Donald A. Friend
C.V. (updated January 2009)
Home People Programs Facilities Announcements Contents
C.V. (updated January 2009)
Home People Programs Facilities Announcements Contents
Department of Geography
Minnesota State University
7 Armstrong Hall
Mankato, MN 56001
Phone: 507-389-2618
FAX: 507-389-2980
Dr. Friend is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography, as well as Director of Earth Science Programs, at Minnesota State University (MSU). He serves on the Association of American Geographers (AAG) governing body, the AAG Council, is the US Representative to the International Geographical Union Commission on Mountain Systems and is a member of the Fulbright National Screening Committee for the Institute of International Education. He is past Chair and Founder of the Mountain Geography Specialty Group of the AAG. He is Associate Editor in Chief of the Journal of Mountain Science published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and he serves as North American Regional Editor for Geographische Rundschau – International Edition published by Westermann. He sits on the advisory boards of the Mountain Studies Institute and McGraw-Hill Publishers physical geography section. His training has great breadth with specialization in mountain and desert environments. His research and teaching interests focus on physical geography, especially earth surface and atmospheric processes, their interaction and human impacts in mountains. He is also keenly interested in geographic, environmental and international education.
Honors Dr. Friend has received include: a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to Germany; the "J. Warren Nystrom" Award from the AAG for the most outstanding research based upon a dissertation in Geography; membership in Gamma Theta Upsilon, the International Geographical Honor Society; and listing in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in Science and Engineering. At MSU, awards he has received include: the "Super Advisor" award for garnering "Outstanding Advisor" awards ten years in a row; an outstanding teaching award; the "Global Citizen Award" for major contributions to globalization efforts; being named a "Teaching Scholar Fellow;" and he has delivered the annual "Frontier Forum" university distinguished lectureship.
His Ph.D. is in Geography (1997) from Arizona State University. He earned the M.A. in Geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1988), and he earned the B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley in Conservation of Natural Resources (1984). Dr. Friend has held several invited appointments: Guest Professor at the Institut für Geographie, Universität Erlangen, Germany in 2004 – 2005 and 2007; Visiting Scientist at the Geological Research Division of Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He has held summer lectureships with Wildlands Research in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska; and with The Mountain Institute, headquartered in Washington, D.C.
In addition to academic pursuits, Dr. Friend is a mountaineer, husband, and father and remains active in the community. He instructed for the Colorado Outward Bound School seasonally from 1987 to 1994, is married with three children and is an officer in his local chapter of Rotary International.
