Nearly two dozen recognized for contributions to global research and action in geography
Tuesday – The American Association of Geographers (AAG) has announced its 2021 and 2022 Fellows, recognizing twenty-three geographers in a variety of practice areas for their contributions to geographic research, advancement of practice, and careers devoted to strengthening the field of geography, including teaching and mentoring. The honorary title of AAG Fellow is conferred for life.
AAG Fellows serve the AAG as an august body to address, contribute to, and at times create initiatives to advance the discipline. Fellows also advise AAG on strategic directions and challenges, and mentor early- and mid-career faculty.
“AAG Fellows are the standard-bearers of excellence in geography,” said Gary Langham, Executive Director of AAG. “Their breadth and experience provide key insights and perspectives on the world’s spaces and places. We are grateful for their leadership and advice in advancing AAG and the field.”
The AAG Fellows Selection Committee has recommended two classes of Fellows comprising twenty-three individuals to serve as its 2021 and 2022 classes. (The 2021 Class of AAG Fellows is being announced a year later, as the guidelines for the Fellows program underwent revisions by the AAG Council last year). The full list of Fellows follows this press release.
For interviews or further information, contact Lisa Schamess, phone 202.234.1450, ext 1164 or [email protected]
For more than 100 years, The American Association of Geographers (AAG) has contributed to the advancement of geography. Our members from nearly 100 countries share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography, which they cultivate through the AAG’s Annual Meeting, scholarly journals (Annals of the American Association of Geographers, The Professional Geographer, the AAG Review of Books and GeoHumanities), and the online AAG Newsletter. The AAG is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1904.
2021 Fellows, American Association of Geographers
Dr. Derek Alderman, Professor and former Department Head, University of Tennessee-Knoxville School of Geography. A cultural and historical geographer focusing on landscapes of public memory, the politics of mobility and travel, race, and social/spatial justice. Dr. Alderman has an extensive record of publicizing geographical insights in the media through hundreds of interviews, citations, and quotes, including many national outlets. He was honored with the 2014 Media Achievement Award and has served the AAG in many capacities, including as AAG Regional Councilor and as AAG President.
Dr. Mona Domosh, the Joan P. and Edward J. Foley Jr. 1933 Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College and Director of Dartmouth’s Society of Fellows, is one of the pioneers of feminist geography and a driving force behind making the discipline more welcoming to women.
Dr. Iain Hay, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Geography in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and former foundation Dean (Education) for the College at Flinders University. Dr. Hay’s work attends to understanding and overcoming geographies of domination and oppression, giving particular attention to education and ethics. He has contributed extensively to the international development of the discipline of geography.
Dr. Harvey J. Miller, Bob and Mary Reusche Chair in Geographic Information Science, Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at The Ohio State University. Dr. Miller is a pioneering transportation geographer who has contributed to analytical time geography, GIScience and spatial analysis, and sustainable mobility. His work has also focused on diversity and inclusion in transportation science and policy.
Dr. Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University has been influential across cartography and geographic information science in the study of political, rhetorical, and social impacts of maps, as well as in optimization methods for map design.
Dr. Judy Olson, Professor Emerita at Michigan State University. Her career has been highly distinguished as a leader in cartographic research. Dr. Olson is recognized for a variety of leadership roles in the discipline and at the AAG, and for her extensive scholarship, mentorship, and leadership.
Dr. Paul F. Starrs, Regents and Foundation Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, is an award-winning cultural and historical geographer of the American West. His research on ranching, agriculture, and landscape change has had an indelible impact on the discipline.
Dr. Qihao Weng, Chair Professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Change at Indiana State University, is a leader in the development of the field of urban remote sensing. He is widely known for having developed a methodology for estimating land surface temperatures that has been widely applied and cited in a range of other disciplines. He has helped lead the field of remote sensing at the AAG and beyond.
Dr. John P. Wilson, Professor of Sociology and Spatial Sciences and Founding Director of the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, is a renowned international scholar and leader, whose prolific research has focused on modeling coupled human and environmental systems with extensive use of GIS, spatial analysis, and computer models.
Dr. May Yuan, Ashbel Smith Professor of Geospatial Information Sciences and Director, Geospatial Analytics and Innovative Applications Laboratory at the University of Texas-Dallas, is a leading scholar in GIScience and world-leading researcher in the representation of complex spatiotemporal phenomena, has been a pivotal contributor to advancing geographic representation, space-time analytics, spatiotemporal modeling, and temporal GIS.
2022 Fellows, American Association of Geographers
Dr. Li An, Professor of Geography and founding Director of the Complex Human-Environment Systems Center at San Diego State University is a creative and ground-breaking geographer whose work on agent-based modeling and space-time analysis has significantly improved our ability to model human environment processes, in particular land use change.
Dr. Budhendra Bhaduri, Corporate Research Fellow and Director of Geospatial Science and Human Security Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is a world leader in innovation, development, and application of research in human dynamics, geographic data science, remote sensing, and scalable geocomputation. His cross-disciplinary approach has demonstrated the importance of integrating the geographic sciences with other disciplines to address key societal issues.
Dr. Jennifer Collins, Professor of geosciences, University of South Florida, has advanced research at the intersection of geography and meteorology/climatology, changing practice in operational meteorology, increasing public understanding of science, and inspired students from wide-ranging backgrounds. She has won numerous awards, including the AAG Harm J. de Blij Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.
Dr. Chansheng He, Professor and Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Western Michigan University, has worked to combine data gathering through remote sensing with GIS analysis and data management to link data at various spatial scales, bringing together knowledge from fields across the social and physical sciences to examine how land management affects water resources.
Dr. Sally Horn, professor of geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is a world leader in physical geography and the study of long-term climate and ecological change, and has been a pioneer in the development and application of multi-proxy paleoecological research in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the southeastern US.
Dr. Wendy Jepson, University Professor and Chancellor’s EDGES Fellow in the Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, and Associate Director, Texas Water Resources Institute and AgriLife Dallas Research Center, is an internationally recognized leader in water security issues and has conducted and presented water security research in an impressive list of countries. Dr. Jepson is a Fulbright Scholar (Brazil, 2016-2017) and a recipient of several National Science Foundation grants that focus on water security. Jepson was one of the founders of the Household Water Insecurities (HWISE) network which has developed a cross-cultural indicator for household water security. She has served in numerous volunteer capacities at AAG, including National Councilor, and received the 2015 AAG Diversity & Inclusion Award.
Dr. Kam-Biu Liu, Professor and Chair, George W. Barineau III Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, is considered the world’s leading expert on paleotempestology (the use of geological evidence in identifying past hurricane activity) and paleoecological reconstruction (the use of pollen and sedimentary data in studying environmental changes), who has also produced internationally recognized collaborative research on the use of pollen in ice cores for paleoenvironmental reconstruction from alpine ice caps in China and South America.
Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Raymond Dickson Centennial Professor #1 and recent Geography and Environment Department Chair at The University of Texas-Austin, has carried out research fieldwork in the extraordinarily harsh tropical environments of lowland eastern Central America in support of work on reconstructing Mayan paleoenvironments. She has served in several capacities at AAG, including as 2018-2019 President.
Dr. Frank Magilligan, Frank J. Reagan ’09 Chair of Policy Studies and professor of geography at Dartmouth College, is recognized both for the excellence of his teaching and for his outstanding research addressing stream channel and watershed responses to environmental change, including research on catastrophic floods and extreme weather events. He has served as the Chair and Secretary/Treasurer of the Geomorphology Specialty Group of the AAG, on the AAG’s Nystrom Award Committee, and twice been a member of the Annals of the AAG editorial board.
Dr. George Malanson, Coleman-Miller Professor, Emeritus, University of Iowa, is the world’s foremost expert on riparian landscapes. He served for many years as Chair at the University of Iowa and was the Program Director of the Population and Community Ecology Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology for two years at the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Jean-Claude Thill is Knight Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Thill is highly regarded for his substantial research and training contributions to quantitative human geography and GIScience sub-field, and his commitment to developing new spatial analytic tools to continue advancing the discipline.
Dr. Shaowen Wang, Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), is the founding director of the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies at UIUC. He coined the term cyberGIS and developed the first theoretical framework of cyberGIS, offering novel approaches to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary geospatial discovery and innovation.
Dr. Xinyue Ye is the Harold L. Adams Endowed Professor on Interdisciplinary Built Environment Research, and Associate Professor of Provost Investment Hire for Urban Planning at Texas A&M University, where he is the founding director of Urban Data Science Lab. Ye has an outstanding publication record and numerous federal grants to promote human-centered urban informatics, especially the convergent research across disciplines towards urban sustainability and community resilience.
FOR INTERVIEWS OR INFORMATION, CONTACT Lisa Schamess, phone 202.234.1450, ext 1164 or [email protected]
