Carleton professor Iain Wallace received a prestigious award June 3 from the Canadian Association of Geographers for his 40 years of work within the field of geography.
Michael Brklacich, chair of Carleton’s geography department, said Wallace started working at Carleton in 1970, when the geography department “was not more than four or five years old.” Brklacich nominated Wallace for the award, stating “he’s continually pushing the boundaries of geography.”
Wallace’s largest contribution was his role in the creation of the geography PhD program at Carleton which began in 1995, Brkalcich said. The new program combines environmental and social geography together.
Before the PhD program, a graduate student had to pick whether they wanted to specialize in the natural science side of geography or the social science side, Wallace said. He said the new program allows students to use the full spectrum.
“We wanted to design a program that did more — that got the people on the natural science side and the social science side to work together,” Wallace said. “We wouldn’t have a PhD program at Carleton without his work,” Brklacich said.
After 42 years at Carleton, Wallace said he will retire this fall. “All these people come from different programs with different experiences and if I can get them to see links between obesity and the structure of suburbia, if I helped to build bridges, then that’s what I am most proud of.”
