On May 12th, 2017 5 year BS/MS students David Miles and Caroline Bruchman were presented with the Brian R. Melchior Memorial Endowed Research Fund for the 2016-2017 academic year. The fund, created in honor of Brian R. Melchior, was presented by the chair of the department, Dr. Christopher Justice.

Brian R. Melchior, B.S. '02 M.A. '04 passed away on Saturday, October 24, 2015 after a year-long battle with gastric cancer. Brian received both his B.S. in Environmental Science (2002) and his M.A in Geography (2004) from the University of Maryland, College Park. His master's research, which was advised by Dr. Scott Goetz, focused on utilizing land use and land cover metrics to predict stream and watershed health. He was also a Graduate Research Assistant for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Earth Science Application Center (RESAC) where he conducted Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and statistical analyses to measure and predict land use and land cover change within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Brian loved the geographical sciences and loved learning about mapping and technology. To honor Brian, his family, friends and colleagues have established this endowed research fund in his memory to provide research and academic travel funds for high achieving BS/MS students in the Department of Geographical Sciences. 

The Department, David, and Caroline sincerely thank Brian's family for this great honor.