Prof. Gregory Veeck Western Michigan University, USA

Gregory Veeck is a professor in the Department of Geography at Western Michigan University specializing in economic geography, agriculture, rural development, and rural environmental/ecological issues. Most of his international research is conducted in Asia, and he has lived and worked in China for approximately 6.5 years beginning with a first... read morevisit of seven months to Taiwan in 1985. He has enduring research contacts with a number of research units and universities in China including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing), Nanjing Agricultural University, Jilin University, Beijing Normal University, and Sichuan Agricultural University. Since fall of 2008, he has served as a consultant to the Asian Development Bank on two agricultural development loan projects related to improvements to agricultural production systems and agricultural infrastructure (Projects # 7311 and 7170) and on one World Bank Project in Shaanxi Province. Articles based on research projects have been published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Great Lakes Geographer, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Economic Geography, Geographical Review, World Development, Asia-Pacific Viewpoint, Focus (American Geographical Society), Chinese Environment and Development, Asian Geographer, and The Professional Geographer. He is the editor or co-editor of five volumes, was on the editorial board for the 2009 five-volume Encyclopedia of China, and is the primary author of the leading textbook for "Geography of China" classes (admittedly, not too big a pond!). Nonetheless, the second edition of this text, China's Geography: Globalization and the Dynamics of Political, Economic, and Social Change, was published in the fall of 2011.