UW-Platteville’s new geography lecturer, Jackson Zimmerman, has studied and researched in nearly every corner of the United States including Alaska. Zimmerman earned his master’s at the University of Vermont and his Ph.D. at the University of Washington and prior to becoming a lecturer at UW-Platteville, Zimmerman had the opportunity to work six years for National Geographic as expedition leader as well as living out in Santa Cruz, Calif. He has also spent the last nine summers up in Alaska doing research and enjoying the incredible wildlife it has to offer. Zimmerman chose UW-P at this point in his career for the students-centered environment.

“I wanted to be a school that focuses more on education and teaching the [students], rather than research.” He also said that he really enjoys the rural country area that is Platteville and the environment in which Platteville is located.

Zimmerman teaches a lot of different geography classes ranging from world geography to more specialized Europe and North America.

Devine Nzegwu, a senior international studies major describes Zimmerman as “very open minded professor who initiates heavy topics that lead to great discussions.”

Not only are students responding well to Zimmerman being a new professor here on campus, other teachers in the geography department are as well. Geography professor Richard Waugh, one of Zimmerman’s co-workers said, “I have found Jackson to be very professional, very knowledgeable, and very pleasant to be around. He is a great colleague. He has brought some wonderful new ideas on teaching to the department – ideas that I am going to try to utilize in my classroom.”

Zimmerman said favorite thing about being a lecturer is that he loves “being able see students make the connection and understand something — a light bulb moment.”