Boosting awareness of geography in the community and improving links between university geographers and geography teachers in primary and secondary schools is the aim of the recently elected president of the New Zealand Geographical Society.
Prof Tony Binns, of the University of Otago, will start his two-year term in January.
English-born Prof Binns,a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a former head of the Otago geography department, said geography was sometimes viewed in an outdated way.
But geographers had special strengths in "understanding the relationship between people and the environment" and were well placed to analyse and comment on many topical issues, including global climate change and the tsunami devastation in Samoa.
He has been the Ron Lister Professor of Geography at Otago since 2004 and will continue his university work while under-taking his part-time presidential duties.
Prof Binns was elected president of the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau last year, and is a former president of the British-based Geographical Association.
