BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH––JOHN AUSMAN HARRINGTON, JR.
Email: jharrin@ksu.edu

Fields of Interest and Expertise

  Climatology, climate variation, and environmental change - North America and Great Plains emphasis
  Applications of remote sensing and GIS for land cover assessment and natural resource management
  Water resources and watershed environmental modeling
  Biogeography and human impacts on the environment

Professional Preparation

  B.S., Michigan State University, 1972, Geography.
  M.A., University of Minnesota, 1974, Geography.
  Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1980, Geography.

Appointments

Synergistic Activities

1.  Innovations in undergraduate teaching and training
Founder of new courses on weather and climate, fundamentals of climatology, dynamic and synoptic climatology, and plant geography.  Created special field course offerings dealing with physical environments and human impacts; these courses included significant time with undergraduates in the field.  Developed computer-based software for remote sensing/digital image processing education.  Worked with faculty and student colleagues to create new laboratory manuals for undergraduate classes in remote sensing and environmental geography; these lab manuals have a strong focus on using computer assisted learning.

 2.  Service to undergraduate education
Serve as Director of the Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Secondary Major at Kansas State University; a program with over 100 students enrolled.  Helped revise the International Studies Secondary Major at Kansas State University.   Advise approximately 10 undergraduate geography majors per year.  Worked with faculty colleagues in agronomy and engineering to establish and now teach a course on site-specific agriculture. 

 3.  Service to the science and engineering community
  Climatology Editor, Physical Geography, 2000-present
  Past Member, Remote Sensing Committee, Society for Range Management
  Past Member, Board of Directors, Applied Geography Conferences
  PI and/or Team Leader of significant collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects funded by NSF, NASA,
              and DOE NIGEC
  Past Member, Geography in Science Education Task Force, NCGE
  Past, Chair and Vice-Chair, Geography Section, Oklahoma Academy of Science
  Numerous external tenure reviews, proposal reviews, and manuscript reviews

4.  Service to Association of American Geographers
  Past Director and Honors Committee Chair, AAG Climate Specialty Group
  Member, AAG Commission on College Geography II
  Past Student Awards Committee Chair, AAG Remote Sensing Specialty Group
  Invited participant, team leader, and author in AAG/NASA Global Change in Local Places project

Five Relevant Publications

Leathers, N, Harrington, Jr., J, 2001, Furnace Winds of the West, J of the West, 40 (3):48-57.

Rundquist, B, Harrington, Jr., J, 2000, The Effects of Climatic Factors on Vegetation Dynamics of Tallgrass and Shortgrass Vegetation Cover, Geocarto International 15 (3): 31-36.

Rundquist, B, Harrington, Jr., J, Goodin, D, 2000,Mesoscale Satellite Bioclimatology, Professional Geographer 52: 331-344.

Goodin, D, Harrington, Jr., J, Holden, Jr., G, Witcher, B, 1998, Local Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case Study in Southwest Kansas, Great Plains Research 8:231-253.

Harrington, L, Harrington, Jr., J, Frenzen, P, 1997,Vegetation Change in the Mount St. Helens Blast Zone, 1979-1992,” Geocarto International 13, 75-82.

Five Other Publications

Bierly, G, Harrington, Jr, J, Wilhelm, D, 2000, Climatology of Surface Cyclone Trajectory and Intensity for Heavy-Snow Events at Three Midwestern Stations, Physical Geography 21:522-537.

Harrington, Jr., J, Oliver, J, 2000, Understanding and Portraying the Global Circulation, Journal of Geography 99: 23-31.

Leathers, N, Harrington, Jr., J, 1999, Major Snowfalls in the Great Plains: Temporal Aspects and Relative Importance, Physical Geography 20:134-151.

Harman, J, Harrington, Jr., J, Cerveny, R, 1998, Balancing Scientific and Ethical Values in Environmental Science, Annals, AAG 88: 277-286.

Nellis, M, Harrington, Jr., J, Wu, J, 1997, Remote Sensing of Temporal and Spatial Variations in Pool Size, Suspended Sediment, Turbidity, and Secchi Depth in Tuttle Creek Reservoir, Kansas: 1993, Geomorphology 21: 281-293.