Congratulations SeongHee Min on Dissertation Completion

Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to announce the completion of a dissertation by SeongHee Min. Newly filed with the University library is his work entitled, “THE LINKAGE BETWEEN RECENT IMMIGRANT WORKERS AND THE DOMESTIC MIGRATION OF NATIVE AND SETTLED IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN THE U.S. IN 2006 AND 2008.” This is an ambitious and significant research undertaking that studies migration and labor market responses in times of expansion and prosperity (represented by 2006) and in deep recession (represented by 2009). The specific questions studied in these contrasting contexts are the effects of new immigrant labor on previous immigrants and on native-born workers of the same education level. The effects are studied separately for the outmigration and inmigration by the native-born or settled immigrants. In other words, does immigrant competition cause workers to flee their current place of residence or does it merely discourage potential in-movers instead? The answers are highly nuanced and promise to greatly enrich our understanding of immigrant labor markets and the population dynamics that envelope them.

SeongHee’s committee members were Gary Painter, John Wilson (Geography), and Dowell Myers, chair.

Please join me in congratulating Seonghee on his accomplishment!

with very best regards,

Dowell Myers
Professor

Congratulations to Jia Lu from Professor Banerjee & Professor Cooper

I am very happy to announce that Jia Lu has just received a gold medal for presenting the best paper in the Young Scientist category at the recent Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRIM) conference held in USC. Her paper was based on her dissertation field work in China studying the role of civil society in the post-disaster (the 20008 Wenchuan earthquake in this case) recovery efforts. This is a terrific accomplishment, and we are all very proud of Jia. Please join me in congratulating Jia for her wonderful achievement.

-Tribid Banerjee

I want to note that Jia’s excellent field research has been done in a situation that is difficult and sensitive. Her work is clearly commendable and deserving of the recognition she has received by this award. 

-Terry L. Cooper

Congratulations to KwanOk Lee, Abhishek Mamgain, and Pengyu Zhu!

Dear colleagues,

I wanted to extend my congratulations to three of our recent PH.D. students who have successfully defended their dissertations.
 
KwanOk Lee successfully defended her dissertation entitled, “Residential relocation decisions:  The Role of Neighborhoods, Housing Tenure Choice, and Race,” this summer.  The other members of her committee were Jenny Scheutz and Roger Moon (with additional thanks for Raphael Bostic).  She will be joining the National University of Singapore this fall.
 
Abhishek Mamgain successfully defended his dissertation entitled, “Do low-income households benefit from homeownership?” this spring.  Raphael Bostic co-chaired his dissertation, and Selale Tuzel served as the outside member.
 
Pengyu Zhu successfully defended his dissertation entitled, “Telecommuting, Travel Behavior and Residential Location Choice–Is telecommuting an effective policy to reduce travel demand?” this summer.  Peter Gordon co-chaired his dissertation, and Hsiao Cheng served as the outside member.  Pengyu will be joining Boise St in the fall.
 
Congratulations to all three of you on a job well done.
 
Best wishes,
Gary
 
 
Gary Painter
Professor
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
Director of Research
Lusk Center for Real Estate

Congratulations to Jiangping Zhou, ’10, Appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Iowa State University

Announcement from Gen Giuliano, Dissertation Chair for Jiangping Zhou

Jiangping Zhou has accepted an appointment as tenure track Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University.  Please join me in congratulating Jiangping on this great accomplishment!

 gg

 Genevieve Giuliano
Director, METRANS Transportation Center
Sr. Assoc. Dean, Research and Technology
School of Policy, Planning and Development
650 Childs Way
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
p 213-740-3956
f  213-740-0001

Congrats to Silvia He!

Announcement from Gen Giuliano, Dissertation Chair for Silvia He

Please join me in congratulating Sylvia He on the following accomplishments:

Eisenhower Fellowship for 2010-11 to support her dissertation research
The BMW Group Institute for Mobility Research Mobility Cultures in Megacities Fellowship, for which she will work as visiting researcher at the Institute in Germany for the next 5 months
USC Dissertation Completion Fellowship for 2011-12.

Congrats, Sylvia!

Genevieve Giuliano
Director, METRANS Transportation Center
Sr. Assoc. Dean, Research and Technology
School of Policy, Planning and Development
650 Childs Way
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
p 213-740-3956
f  213-740-0001

Congratulations to Meredith Drake, ’10 – Appointed Assistant Dean of Graduate Scholarship at the USC Graduate School

Announcement from Tridib Banerjee, Director of Graduate Programs in Urban Planning and Development

Some of our faculty colleagues and PhDs who were at the Graduate School Hooding Ceremony this morning [Thursday, May 12, 2011] may have noticed a familiar voice calling out names of the graduates to be hooded. The name of this person was announced at the beginning while the platform party was being introduced. I have been delinquent, should have shared this good news earlier:

Meredith Drake-Reitan who received her PhD in planning last year has been appointed as the Assistant Dean of Graduate Scholarship at the USC Graduate School. She will be working closely with Vice-Provost Sally Pratt. When I briefly met Sally after the ceremony she was quite effusive in her praise for Meredith, and complimented us, SPPD, for training her. Meredith is now teaching a course for us, and it is  my understanding that she will be able to continue to do that in her new role.  

Please join me in congratulating Meredith for her appointment with the Graduate School.

Taehyon Choi, 2006 Cohort, and Hyung-Woo Lee, 2005 Cohort, Finish Dissertations

Announcement made by Dr. Peter J. Robertson on March 28, 2011:

Dear colleagues,

I would like to announce that two of our PhD students have successfully defended and completed their dissertations, and thus are deserving of our hearty congratulations!

Taehyon Choi’s dissertation is titled, “Information sharing, deliberation, and collective decision-making:  A computational model of collaborative governance,” with Eric Heikkila and Janet Fulk (from the Annenberg School) as the other members of his committee.  Taehyon has recently accepted an offer to join the faculty of the Department of Public Administration in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii. 
         
Hyung-Woo Lee’s dissertation is titled, “Individual differences in trust development:  Assessing the effects of trustor attributes on trust building, stability, and dissolution”, with Bob Myrtle and Kate Wilber (from the Davis School) as the other members of his committee.  Hyung-Woo finished up his dissertation this spring while also teaching at the Seoul National University of Technology.  

Please join me in congratulating Taehyon and Hyung-Woo and offering our best wishes as they move on to the next step in their academic careers.

Peter

Peter J. Robertson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
e-mail: robertso@usc.edu

Yiming Wang, 2005 Cohort – Dissertation Defense Announcement

Announcement from Dr. Eric Heikkila
Thursday, March 3, 2011

It pleases me greatly to inform you that earlier today Yiming Wang successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation entitled “From Structure to Agency: Essays on the Spatial Analysis of Residential Segregation”. His dissertation comprises three essays, two of which have already been published as peer-reviewed, award-winning articles and the third of which is currently under review.

Yiming’s dissertation committee comprised Professors Phil Ethington, Peter Gordon and Eric Heikkila.  He is currently in his second year on the faculty of the School of City & Regional Planning at Cardiff University in the UK.  If you happen to see Dr. Wang before he returns to his post, do take the opportunity to convey your hearty congratulations to him.

Cheers, EJH

Eric J. Heikkila, Professor and
Director of International Initiatives
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
Ralph & Goldy Lewis Hall; RGL 301D
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
office:  +1-213-821-1037
e-mail: heikkila@usc.edu