March 30, 2012
Excellence in research: Geography group selects Harrington for John Fraser Hart Award
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
Excellence in rural geography research has earned a Kansas State University geographer national recognition.
Lisa M. Butler Harrington, professor of geography, will receive the John Fraser Hart Award for Research Excellence from the Association of American Geographers' Rural Geography Specialty Group. The award will be presented at the association's 2013 national meeting in Los Angeles, where the specialty group is planning a special session in her honor.
The award was established to recognize scholars who have achieved and maintained excellence in the fields of agricultural and/or rural geography research. It is named in honor of Hart, a career rural and agricultural geographer at the University of Minnesota who has published numerous books and refereed journal articles.
Harrington studies all aspects of human-environmental interactions in rural regions, including sustainability, use and management of natural resources, human impacts on the environment, hazards, and environmental perception. Much of her work is related to the Great Plains/High Plains region and to the Pacific Northwest. She has numerous publications, including peer reviewed journal articles and co-edited books, and has been active in an international rural geography conference series. The National Science Foundation, National Institute for Global Environmental Change and other entities have supported her rural geography research.
Harrington has been active as an officer in the Association of American Geographers, serving it via various committees and in specialty group roles. She also is a member of several other professional organizations and is on the board of the Applied Geography Conferences.
A member of the K-State faculty since 1994, Harrington was promoted to full professor in 2005. She earned a bachelor's in recreation resources from Colorado State University, a master's in recreation and park administration from Clemson University and a doctorate in geography from the University of Oklahoma.