4:55 p.m., June 25, 2007--Delphis (Del) Levia, assistant professor of geography, was elected as chairperson for 2007-09 of the Cryosphere Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) at its recent annual meeting in San Francisco.

The Cryosphere Specialty Group is an international group of scientists who conduct research on permafrost, snow-climate interactions, snow chemistry, snow and remote sensing, cold-regions hydrology, glaciers and other forms of ice.

The group's goal is to foster communication between those involved with the cryosphere and linkages with other organizations, as well as promote research and teaching of cryospheric topics. Each year the group organizes about a dozen sessions at AAG's annual meeting and also gives two awards, one for research and the Ralph Stockman Tarr Award for the best student paper, which was won this year by Dmitry Streletskiy, a UD doctoral student.

Under Levia's leadership, the group plans to sponsor an externally funded speaker at the annual meeting and continue interaction among other groups of cryospheric scientists. In 2006, he organized a joint meeting of the Eastern Snow Conference and the Cryosphere Specialty Group at UD

Levia's research focuses on the winter hydrology and biogeochemistry of forest ecosystems and canopy-snow interaction, which is critical to the functional ecology of forests and for assessing avalanche risk of snow packs. He has ongoing research in seasonally cold regions of the United States and Peru.

Levia received his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Clarkson University and his master's degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and joined the UD faculty in 2003.