The University of New Mexico

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Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

November 10, 2006

UNM Geography Professor Recognized with History of Science Society's 2006 Price Webster Award

University of New Mexico Geography Professor K. Maria D. Lane was recently named the recipient of the Derek Price/Rod Webster Award for her article titled, “Geographers of Mars: Cartographic Inscription and Exploration Narrative in Late Victorian Representations of the Red Planet.” The award, given annually by the History of Science Society since 1979, recognizes the best work published in the Society's journal Isis

“Geographers of Mars” appeared in the December 2005 issue of Isis . In the article, Lane explains the power of Giovanni Schiaparelli's 1877 map of Mars in terms of 19th-century geography – when “prestige inhered in putting things on the map, not taking them off.”

“By alerting us to the seductiveness of maps as representations of reality, to the role of visual intuition and deceptive analogy in reading maps and terrain, and to the rhetoric of place names in an imperial age,” said Committee Chair Karen Reeds. “It shows us how much historians of science have to learn from geographers.”

The award, which carries a prize of $1,000, was formally presented recently at the History of Science Society annual meeting in Vancouver, BC.

The History of Science Society is the world's largest society dedicated to understanding science, technology, medicine, and their interactions with society in historical context. Over 3,000 individual and institutional members across the world support the Society's mission to foster interest in the history of science and its social and cultural relations.


The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

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