Posted May 10, 2004

Kyle Peterson Named Fryzek Award Winner

Kyle Peterson receives the Fryzek Award from Dr. Sam Thompson, Gradauate Program Coordinator.Kyle Peterson was named the 2003-2004 recipient of the Rob Fryzek Outstanding Graduate Student Award. The award recognizes excellence in leadership within the Department of Geography, University and Community. Kyle received a cash award and his name has been placed on a plaque that is displayed in the Geography Department.

Kyle, a 2000 graduate of Western Illinois University, has served as a graduate assistant in the department's physical geography laboratories, doing GIS work for the McDonough County Supervisor of Assessment, and currently is assigned to the McDonough County GIS Center.

During the summer of 2003, Kyle completed a summer internship at the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Rock Island, Illinois. During this internship, Kyle engaged in a number of activities including building a navigational GIS database for the Mississippi River (Lock and Dams 11-22) and the Illinois River. He also built a relational database to integrate ecological data for three reservoirs and the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to conform to the new Spatial Data Standards (SDS). Additionally, Kyle built a GIS database for Red Rock Reservoir campsites.

His thesis research involves using remotely sensed data to analyze the relationships between urban vegetation change and socioeconomic change in Chicago, Illinois. Kyle will be attending the University of Calgary this fall, where he has been accepted into the Ph.D. program in the Department of Geography.