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RSAmericas
The North American Regional Science Council
THE BENJAMIN H. STEVENS 2010-2011 GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN REGIONAL SCIENCE

Graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. programs in North America are encouraged to apply for the Eleventh Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship in Regional Science, administered by the North American Regional Science Council of the Regional Science Association International (RSAmericas-RSAI). This Fellowship, in support of thesis research in Regional Science, is awarded annually in memory of Dr. Benjamin H. Stevens, an intellectual leader whose selfless devotion to graduate students as teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend had a profound impact on the field. Regional Science is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the theory and method of urban and regional phenomena. Regional Scientists use theoretical frameworks and methods of the social and other sciences, as well as develop new ones specifically for regional analysis and policy.

Eligible students should have completed all degree requirements except for their dissertation by the time the Fellowship commences. A requirement of the Fellowship is that the recipient has no duties other than dissertation research during the Fellowship, though the recipient may hold other fellowships concurrently. Applications from students working in any area or any Ph.D. program are welcome as long as their dissertation research addresses a question in Regional Science.

The Fellowship consists of a stipend in the amount of $29,000 ( U.S.), paid over a twelve-month period. Applications for the 2010-2011 Fellowship should be addressed to the selection committee chair, Professor Ed Coulson This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and dated by February 15, 2010. An application consists of the following materials:

1. A curriculum vita of no more than two (2) pages in length.

2. A statement in ten (10) pages or less explaining the questions and issues to be addressed, the approach to be used, and the product expected from the thesis research, preceded by a summary (1-page maximum) describing the intellectual merit of the proposed research, and the broader impacts that may result. The 10-page limit is inclusive of references, but exclusive of tables and figures. This text should be in 12 point or larger font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins; references may be single-spaced.

3. The candidate’s transcripts for all graduate study. Unofficial copies are acceptable.

In addition, the thesis supervisor shall provide a confidential letter sent separately as an attachment from her/his email account with the student's name in the subject line to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . In the letter the supervisor should assess the quality and significance of the proposed dissertation research, specify the current state of progress toward the candidate’s degree and provide a commitment by the thesis supervisor to obtain a tuition waiver for the candidate for the year of the Fellowship. A condition of the Fellowship is the granting of a tuition waiver for the year of the Fellowship by the university, or equivalent payment of the student’s tuition.

Applications should be émailed to Professor Ed Coulson This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .Questions may also be sent to him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . For information about RSAmericas, go to http://www.rsamericas.org/ . For information about RSAI, go to http://www.rsai.org. 

 

PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE BENJAMIN H. STEVENS GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN REGIONAL SCIENCE

The Fellowship is awarded in memory of Dr. Benjamin H. Stevens, an intellectual leader whose selfless devotion to graduate students as teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend continues to have a profound impact on the field of Regional Science. Fundraising efforts to increase the Fellowship's endowment are ongoing. Donations should be sent to: The Stevens Fellowship Fund, Busey Wealth Management, P.O. Box 260, Champaign, IL 61824-0260 USA. Checks should be drawn to The Stevens Fellowship Fund.

The Stevens Fellowship is administered by a committee on behalf of the North American Regional Science Council; David Boyce serves as Secretary and Michael Lahr as Treasurer. The 2009-10 Stevens Fellowship competition was judged by a selection committee consisting of: Edward Feser, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, chair; Brigitte Waldorf, Agricultural Economics, Purdue University; Ed Coulson, Economics, Penn State University; Cynthia Rogers, Economics, University of Oklahoma; Lawrence Brown, Geography, Ohio State University; and.

The Committee thanks all students who entered the competition this year, as well as their doctoral supervisors. Faculty at all North American Ph.D. programs are asked to encourage their best students to apply for the Tenth Annual Stevens Graduate Fellowship, which will support the winning student's thesis research in the field of Regional Science with a fellowship of $29,000 for the 2010-2011 year. The application deadline is February 15, 2010. Full submission guidelines may be found at http://www.narsc.org/bapp.html.

Elizabeth Mack, a doctoral student in geography at the Indiana University has been selected as the winner of the Tenth Annual Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship in Regional Science. The Fellowship will provide a $28,000, one-year stipend to support Mack in her research entitled, “The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) on Knowledge Intensive Firm Location.” Mack’s research is a multi-scalar empirical evaluation of the relative importance of ICTs to firms in knowledge industries, with a focus on broadband technologies. The research will provide an understanding of how future innovations in space-time shrinking technologies, like broadband Internet connections, impact the locational advantages of regional economies and their subsequent future prospects for growth and development. Her research is supervised by Assistant Professor Tony H. Grubesic of the IU Department of Geography.

 

Since 2000, the Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship in Regional Science was also awarded to the following students:
 
  • 2000 - Michael J. Greenwald (University of California, Irvine; Marlon Boarnet, advisor)
  • 2001 - Rachel Franklin (University of Arizona; Brigitte Waldorf, advisor)
  • 2002 - JungWon Son (University of California-Los Angeles; Leobardo Estrada, advisor)
  • 2003 - Alison Davis (North Carolina State University; V. Kerry Smith, advisor)
  • 2004 - Nicholas Nagle (Univ. of California-Santa Barbara; Stuart H. Sweeney, advisor)
  • 2005 - Xiaokun Wang (University of Texas at Austin; Kara Kockelman, advisor)
  • 2006 - Joshua Drucker (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Harvey Goldstein and Edward Feser, advisors)
  • 2007 - Alvin Murphy ( Duke University; Patrick Bayer, advisor)
  • 2008 - Paavo Monkkonen (University of California, Berkeley; David E. Dowall, advisor)


THE WILLLIAM ALONSO MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR INNOVATIVE WORK IN REGIONAL SCIENCE

The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science was established by the Council of RSAI in 1999. The objective of the Prize is to recognize the recent innovative research contribution of Regional Science scholars in the spirit of Dr. William Alonso. The Prize is awarded biennially to one or more scholars who have published innovative academic work (in English language). The First Alonso Prize was awarded to Masahisa Fujita and Paul Krugman in November 2002, the Second Prize to Jacques Francois Thisse in November 2004, and the Third Prize to Luc Anselin and Ann Markusen in November 2006 in Toronto, Ontario.

 

Announcement for the Fourth Alonso Prize

Nominations Invited:

Any member of RSAI may nominate a scholar who has produced one or more eligible works during the recent past. The nomination will be accompanied by a short statement giving the reasons of nomination as well as the nominated academic work itself. Nomination for the Fourth Alonso Prize should be made on or before May 15, 2007 to any of the members of the Alonso Prize Committee (see below). The awardee for 2008 will be announced in November 2007, and the award will be given in November 2008.

 

Selection Process of the Award:

Eligibility - Any scholarly work that has been published in a refereed journal or book in the English language in the recent past, regardless of the country of residence of the author or the location of the publisher, is eligible for consideration of the Prize. Publication through the Internet will be considered if there is a refereeing process. A Ph. D. dissertation, before its publication in its entirety or in part in refereed medium, is not eligible. The recent past will be interpreted as the past 3-10 years. Selection is based on the following criteria:

  • Innovativeness - The work introduces an innovative concept or an approach for understanding of human or organizational activity or behavior in space.

 

  • Expected Impact on Future Academic Development - The extent of the impact the work will likely have on the development of the academic studies in the respective field.
  • Completeness - The work should be completed as an academic work in the sense that meaningful conclusions are derived.

 

William Alonso Memorial Prize Committee

The selection will be made by the Prize Committee comprising:

  • Professor Andrew Isserman, Chair, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Professor Luc Anselin, Treasurer, Arizona State University, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Professor Roger Bolton, Williams College, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Professor Amy Glasmeier, Pennsylvania State University, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Professor Kyung-Hwan Kim, Sogan University, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Professor Ann Markusen, University of Minnesota, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Professor Koichi Mera, Secretary, University of Southern California, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

 

THE DAVID BOYCE AWARD FOR SERVICE TO REGIONAL SCIENCE

This award honors Professor David Boyce, a prominent figure in Regional Science who promoted the Regional Science Association for a number of years and was instrumental in its long term success. The award acknowledges the service contributions that members have made to Regional Science organizations.

Randy has been a tireless supporter and promoter of regional science in his current role as Director of the Regional Research Institute at West Virginia University, and recent service as 2006 Chair of the North American Regional Science Council. In addition to serving as a council member for RSAI, North American Regional Science Council, the Southern and Western Regional Science Associations, Randy has served the Regional Science Association International by establishing and maintaining its primary Internet web site and acted as editor of the Association's Newsletter. His most recent promotion relates to the Regional Science Research Forum, an online forum for those interested in regional science topics and information, and Randy has continued the efforts started by Scott Loveridge on the Web Book of Regional Science. Randy has served on
numerous editorial boards of journals including: Geographical Analysis, Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Papers in Regional Science, International Regional Science Review, Australasian Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Regional Science, and others. He has served on numerous National Science Foundation panels devoted to urban and regional issues, and has been involved in organizing national and international conferences devoted to input-output methodology and practice.

We would like to thank Randall Jackson for his untiring support with the David Boyce Award for distinguished service to regional science.

Past recipients of this prestigious award include the following regional scientists:

 

THE GEOFFREY J. D. HEWINGS AWARD

 At the annual North American Conference of the RSAI, the RSAmericas Council bestows the Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Award. The award is named in honor of Professor Hewings, who over the years introduced numerous graduate students to regional science and mentored them as young scholars. The award recognizes distinguished contributions to regional science research by scholars who have recently completed doctoral studies.

Past recipients of his prestigious award include the following regional scientists:

 

THE WALTER ISARD AWARD FOR SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENT

The Walter Isard Award for Scholarly Achievement is named in honor of Walter Isard, founder of the Regional Science Association. The award was presented at the 1994 North American Regional Science Association meeting by the RSAmericas Council. The award pays tribute to regional scientists who have made significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of regional science throughout their careers.

Past recipients of this presitgious award include the following regional scientists:

RSAmericas Graduate Student Paper Award

The North American Regional Science Council (RSAmericas) is pleased to announce the finalists and winners of the first RSAmericas Graduate Student Paper Award contest. Results of the competition were announced at the 2006 annual North American meetings of RSAI held in Toronto, Ontario. Seventeen papers entered the contest and the following six finalists were selected by the review panels: Akio Kawazaki, Hua Kiefer, Thomas Light, Steven Poelhekke, Mauricio Ramirez-Grajeda, Brenda Zhou,  The winners of the 2006 competition are Thomas Light (Cornell University) and Steven Poelhekke (European University Institute).Winners and finalists received cash and in-kind prizes. 

 

The 2007 contest took place in Savannah, GA, with twelve submissions and four finalists: Cristina Checherita, Sebastian Findeisen, Chen Feng Ng, and Amaya Vega. The first prize winner was Amaya Vega, University College Dublin. NARSC is pleased to announce the finalists and winners of the third NARSC Graduate Student Paper Prize contest.

 

The 2008 contest took place in Brooklyn, NY, and received corporate support from ESRI, Wiley-Blackwell, and Edward Elgar. The four finalists of this contest are Nathan Schiff, Todd A. Kuethe, Valerien O. Pede, Wu Jianfeng, and Stephen Billings. The first prize winner is Stephen Billings, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.