Switching from Kangaroos to Elephants...

February 17, 2009

Right when I'm getting done with my adventure on kangaroos, here it comes the next one! This time is not about writing a paper about the farthest away from home country but about actually going somewhere. The GeoDa Center I'm visiting this year is starting now to work and collaborate with the Nature Conservation Foundation in India; the main purpose is to try to bring spatial analysis tools into wildlife conservation to help understand and manage the relationship between humans and animals. It is meant to be a long term relationship with a lot of results expected, but one of the first steps made to start walking down this road is the celebration of a two-day long workshop on spatial analysis and techniques for grad students and scholars to take place at the NCBS in Bangalore in July. I was offered to be part of the team which will go into the field and teach the course and, before the offer was ended, I had already said yes. So, if all goes as expected, next July 14th. I'll get on a plane to Mumbay and spend 10 days in one of the countries which for a long time was on my to-go list but never actually found a good excuse for. Teaching at one of the cutting-edge centers for biological sciences in India seems like a good one, doesn't it?