Behavioral and Social Sciences Distinguished Alumni

2018 Distinguished Alumni

Timothy Beach

BA, Geography, 1986

Honor Year: 2018

Current Position: Professor, Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin; C.B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair

Timothy Beach completed his BA in geography at Chico State in 1982. After graduation, he went on to the University of Minnesota where he received his MA in geography in 1984 and PhD in 1989. Beach is currently a professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin. Throughout his distinguished career, Beach has received multiple honors and awards including the Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award by the Conference of Latin Americanists Geographers (CLAG); the C.B. Smith, Sr., Centennial Chair, UT Austin; the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation, New York; and the Georgetown University Distinguished Research Award. Beach was elected Professor of the Year in 2014 by Georgetown School of Foreign Service’s Teaching Award and was awarded the Vicennial Medal at Georgetown University. Beach has been an invited lecturer and keynote speaker at hundreds of conferences all over the world, and recently was a presenter at the Vatican Conference on Biological Extinctions in Vatican City. Beach and his wife, Sheryl, live in Austin, Texas.

Sheryl Luzzadder Beach

BA, Geography, 1982

Honor Year:2018

Current Position: Professor and Chair, Department of Geography and the Environment at University of Texas at Austin; Fellow of the C.B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico Relations; recently elected President of Association of American Geographers.

Sheryl Luzzadder Beach is professor and chair of the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas, Austin, and Fellow of the C.B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico Relations. Prior to her work at UT Austin, Luzzadder-Beach was professor of geography and associate provost at George Mason University, where she was a faculty member for more than 20 years. After graduating from Chico State in 1982 with a BA in geography, Luzzadder-Beach completed both her MA and PhD in geography from the University of Minnesota. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and she has published more than 60 peer-reviewed book chapters and articles. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Grove Karl Gilbert Outstanding Research Award in geomorphology, and received the College of Science Outstanding Publication Award at George Mason University in 2012.  She also serves as a member of multiple boards and associations, including the American Association of Geographers, the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration Grants Advisory Board, and the Science and Human Rights Coalition Council, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Luzzadder-Beach and her husband, Tim, live in Austin, Texas.