Patricia Gober

Patricia Gober received a PhD in Geography from the Ohio State University in 1975 and is currently professor of geography at Arizona State University where she served as departmental chair from 1984 to 1991. She is 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. Her current research centers on issues of water management and environmental change in metropolitan Phoenix. She is especially interested in the use of science and visualization for real-world decision-making.  She is a past President of the Association of American Geographers and former member of the Population Reference Bureau's Board of Trustees, currently serves as the Chair of the College Board's Advanced Placement Human Geography Committee, and was recently appointed to the National Research Council's Committee on Geographical Sciences which provides independent advice to society and to government at all levels on scientific, technical, and policy matters related to geography and geographic analysis. Her most recent book, Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in November 2005. She holds an honorary doctorate of science from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1998.