ANTOINE BAILLY

Professor Antoine (Tony) Bailly is one of the most diverse Founder’s Medal recipients to date having achieved excellence in scholarship and research but also in such arenas as institution building, international relations, teaching, leadership and in several hobbies including alpine skiing, mountain climbing and cycling. As such he serves as an exemplar of human achievement and a model for all of his RSAI colleagues. We pay tribute to his long and distinguished career as a fellow regional scientist and the leadership he has provided in bestowing the Founder’s Medal of the RSAI on him.

Tony’s scholarly contributions have first been recognized in the 70’s and 80’s in the francophone world. His textbooks in geography and regional science were best sellers with translations in Italian and Spanish. His pionnier works in behavioural geography, geography of well being and spatial medicometry found a broad recognition. Tony has published in English and other languages in the 90’s and there can be no mistake that his 300 hundred  journal articles and 32 books are a testament to a life of intense, serious and creative scholarship that has contributed broadly and deeply to regional science but also to geography, planning,  philosophy of sciences and medical analytical methodology. At the same time Tony made many and rich contributions in the form of service to these fields, various universities and other organizations in the form of institution building and capacity expansion. He chaired the Social Sciences section of the University of Geneva and became president of the University Council. In regional science Tony chaired 3 associations and RSAI to promote the concept of “universal membership”. He was also active in many planning institutions in Switzerland, France, and European Union.

Thus it is with great honor and fondness that we recognize our colleague Antoine Bailly with the 2008 award of the Founder’s Medal.

A brief listing of a selection of his achievements follows:

Selected University Positions and Related Associations

Professor of Geography, University of Geneva, INRS Montréal, School of Architecture Paris

President, University of Geneva Council

President, University of Geneva Association of University Professors

President, Association of Swiss University Professors

Honarary Doctorate: Docteur Honoris Causa University of Québec

Selected National and International Recognition (Past or Present)

 Past and Honorary President of French Speaking Regional Science Association

President, Western Regional Science Association

Vice President of ERSA and chair of the Long Range Planning Committee

President, Regional Science Association International

President, Swiss National Committee of the International Geographic Union (IGU)

President of the IGU Applied Geography Commission

Beaulieu Prize for Medicometric Research (Switzerland)

Chevalier (Knight) dans l’Ordre Nationoal du Mérite (France)

Foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Italian  Geographic Society

Past Scientific Director of the International Festival in Geography (France)

Selected Editorial Boards (Past or Present)

L’ Espace Geographique

La Revued’ Economie Régionale et Urbaine

La Revue de Géographie Alpine

Progress in Geography

La Revue canadienne de Science Régionale

Papers in Regional Science

Annals of Regional Science

Geographia Helvetica

Finisterra

Mappemonde