Russell Bigley, a geography graduate student, recently won second place in Intergraph Corporation’s International GeoMedia Poster Competition.

His poster, titled “How Weather Affects the Migration Patterns of the Soybean Aphid,” showed his innovative use of Geographic Information System, a computer mapping program that shows data in a visual format.

Bigley was excited to hear that he had won.

He was offered an all-expenses paid trip to the GeoSpatial World 2002 Conference in Atlanta, Ga., two weeks before the event. He decided to make the journey despite the short notice.

At the three-day GeoSpatial World Conference in June, Bigley was able to meet many people from around the world and try many new products in the industry. He also was awarded a plaque and a $350 award.

The winning project, funded by Del Monte Foods, analyzed the possible connections between the soybean aphid migration and weather patterns.

A representative from Del Monte visited David Changnon,associate geography professor and Bigley’s graduate adviser, and asked for help because of an unusual migration this past summer, Bigley said.

“Dr. Changnon suggested that I would be a good candidate to work on the project. I was already doing a special project with GIS for one of my classes and I just combined the two projects.”

Bigley investigated how varying factors could affect the migration, such as light winds versus strong winds and various precipitation patterns. The soybean aphid recently was introduced to the United States and tends to spread a virus that kills various crops, including soybean plants.

Bigley’s study suggests a lot of precipitation followed by a very dry spell could increase the migration distance of the aphids, and that weak summer winds could cause the aphids to be carried farther.

Bigley said his findings only are preliminary and not conclusive.

Del Monte followed the aphids this summer to see if the patterns remain the same.

Changnon is pleased with Bigley’s success so far.

“Russ is a hard-working young man and this was an interesting project,” he said. “It really shows how someone can take a research project and combine it with coursework.”

Dr. Wie Luo, assistant geography professor, supervised Bigley’s project and initially suggested that he enter his findings in a poster format in the contest.

Intergraph Corporation designates NIU as one the six centers of excellence for mapping science in the United States, Luo said.

Bigley didn’t know he would receive so much recognition at an international competition.

“I was the only one from the U.S. who won; the other two winners were from Europe,” he said. “I was really happy to get so far.”

Changnon assents to the distinctiveness of Bigley’s achievement.

“It’s pretty unique for one of our students to be honored in this way,” he said. “We hope this will help raise the bar for the geography program.”