Professor
Department of Geography
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
email: kupfer@sc.edu
phone: (803) 777-6739
fax: (803) 777-4972
My service commitments reflect my research interests, my commitment to my role as a teacher and mentor, my dedication to the departments of which I have been a part, and my standing within various professional communities. A few of these are outlined below.
Service to Larger Research Communities:
Among other things, I served two years on the Senior Advisory Panel for the National Science Foundation's Geography and Spatial Sciences program. I also served on the Advisory Panel for the U.S. E.P.A's “Ecological Impacts from the Interactions of Climate Change, Land Use Change and Invasive Species” program. More specifically related to my own work on fragmentation, I was a member of the Landscape Pattern Workgroup that helped draft the 2008 State of the Nation’s Ecosystems, which was published by the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and contributor to Conserving Biodiversity through Sustainable Forestry, which was published by the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry.
Professional Organizations:
Professionally, I have served as the President for the Biogeography Specialty Group (BSG) of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Among other things that I accomplished during my two year tenure as BSG President, I instituted a Graduate Student Representative on the BSG Executive Board, a move that I felt would help to engage more graduate students in specialty group governance and prepare soon-to-be junior faculty members for professional leadership roles. During a previous stint as an Executive Board member of the BSG, I chaired the selection committee for the BSG's Henry Cowles Award for Excellence in Publication and the James J. Parsons Career Achievement Award. I have also served on the AAG Publications Committee, which advises the AAG council on policies regarding all official publications of AAG, serves as a research body for the editors and the Council on matters related to Association publications, and reviews the operation of AAG office publications annually. Regionally, I have served on the Steering Committee and as a state representative for the Southeast Division of the AAG (SED/AAG) and was on the Local Arrangements Committee for the 1998 SED/AAG Annual Meeting. I have organized symposia and special sessions at meetings of not only the AAG, but also the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecology and the Association of Southeastern Biologists.
Outreach Activities:
Faculty members are increasingly called upon to maintain active outreach and community service agendas. In this area, I was co-organizer for the conference, “Climate Change & Ecosystem Impacts in Southwest Forests and Woodlands”, which was sponsored by the Arizona Climate Change-Vegetation Response Workgroup and brought together more than 300 scientists, federal, state, local and private land managers, and representatives from industries and non-governmental organizations. I have also conducted field trips for a range of organizations and events, including Nature Fest at Congaree National Park, the South Carolina Geographic Alliance Summer Institute for K-12 educators, and Chickasaw Bluffs Appreciation Day at the Edward Meeman Biological Field Station in Millington, TN.
Document's URL: http://people.cas.sc.edu/kupfer/
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of its author.
The contents of the page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of South Carolina.
Maintained by John Kupfer, kupfer@sc.edu Last updated: August 21, 2009