Patricia "Pat" Gober is a Research Scientist and Professor Emeritus of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. Gober is the founding co-director of the National Science Foundation's Decision Center for a Desert City which studies water management decisions in the face of growing climatic uncertainty in Greater Phoenix. She is a past president of the Association of American Geographers, former member of the Population Reference Bureau's Board of Trustees and the Science Advisory Board of NOAA, and former chair of the College Board's Advanced Placement Human Geography Committee. She also served on the National Research Council's Committee on Geographical Sciences. Her most recent book, "Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert," was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2006. She holds an honorary doctorate of science from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was awarded the Prince Sultan Abdulaziz International Price for Water in 2008. She received the ASU's Faculty Research Achievement Award in 2009 and the AAG's Presidential Achievement Award in 2011.
About the Pat Gober Water Prize:
The Pat Gober Water Prize is a student research proposal competition, awarded annually, by the ASU School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.
The award, established in 2019, recognizes the outstanding leadership, mentoring, and scholarly contributions of Professor Gober within ASU's Department of Geography and (later) the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, the Decision Center for a Desert City, and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.
Qualified submissions will be in the area of water-related research broadly defined. This includes, but is not limited to, water policy, climate research, geomorphology, or social science. Whatever the field, it is critical that water be in the foreground of the work.
Funds may be used to support travel, purchase of data, surveys, and expendable field supplies related to the proposed research.
The award will be $1,500
Eligibility:
- All graduate students in good standing in geography, geographic information science, and urban planning (except those advanced to candidacy) are invited to apply. Recipients can win the prize only once.
Requirements:
- Written proposal not to exceed three pages, will include a project title, problem statement, context of the research, methods, citations (as appropriate), anticipated significance of the research and form for the dissemination of findings, budget and budget justification.
- Recipients are expected to acknowledge the Prize in all presentations and publications that derive from the work being supported. Some form of final product is expected.
Deadline: March 1. Submit to sgsup.gradprograms@asu.edu with subject line “Lastname, Firstname-Gober Water Prize” for consideration.
Award recipients:
| 2022-2023 | Hyunho Lee |
| 2021-2022 | Zhining Gu |
| 2020-2021 | Rababe Saadaoui |
| 2019-2020 | Megan Seeley |