GeoStar Award for 2008
Mryka Hall-Beyer, PhD
The Influence of Mryka:
A Tribute to AGG’s 2008 GeoSTAR, Mryka Hall-Beyer
By Lynn Moorman
I’m honoured to provide a tribute to Mryka today. I’ve often spoken of her praises to students, colleagues, teachers, friends on an individual basis, and it is a pleasure now to share these thoughts of her in a forum such as this!
Mryka is currently an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary. She instructs in the area of geospatial methods, with a specialization in remote sensing. She has been involved in the geomatics industry and community through conference organization, participation, and most notably served on the board of the Alberta Geomatics Group as Education Chair for numerous years. Her dedication to this group and her energy in representing the joint interests of geomatics education and industry in Alberta are enough to validate this GeoSTAR award. But there is so much more! Mryka is a person that leads a full life many times over – like the nine lives of a cat – but she leads them all at once! Not like someone with multiple personalities, but someone with bountiful energy who brings their enthusiasm, knowledge and especially organizational abilities to many arenas in a day, enhancing each and making connections between all. Let me open the door to what I call "the influence of Mryka".
Mryka’s academic expertise is grounded in geology. She completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours from Middlebury College in Vermont, studying PreCambrian Volcanics of the Tibbitt Hill Group in Vermont and Quebec. Her teaching career began as an undergraduate teaching assistant, but really got going when, after 2 years graduate work, she took time off to move to Carcross, Yukon Territory, teaching secondary school science, physics, and math. Mryka laughs about being offered a permanent position there. When she mentioned that she didn’t actually have a teaching certificate, the superintendent said "you’ve lasted through two winters – that’s what we need!". Rest assured Mryka is a hardy soul, AND her teaching capability is more than sufficient, as you will come to see.
Mryka’s Masters work was also in Geology, this time at the University of Alberta, where she completed a thesis entitled: Chemical Petrology of Northern Saskatchewan Granulites of the Tazin Group. Again, she turned to educational opportunities to share her knowledge: as an outdoor educator with the National Capital Commission in Ottawa, an exhibit planner for the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa, as an interpreter and staff trainer for Parks Canada in Shawinigan, Quebec, and as an instructor at Bishop’s University and Champlain Regional College. Mryka completed her PhD in 1998 at the Université de Sherbrooke, studying the Classification of Native Grasslands using Landsat TM imagery, Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. Now, where can the knowledge of remote sensing, grasslands, Precambrian volcanics and chemical petrology, with the ability to deal with young and bright yet hormonally challenged minds best be put to use? At the Department of Geography right here at the University of Calgary of course! And luckily, that’s just where Mryka came to start her career as a professor. There, the influence of Mryka has been felt deeply.
In her 12 years in the Geography Department, Mryka has been instrumental in developing the undergraduate core curriculum, the graduate Masters of GIS program, and the flow of content in remote sensing and other methods courses along the continuum from early undergraduate to senior graduate levels. She has developed and taught a full range of remote sensing courses including:
Mapping and Remote sensing
Remote sensing of the Environment
Remote sensing and Forest Ecology
Remote Sensing and GIS
Environmental Image Analysis and Modelling
A few of her other courses are:
Biogeography
Geographical Field techniques – Geography Field School
Applied Mapping techniques
She also managed to squeeze in a Field School to Iceland last year.
Other geographers study space, sense of place, location. But Mryka’s research delves into yet another dimension - that of time. Studying the phenology of vegetation, the dynamics of green up and vegetation cycles, she also investigates and develops image classification techniques and has created a widely used tutorial to understand texture measures to aid in image interpretation. All valuable contributions to environmental modeling and mapping.
Mryka’s background and natural curiosity have enabled her to support a wide variety of students’ research interests, which has led to an enormous load of students demanding her time, attention, and supervision. All of which she gives continuously with cheer, willingness and grace. She has taught over 3000 students and directly supervised 35 student research projects. While this seems very tied to the well being of the University community, it further serves the geomatics industry across Canada in the crucial role of building the knowledgeable workforce we need so badly, and particularly encouraging young people to enter the world of geomatics. In this area, the influence of Mryka is strong. Mryka was chosen to teach Gateway to Geography – an introductory course with the purpose of showcasing modern geography and a variety of areas of geographic research, while dispelling notions of traditional geography that relied on memorization of names of capitals. And this challenge parallels what is facing much of the geomatics industry – building awareness and appeal, communicating the broad applications to a diverse population. We all struggle with this monumental task, and Mryka has been working tirelessly at the foundation for years… truly a GeoSTAR in my mind.
But she also is extremely active in reaching out to even a broader community – teachers and students at the K-12 levels - kindergarten to grade 12. Mryka has supported this group so strongly. She developed and runs Project Explorer in Geography – a course designed to bring together K-12 educators with geography undergraduate students. The students act as geography mentors and curriculum specialists for the teacher partners, while learning about the perspective of "teacher" in the classroom; so mutally beneficial. She has been involved in CyberMentor, ScienceHotline, ExploreIT, numerous professional development courses for educators, particularly with the Canadian Council for Geographic Education, and judging at the Alberta competition of the Great Canadian Geography Challenge. She is a contributor and content editor for the Encyclopedia of the Earth and has been nominated for awards for both Outstanding Undergraduate and Outstanding Graduate teaching.
One of the most broadly appealing displays of Mryka’s educative spirit was at the Calgary Science Centre in 2005, when she teamed up with artist Sharon Thirkettle to create an exhibit of "Earth as Art". Satellite images from around the world served to inspire Sharon, the artist, to create clay interpretations of the scenes – the process and product of which were displayed and described beside the original images. Simultaneously, Mryka as scientist, explained the process of image interpretation, and both scientist and artist reflected on the similarities of their methods, and how their differences actually informed and complemented each other’s perspectives. The images and clay tiles presented side by side created a beautiful and fascinating means of reaching out to the community at large and demonstrating the art and science behind remote sensing and image interpretation. I think you will agree that Mryka is a true geomatics educator and advocate.
However, it is not all a rosy picture. Mryka diligently sits on at least 14 committees and boards. Many of the committees she is involved with at the University strive to improve the strength and relevancy of academic programs, the student experience and how instruction is delivered in meaningful and effective ways. But the influence of Mryka also extends nationally, to the Earth and Environmental Sciences Committee of the NSERC national scholarships award committee. (NSERC – Natural Science and Engineering Research Council – Canada’s key scientific funding agency). In this capacity Mryka has been playing a key role in identifying Canada’s most promising new researchers; once again, she is contributing to the growth and sustainability of geomatics academia and industry.
The GeoSTAR selection committee in the AGG is to be commended for choosing someone as deserving as Mryka for the 2008 GeoSTAR award. She is the epitome of a valuable, enthusiastic, and helpful member. To Mryka, many congratulations, and I hope this award is evidence to you, of how you are valued in this organization, valued by individual members, and by the larger community.
