are glad to be involved with another WUN online e-seminar series. This new series is titled “Dynamic Modeling in a GIS Environment“. Full details can be found in the following PDF. Information on access and using the online system (with details of the previous seminars) can be found on the WUN website. The speakers and topics for this forthcoming series include:

28th Oct
Ling Bian (Buffalo): A dynamic social network model for disease transmission.
Chair: Kirk Harland (Leeds)

4th Nov
Mark Birkin (Leeds): GENeSIS: Generative simulation for the spatial and social sciences.
Chair: Alison Heppenstall (Leeds)

11th Nov
Nick Mallenson (Leeds): Agent-based modelling of UK crime
Chair: Andrew Evans (Leeds)

18th Nov
Raja Sengupta (McGill): What’s so spatial about Agent-Based Models?
Chair: Steve Carver (Leeds)
25th Nov
Derek Karessenberg (Utrecht): Integrating spatio-temporal GIS data with spatio-temporal models.
Chair: Mark Birkin (Leeds)
2nd Dec
Alex Hagen-Zanker (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven): Validation and calibration of spatial simulation models. Chair: John Stilwell (Leeds)

QMRG Dissertation Prize Winner

Alex — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:06:18 +0000

Only a few more days to the RGS conference this year, so this is a timely announcement of the 2009 QMRG dissertation prize winner.

Many thanks for all the great entries and it was a pleasure for the committee to read such a wide ranging use of quantitative methods. The field this year was very strong indeed and all entrants should be commended, however, the entry submitted by the University of Oxford stood as being particularly innovative. Therefore, the prize this year is awarded to Amelia Hanna for the dissertation titled “Mega-Yardangs: A Quantitative Morphometric Study”. Well done Amelia and the QMRG committee wish you well for your future.

Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography (Fixed-term)

Alex — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:39:17 +0000

Department: Department of Geography, University of Sheffield

Ref No: R07432

Closing Date: 11th August, 2009

Salary: £36,532 – £43,622 per annum

Summary:
The appointee will cover teaching in quantitative areas of Human Geography,
pursue an independent research agenda, contribute to departmental
administration, and the expanding range of Masters teaching. The post-holder
will have experience in at least some of the areas of statistical techniques,
socio-economic spatial geography and political geography. Applications are
particularly invited from candidates whose research complements one or more of
the Department’s existing human geography research groups. Applicants should
have a first degree and, ideally, a PhD in Geography or a cognate discipline
(or equivalent experience), with experience of teaching, and conducting
research. This post is fixed term for 22 months, anticipated dates from 1
September 2009 to 30 June 2011.

Website for details: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/jobs/academic.html

QMRG Prize 2009

Alex — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:21:09 +0000

I am pleased to announce that the QMRG prize for the best dissertation in quantitative geography will again be awarded in 2009 and that nominations are now invited.

As in previous years, the prize is for the best dissertation in *any* area of quantitative geography, which include the application of existing techniques or the development of new ones in physical, human or
environmental geography. However, it is our expectation that the selected study will demonstrate a genuine and detailed engagement with quantitative methods by the student. Thus, for example, running a piece of software to harvest results, without demonstrating an understanding of model formulation, or interrogating the limitations of the model output, is insufficient.

Entries are limited to undergraduate students completing BSc / BA level dissertations in UK higher education institutions and must be nominated by a member of staff within those institutions. Each institution is limited to a single entry. Entries are judged by members of the QMRG committee who may, depending on the number of entries received, decide to award separate prizes for different fields of the discipline. There is a cash prize for the winner(s).

This year will operate differently from previous years in that a complete copy of the nominated dissertation should be sent directly to each of three judges without any indication of the mark the dissertation received. If you would like to nominate a dissertation, please contact myself in the first instance (a.singleton@ucl.ac.uk) and I will provide further information about where each copy should be sent.

The closing date for entries to be received by the judges is July 10th.

In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Leslie Curry

Alex — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:05:38 +0000

Thanks to Dave Unwin for writing this…
Les Curry, Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Toronto and recipient of the Canadian Association of Geographers’ Award for Scholarly Distinction in 1977, died on January 12, 2009, at his home in Annapolis, MD. He was 86. He was pre-deceased by his first wife, Jean Blick Curry, who died in 1981. Survivors include his wife of 18 years, Caryl Pines Curry of Annapolis; three children from his first marriage, William Curry of Oakville, Ontario, Claudia Curry of Port Hope, Ontario, and Ann Curry-Stevens of Portland, Ore.; two stepchildren, Eve Pines of Springfield, Ill., and Roger Pines of Chicago; and seven grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be held at the Faculty Club, University of Toronto, on Monday, April 20th 2009. If you would like to attend, please contact Andrew Malcolm at UTAGA@geog.utoronto.ca
Les Curry was born and raised in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. After a standard grammar-school education, at age 18 he volunteered for the Royal Navy, and joined the 14th destroyer flotilla (as a radar mechanic) based initially in Alexandria, Egypt. His ship joined convoys to supply Malta and then supported invasions in the Aegean and Italy. It was in Anzio that his ship had its bows blown off, requiring a return to Britain via Gibraltar. Next, he was in the Normandy invasion when the bombardment of special targets was the main activity. When the war ended, he was training as crew on a submarine destined for deployment to the Far East.
Les Curry graduated from Kings College at the University of Durham in 1949. Two years later, he received a master’s degree in geography from Johns Hopkins University while he was a Fulbright Scholar. He worked as an economist at the United Nations and then at Charles Warren Thornthwaite’s Laboratory of Climatology in Seabrook, N.J. He received his doctorate in geography from the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 1959 and taught at the University of Washington, the University of Maryland and Arizona State University before moving to the University of Toronto, where he spent 21 years before retiring in 1985. He then moved to Annapolis.
As a theoretician, Les Curry was a modeler, using stochastic analysis to delve deeply into processes, especially economic, that produce the patterns and flows of the world. One of his early papers showed that natural climatic change could occur as the result of random exchanges involving heat storage in the oceans. Another paper treated central places, again in terms of inventory management and stochastic processes. Author of the book The Random Spatial Economy and Its Evolution (1998), he was featured in Geographical Voices (2002), an anthology of autobiographical essays by 14 eminent geographers, edited by Peter Gould and Forrest Pitts.

In addition to the CAG Award for Scholarly Distinction, Les Curry’s honours included a Visiting Commonwealth Professorship in the U.S.; a Guggenheim Fellowship at Cambridge University; an inaugural Connaught Senior Fellowship in the Social Sciences; a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study Center in Bellagio; a Fellowship at Australian National University; and the citation for Meritorious Contributions of the Association of American Geographers. He also received the International Geographical Union’s prestigious Lauréat d’Honneur 2000; only three or four are awarded every fourth year at the IGU’s conference. The IGU citation describes him as “a scholar who by way of his contributions in climatology, economic geography and spatial analysis has challenged established lines of thinking and provided valuable new insights into the ways whereby human behavior shapes the world we live in. Professor Curry’s theoretical studies in economic geography, especially studies that draw upon the mathematics of probability theory and the concepts of physical systems analysis, have been unmatched in their originality and rigor and have established his international reputation as one of the leading theoreticians in the discipline.”

GIScRG Prize for Best Postgraduate Dissertation or Industrial Research Paper

Alex — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:17:40 +0000

The GIScience Research Group (GIScRG) of the RGS have established an annual prize of £100 for the best postgraduate dissertation or industry research paper on any issue relating to GIS, spatial analysis, spatial modelling or geocomputation. In both cases, we are looking for a document of approximately 10,000-15,000 words, which covers significant research in one or more of these areas.

Dissertations should be submitted by the student’s department, along with a copy of the appropriate departmental dissertation regulations. Research papers or reports should be submitted by the company where the work has taken place, with a cover letter explaining the context of the work. Confidentiality will be ensured.

Please submit the work in hard copy to either Linda See or Alison Heppenstall (contact details below). Please include an email address for the student or employee. Departments/companies may not submit more than one entry. Closing date for entries is 28 Feb 2009.

Dr Linda See/Dr Alison Heppenstall
School of Geography
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds
LS2 9JT

Email: l.m.see@leeds.ac.uk; a.j.heppenstall@leeds.ac.uk

CATMOG

Alex — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:32:06 +0000

Those who are observant may have noticed a new “CATMOG” tab appear on the top right of the website. Our long requested project of digitising the exceptionally useful CATMOG series is now complete (minus a couple in the series we haven’t been able to source). This very tedious task of scanning and PDF manipulation was completed by one of the QMRG newest committee members Dan Lewis who we should thank.

We hope that you find this resource of use, and please get in touch if you would be willing to lend us a copy of some of the missing books.

Numerical Modelling in Physical Geography Workshop

Alex — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:53:57 +0000

On the 20th January 2009, the QMRG is supporting a workshop in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds on “Numerical Modelling in Physical Geography”. The meeting aims to bring together those working in a variety of fields to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and techniques, which doesn’t really exist at present. Invited speakers from the universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, and Exeter will talk on numerical modelling approaches in glaciology, fluvial hydraulics, geomorphology, and global climate, as well as error analysis methods. The meeting is oriented towards work built firmly around conservation principles, generally involving the solution of coupled PDEs for mass and momentum. If you wish to come along, please e-mail Chris Keylock (c.j.keylock@leeds.ac.uk). Please be aware that places are limited.

Free Books

Alex — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:50:23 +0000

Members of the QMRG may be interested in two books which are now appearing as free PDF files:

Atlas of Cyberspace – Martin Dodge, Rob Kitchin [link]

Fractal Cities – Michael Batty, Paul Longley [link]