Watch Videos: GEOG Professors Goward and Townshend

At the close of another successful academic year, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) and its Department of Geographical Sciences (GEOG) proudly reflect on the research, teaching and leadership of two of our most esteemed faculty members, Professors Sam Goward and John Townshend.

Professor Goward served as department chair from 1995 to 2001. He built a robust internal department infrastructure capable of withstanding the increasing pressure of multimillion dollar grant administration and the doubling of department staff. His research focuses on land remote sensing, biophysics and global change. In his pursuit of biophysical applications of land remotely sensed data, he has been actively involved in land observation missions since the 1970s, specifically via Landsat and AVHRR.

Watch Professor Goward’s video.

As both the former dean of BSOS (2009-14) and former chair (1989-95 and 2001-09) of GEOG, Professor Townshend’s guidance and leadership have been invaluable to the University. He helped to expand GEOG’s visibility and reputation as one of the leading departments in the United States. His current research focuses on the rates and causes of vegetation cover change, especially deforestation, through the use of remotely sensed data from satellites, funded primarily through NASA grants. He is also the principal investigator of the Global Land Cover Facility, which houses the largest open access non-governmental online collection of Landsat data in the world. Professor Townshend is the author of more than 100 articles in the refereed literature and more than 30 book chapters.

Watch Professor Townshend’s video.

Published on Fri, Jun 12, 2015 - 9:25AM