Awards

Rachel Carson Award

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, published in 1962, ushered in the modern environmental movement and influenced a generation of conservationists, scientists, and grassroots activists. She was a vocal and articulate advocate for the environment who argued that unchecked industrial activities were engendering catastrophic change to the natural world. This Award is given to the student who best represents Rachel Carson's passion for the environment, intelligence, and her commitment to political change.

2025: Lena Kufferman '25
2024: Zanna Gulick-Stutz '24
2023: Maria Angelino '23
2022: Rebecca Nicol '22
2021: Rachel Kent '21
2020: Claire Dougherty '20

Doreen Massey Award

Doreen Massey was a geographer of incredible breadth, with pioneering works in economic, feminist, Marxist and cultural geography. And she was centrally concerned with power relationships in all their complexity and how to challenge them when necessary. She was also fiercely committed to creating societies where there is democracy, equality and freedom, and to the creative and radical movements that might bring about such change. Accordingly, this Award goes to the student who exemplifies Massey's brilliant interdisciplinarity and socially relevant scholarship.

2025: Beatriz da Silva Falcao '25
2024: Avery Borgmann '24, Colin Donnelly '24
2023: Jimena Perez '23
2022: Zachary Spicer '22
2021: Caroline Atwood '21
2020: Hanover Vale '20

Thelma Glass Award

Thelma Glass was a professor of geography at Alabama State University where she taught for over 40 years. She was also deeply committed to social change, having been a member of the Women's Political Council, which helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56. In addition to her academic interests in economic, cultural and physical geography, she was known around the Alabama State campus as a teacher-activist willing to put her ideals into concrete actions. Accordingly, we grant this prize to a graduating senior who best reflects Professor Glass' spirit as a scholar-activist.

2025: Esmeralda Abreu-Jerez '25
2024: Janine D'Souza '24
2023: Lizet Garcia '23
2022: Juan Quinonez Zepeda '22
2021: Jasmine Butler '21
2020: Javi Franco '20

George Perkins Marsh Award

Geogre Perkins Marsh was a member of the U.S. Congress, an author and farmer, and was the U.S. Minister to Turkey and Italy. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1820 and is the author of the book The Earth as Modified by Human Activity, possibly the earliest Anglophone treatise on human-environment geography. This work eventually helped found the environmental movement in the United States.

2025: Nadine Lorini Formiga '25
2024: Lily Gray '24
2023: Eric Hryniewicz '23
2022: Aryeh Lande '22
2021: Sophie Basecu '21
2020: Hannah Rubin '20
2019: Madeline Kroot '19
2018: Yijun Wang '18, Mariana Webb '18
2017: Bryn Morgan '17
2015: Lily Michelson '15
2014: Dela Kpo '14, Celeste Winston '14
2013: Xiaodan Wang '13
2012: Angela Zhang '12
2011: Emily Broas '11
2010: Adam Bledsoe '10
2009: Laura Hester '09
2008: Linden Mallory '08
2007: Ocean Castaneda '07

Alexander Von Humboldt Award

Humboldt was a broad-ranging thinker of the late 18th and early 19th century who sought to understand nature and society as a complex, holistic entity. His landmark work Kosmos established him as a pioneer of biogeography and landscape analysis, and was an early statement on carving out geography as a distinct discipline that combined the human and physical sciences.

2025: Madeline Wolfe '25
2024: Richard Lytle '24
2023: Catie McCarthy '23
2022: Keara Dennehy '22
2021: Grace Chahyadinata '21
2020: Kaijing Janice Chen '20
2019: Charlotte Evans '19
2018: Eliza Ezrapour '18, Saadjo Sow '18
2017: Soohyung Hur '17, Arunsrinivasan Ponshunmugam '17
2015: Tianyang Wang '15
2014: Madeleine Parker '14, Emily Weiswasser '14
2013: Michelle Lee '13
2012: Robert Szypko '12
2011: Rose Brennon '11
2010: Yacoba Annobil '10
2009: Emily Eros '09
2008: Will McMahan '08
2007: Hongwei Chen '07
2006: Adeline Yong '06

National Council For Geographic Education

The NCGE is a 3500 member organization whose objective is to foster and increase the effectiveness of geographic education in North America. Each year the Council presents an Excellence in Scholarship Award to an outstanding senior geography major at each of several American Colleges and Universities.

2022: Keara Dennehy '22
2021: Rachel Kent '21
2020: Sophie Neuhaus '20
2019: Madeline Kroot '19
2018: Allegra Codamon '18
2017: Rebecca Asoulin '17, Ashley Manning-Lockett '17
2016: Anna Ghnouly '16, Cecilia Shao '16
2015: Taylor Malmsheimer '15
2014: Celeste Winston '14
2013: Michelle Lee '13
2012: Robert Szypko '12
2011: Joel Butterly '11
2010: Sara Brown '10
2009: Laura Hester '09
2008: Caroline Burns '08, Amy Flaster '08, Dan Mahoney '08
2007: Benjamin Wilson '07, Jesse Tichenor '06

Adam N. Brown '97

The Adam N. Brown '97 Memorial Fund is an endowment established at Dartmouth College by the family and friends of Adam Brown, Class of 1997, to celebrate his life and perpetuate his energy, innovation, and enthusiasm. Adam was a prospective major in Geography when he died of cancer in 1994.

The Adam N. Brown '97 Memorial Award in Geography is administered by the Department of Geography. The award is presented to recognize the best written work in Geography in an academic year. In accordance with the wishes of the family and the faculty, the student need not be a major in Geography. The names of the successive recipients of the award will be engraved on a plaque displayed in the Geography Department.

2025: Eliza Dunn '25: "Buenos Aires: Reading the City"
2024: Maria Trybus '26: "For The Land Where…" Analyzing the Interplay between Polish Romantic Poetry and Geospatial Thinking
2023: Gerol Fang '23: "The Role of Geographic Information and Geospatial Technologies in Constructing the American Intelligence Empire"
2022: Sylvia Hipp '22: The Paradox of Participation and Contested Knowledges Around 'Sustainable' Dam Development
2021: Madeleine Morris '24: Criminal Justice and Automation: Should Driverless Cars be Implemeted in Law Enforcement?
2020: Dev Punaini '22: "Wajood, Aukaat, aur Izzat: A Hindustani Framework for Mappig Discursive and Material Characteristics of Power and Positionality in Modern India"
2019: Gustavo De Almeida Silva '20 - "Transnational Feminism, Border Violence, and State Power: Examining the Deterrence of Trans Women Seeking Asylum in the US Southern Border"
2018: Lucia Caballero - "Refugees as 'Exceptional' Bodies: An Analysis of Save the Children Campaigns"
2017: Yijun Wang '17 - "Food Shopping in China: A Fresh Perspective"
2016: Jasmine Xu '16 - "A Lost Generation: Exploring social consequences of urbanization in China through Jia Zhangke's 24 City"
2015: Carly Schnitzler '16 - "Meat with Conscience, but not Conscious: An Alternative"
2014: Caroline Liegey '13 - "Julia Child Meets Food Network's Celebrity Chefs and Foodies: The Evolution of Gastronomic Celebrity from the Mid-Twentieth Century to the Present"
2013: Bridget Golob '14 - "The 2009 California Global Warming Solutions Act: How State Greenhouse Gas Regulatory Legislation and Environmental Justice Intersect"
2013: Alana Dickson '13 - "External Intervention and Participatory Approaches to South Asian Water Aid: Helping or Hurting Women?"
2012: Emily Weiswasser '14 - "A Landscape of Contestation: The Village at Velvet Rocks vs. Greensboro Road "
2011: Javed Jaghai '12 - "A Progress Report on the Geography of Masculinities"
2010: Rigel Cable '10 & Jessica Montes '10 - "Men and Kathoey Fight Against Harm (MAKFAH)"
2009: Rebecca Sacks '08 - "Curry in Britain: Dishing out 'Britishness' in Postcolonial Britain"
2008: Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin '07 - "Feeling the Funk in Brazil: the Geopolitical Story"
2007: Lucy Whidden '07 - "A Failed Celebration: Unmet Promises of Urban Justice in Disney's Celebration, FL"
2006: Kristina Gebhard '09 - "Opposing neocolonialism in a repressive state: a geopolitical analysis of two forms of resistance in post-colonial Kenya"

Bob Huke Award

Bob Huke graduated from Dartmouth in 1948, went on to earn his PhD at Syracuse, and returned to Dartmouth to teach and research in 1953. He was a fabulous teacher and mentor to many students. His research focused on food and population in his teaching and research and spent many winter terms at IRRI—the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines—mapping and deepening his understanding of the cultures of rice farming. Above all else, Bob is remembered in our department for his enthusiasm for Geography. Accordingly, this award recognizes the student best embodying Bob Huke's spirit and passion for Geography.

2025: Naiset Perez '25, Josephine Harrison '25
2024: Lily Ding '24, Avery Fogg '24, Wenhan Sun '24
2023: Alessa Lewis '23, TJ Rothschild '23
2022: Julie Jones '22
2021: Emilie Baxter '21, Ruan Rodriguez '21
2020: Shanthi Hiremath '20
2019: Arthur Benjamin Adapon '19
2018: Clare Mathias '18
2017: Diego Pedraza Novak '17, Narcissa Summerall '17
2016: Hilary Hamm '16, Tien Truong '16
2015: Rachel Funk '15
2014: Daniel Bornstein '14
2013: Ifeoma Achebe '13, James Lee '13
2012: Anna Wearn '12
2011: Genevive O'Mara '11
2010: Eric Espinoza '10, Liza Bennett '10
2009: Hillary Wool '09
2008: Katie Moerlein
2007: Christine Terada
- Thesis: Experience all of Polynesia Tourist Performances and the Construction of Cultural Identities
2006: Adeline Yong
- Thesis: The Fashion of Clutering and Specialization in China's Apparel Industry: How Lone Threads can Weave into a Tapestry
2005: Kristine Belford
- Thesis: You Are Where You Live? Conceptions of Identity of Singaporean Public Housing Residents

Class of '76 Award

The Geography Stretch '76 Fund is an endowment established by alumni who attended the 1976 "geography stretch" (a field course that taught geographic skills while traveling in the US) to help support the study of Geography at Dartmouth College. This award is given to the student who best exemplifies the spirit of the stretch by never being afraid to face important challenges and adventures.

2025: Valen Neal Burk '25, Adamari Benavidez '25, Lily Pogue '25
2024: Keelia Stevens '24, Joseph Earles '24
2023: Madeline Duhnoski '23, Patrick Gillis '23
2022: Anaise Boucher-Browning '22, Anges Ugoji '22
2021: Oliver Chartok '21, Noel Siegert '21
2020: Jackson Harris '20
2019: Lucia Caballero Guiu '19
2018: Sara Nirenberg '18, Brendan Schuetze '18
2017: William Paja '17
2016: Anna Driscoll '16
2015: Brian McGahie '15
2014: Lotta Nygren '14, Katelyn Walker '14
2013: Abigail Franklin '13
2012: Erika Flowers '12
2011: George Thorman '11
2010: Rigel Cable '10
2009: Alexandra Prokhorova '09
2008: Amy Flaster '08
2007: Benjamin Wilson '07

The Guido R. Rahr '51 Award For Excellence in Geography

Guido R. Rahr '51 came from a family of conservationist-philanthropists. In the 1980's, the Rahr Foundation—in honor of Guido's love of geography—donated a tract of land in Oregon to the College with the intent of supporting the Department. The land was eventually sold and the endowment has grown to the point where it now supports a range of activities in the department, including most obviously the Rahr GIS lab. This Award goes to the student who best represents Guido's passion for cartography and spatial science

2025: Daniel Palana '25, Aiden Casey '25
2024: Ishika Jha '24
2023: Laura Logan '23, Theo Trefonides '23
2022: Macallister Young '22
2021: Jared Cape '21, Emily Tan '21
2020: Hunter Domonick '20
2018: Stephanie Colao '19
2017: Lindsay Salem '18, Phillip Gomez '17
2016: Yvette Garcia '16
2015: Carly Carlin '15
2014: Cooper Thomas '14, Steve Tebbe '14
2013: Aurelia Solomon '13, Duncan Hall '13
2012: Stephanie Chan '12, Ben Hughey '12, Sara Kler '12
2011: Christopher Han '11, Carla Costillo '11
2010: Liya Schuster '10, Corey Cunningham '10
2009: Dominic Winski '09

Leah Horowitz Award For Social Justice

This award goes to the student whose time at Dartmouth epitomizes President Dickey's charge that "the world's problems are your problems.'" It honors Leah Horowitz, a Geography major who in 2009 died tragically in Ghana, where she worked for a development agency. As a student Leah taught and humbled us; she combined great intellect with wanting to know how what she learned here was going make a difference in the larger world. She lost no time in doing that, first as an AmeriCorps volunteer and then working for the International Food Policy Research Institute where, notably, she asked to be transferred from DC to the field office in Ghana. It is to honor Leah's memory—and her deep commitment to social justice—that we give this award.

2025: Hosaena Tilahun '25
2024: Solange Acosta Rodriguez '24
2023: Damian Solinger-Jeffres '23
2022: Mariana Penaloza Morales '22
2021: Rachel Florman '21
2020: Aimee Pacheco '20
2019: David Ramirez '19
2018: Alex Sclafani '18
2017: Gretchen Herrick '17
2016: Kripa Dongol '16, Tyler Rivera '16
2015: Murylo Batista '15
2014: Sarah Fernandez '14, Jamilah Mena '14
2013: Emma Smith '13
2012: Javed Jaghai '12
2011: Phoebe Gardener '11
2010: Eric Schildge '10
2009: Ediz Tiyansan '09

Geography Award of Excellence

Awards

Geography Department Undergraduate Awards