University of Texas at Dallas issued the following announcement on May 28
A renowned geographer at The University of Texas at Dallas will receive the 2021 University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Research Award.
Dr. Brian Berry, the Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS), conducted spatial analytic research — with an early emphasis on the regional sciences — that is considered transformative to the discipline.
The award recognizes that Berry’s early research on geographic information systems — specifically his conceptualization of the geographic matrix in 1964 — continues to shape practice and to ensure conceptual and functional linkages between geographic information science technique and the field’s intellectual core.
“I have always been amazed that a brief conference paper penned on a plane from Chicago to Miami should have had such a fundamental and lasting effect on a newly emergent field, before the technological revolutions of the 1970s and 1980s enabled that field to emerge as a major new discipline,” Berry said. “I am honored that its formative role has been acknowledged.”
UCGIS is a nonprofit organization that creates and supports communities of practice for geographic information science research, education and policy endeavors in higher education.
The annual award honors an individual who made an outstanding research contribution to the discipline. Dr. Daniel A. Griffith, Ashbel Smith Professor of geospatial information sciences in EPPS, received the award in 2017.
The consortium will honor Berry on June 7 as part of its Symposium 2021 programming activities.
Berry first came to UT Dallas in 1986. He served as dean of the UT Dallas School of Social Sciences before engineering its transformation into the current-day EPPS.
“His expertise in regional economics and urban development using spatial analysis sparked a social-scientific revolution in the 1960s, transforming the discipline of geography,” said Dr. Jennifer S. Holmes, dean of EPPS and professor of political science, public policy and political economy. “He has also been an active urban and regional planner, with applied global impact, from Chicago to Indonesia. UT Dallas has benefited from his many, immeasurable contributions.”
In the 1960s Berry became the world’s most frequently cited geographer, a ranking maintained for more than a quarter-century. He is the author of more than 500 books, articles, planning reports and other professional publications.
Original source can be found here.
