News and Announcements
GISPopSci Participants Awarded Hewlett/PRB Dissertation Fellowships
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau offer two-year dissertation fellowships for research that examines how population dynamics, family planning, and reproductive health influence economic development, including economic growth, poverty reduction, and equity. Two of the five awardees announced for 2006 have affiliation with the GIS Population Science workshops.Ernesto Amaral, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Texas at Austin, participated in the 2005 GISPopSci workshop at Pennsylvania State University. His dissertation is titled "Demographic Transition & Economic Development at the Local Level in Brazil". Ernesto received his B.A. in Social Science from the Federal University of Goiàs, Brazil and his M.A. in demography from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. His research and teaching interests include demography, fertility, and migration.
Tony Ao, a Ph.D. candidate in Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, is a participant in the 2006 GISPopSci workshop at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The title of his dissertation is "Microeconomic Impact of HIV Disease Among Female Bar/Hotel Workers in Tanzania". For two years before entering the doctoral program, Tony worked and lived in Moshi, Tanzania helping to set up the Kilimanjaro Reproductive Health Program.
Mapping the Future of World Population
Population Action International, in collaboration with the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University, has just completed a new population projection map. "Mapping the Future" is a first-of-its-kind, high-resolution map of projected population change for the year 2025. The map is available athttp://www.populationaction.org/resources/publications/mappingthefuture/index.htm
Anyone interested in receiving a (free) hard copy can place an order online at:
http://www.populationaction.org/resources/order/index.htm#population.
GIS at Albany
The Center for Social and Demographic Analysis and the Lewis Mumford Center have created a new GIS, web-based system, which is now up and running in a beta version and available for people to try.The 2000+ system is designed to provide easy access to the most up-to-date social, economic, and demographic characteristics of U.S. counties, including the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Surveys and population estimates. The creation of 2000+ involved a joint effort by the two centers at the University at Albany; the design team was led by me, Dr. Glenn Deane and Jin-Wook Lee, and the programming was carried out by Josh Pierro. You can access the beta version of 2000+ at http://mumford.albany.edu/2000plus/.
The Proceeedings of the National Academy of sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Included is a Spatial Demography Special Feature (October 25, 2006). This issue included commentaries and articles by Kenneth W. Wachter, Susan Hanson, William A.V. Clark, David A. Plane et al, Peter A. Rogerson and Daejong Kim, Mark Ellis and Richard Wright, Benjamin Forest, and Leah K. VanWey et al..American Journal of Preventive Medicine
included a supplement on Prostate Cancer and GIS (Guest Editors: Thomas B. Richards, Linda W. Pickle, and Gerald Rushton) February 2006.Spatial Economic Analysis Journal
A new journal has been launched called Spatial Economic Analysishttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17421772.asp. The editor is Bernie Fingleton (University of Cambridge).
A call for papers is available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/rseacfp.pdf
GeoDa™ Workbook Available
"Exploring Spatial Data with GeoDa: A Workbook", the first complete version of the GeoDa™ workbook is now available for free download (5.1MB). It contains 244 pages with 25 chapters of step by step guidelines and exercises to learn all the features of GeoDa, including spatial regression analysis.