The Hirotada Kohno Award for Outstanding Service to the RSAI
Winners
2024
The committee (made up of Prof. Hans Westlund, RSAI President, Chair; Prof. Yoshiro Higano and Prof. Jean-Claude Thill, LRPC members; and Prof. Elizabeth Mack, RSAI Council member) in charge of selecting the recipient of the 2024 Hirotada Kohno award recommended Prof. André Torrre to be the recipient of the award. The motivation provided by the committee reads as follows : Professor André Torre has been active in the regional science community for almost four decades. He has been President (2019- 2023) and Vice-President (2014-2018) of the ERSA as well as a member of the ERSA Council (2009-2011) and the European Organizing Committee (2014-2019) and from 2009-2011, President of the French Speaking Section of ERSA (ASRDLF). He was Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the 47th ERSA Congress, in 2007 in Paris (Local governance and sustainable development), and the main organizer of the 60th ERSA Congress, in 2021, online (Territorial Futures – Visions and scenarios for a resilient Europe). For a long period he has also served as a member of the RSAI Council. He also lent his leadership skills in various editorial capacities and in steering conferences, workshops, summer schools, and symposia in Europe and beyond. His long and dedicated work for regional science at the highest levels makes him a worthy recipient of the Kohno Award. |
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2023
The committee (made up of Hans Westlund, RSAI president; Yoshiro Higano and Eduardo Haddad, LRPC members; and Lily Kiminami, RSAI Council member) in charge of selecting the recipient of the 2023 Hirotada Kohno award recommended Prof. Daniela Constantin (RRSA) to be the recipient of the award. The motivation provided by the committee reads as follows : Dr Daniela Constantin, Professor of Regional and Urban Economics and Policy at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, has served the Regional Science community since the early 1990s. She has been the main character behind the establishment and development of the Romanian Section of the RSAI, for which she has served as President for over twenty years. Also, she is the Scientific Director of the Romanian Journal of Regional Science (founded 2007). Daniela Constantin has been a member of the ERSA Council for more than 20 years, and has over the years had an innumerable number of commissions for ERSA. Currently, she is one of the editors of the “Papers in Regional Science” under Rosella Nicolini’s leadership as well as a member of the editorial boards of “Regional Science Policy and Practice” and “Region”. When the RSAI World Congress was held in Timisoara 2012, Professor Constantin served as Co-President of the Organising Committee. Thereafter, she has among other things been elected as Councilor-at-Large of the RSAI Council for two consecutive terms (2020-2022 and 2023-2025). Dr Daniela Constantin’s long-term, selfless involvement at different levels in the Regional Science community makes her a worthy recipient of the Kohno Award. |
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2022
The Jury (Eduardo Haddad, Chair, Lily Kiminami, Yoshiro Higano, and Geoffrey Hewings) would like to propose that the award for 2022 be made to Professor Jouke van Dijk (University of Groningen). In similar fashion to Professor Kohno, Van Dijk started his involvement with the Dutch section of RSAI during which time he served as co-organizer and member of the LOC of the ERSA meetings in Groningen in 1982, 1994 and 2017. For the decade of the 1990s, he served as Executive Secretary of the Dutch section with the responsibility for organizing two meetings each year. When Professor Juan Cuadrado Roura became President of ERSA in 1995, he proposed that van Dijk be appointed as Executive Secretary of ERSA and the European Organizing Committee (EOC) and he served in this position from 1996-2001. He remained a member of the EOC for all but three years between 1993 and 2019. From 2007-2019 he served as either ERSA or Papers in Regional Science representative on the RSAI Council. During this period, he also served as President of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) from 2014-2018. In addition to his section/ERSA/RSAI duties, he also served in an editorial capacity. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Papers in Regional Science, 2007-2012; prior to this, he was the European Editor of Papers in Regional Science, 2005-2007. In 2012, he was appointed as one of the editors of the Springer Regional Science Series Advances in Spatial Science. In these positions, he has helped advance scholarship, especially of younger scholars, to print. In all of these positions, he worked tirelessly to enhance the quality and participation of sections in ERSA and he managed to enhance the stature of PiRS through his work in soliciting the best papers from conferences and generating a sense among authors that this was a journal of increasing prestige. He has also enhanced RSAI/ERSA’s visibility in the EU DG REGIO division by organizing a lecture series and University workshops at the annual European Week of Regions and Cities. He was also an initiator in promoting the participation of ERSA in the Masterclass for young scholars and University workshops at the annual European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC, former Open Days) co-organized with EU DG REGIO in Brussels; each year, over 6.000 participants attended from regions all over Europe. In addition, Co-founder and co-organizer of the series of annual International Workshops on ‘Regional, Urban, and Spatial Economics’ (RUSE) in China. He has promoted regional sections within Europe as a member of the Editorial Board Review of Regional Research (Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft) since 2013 and as a member of the International Scientific Board of Investigaciones Regionales, the review of the Spanish Association, since 2014. Further, he has served on juries for prizes, organized congresses, round tables, and well as being an active participant at congresses and meetings, in numerous European sections (French Speaking., German Speaking, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and in the Nordic countries). These are contributions that are often overlooked but turn out to be critical in creating a sense of community among regional scientists. Over three decades, Professor van Dijk has demonstrated a continuing, sustained commitment to enhancing the organization of regional science in his various leadership capacities. ERSA is now one of the strongest of the multinational organizations within RSAI; prior to COVID, attendance of 800-1,000 at the annual meeting was not unusual. Through his leadership and dedication, Professor van Dijk has made a difference that has promoted and enhanced Regional Science and the Jury feels that he would be a most deserving recipient of the Hirotada Kohno Award for Outstanding Service to Regional Science. |
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2021
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2020
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2018
Congratulations to Roberta Capello who is the winner of the 2018 Kohno Prize. Roberta Capello is Full professor of Regional Economics at Politecnico of Milan, Faculty of Building Engineering. Congratulations! |
2017
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2016
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2014
Congratulations to Yoshiro Higano who is the winner of the 2014 Kohno Prize. Higano is Professor of Environmental Policy, Doctoral Program in Sustainable Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba. Japan. He specializes in Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation, Environmental Remediation Technology Assessment and Environmental Policy. Congratulations! |
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2013
Congratulations to Robert Stimson who is the winner of the 2013 Kohno Prize. Bob Stimson is a quantitative human geographer and regional scientist. He has been teaching and conducting research in universities since 1965. He retired from the University of Queensland in January 2011. Congratulations! |
2012
Congratulations to Jean-Claude Thill who is the winner of the 2012 Kohno Prize. Jean-Claude Thill is currently the Knight Distinguished Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte, and he has held past positions at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York and the University of Georgia. Congratulations! |
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2011
Congratulations to Graham Clarke who is the winner of the 2011 Kohno Prize. Graham Clarke is Professor in School of Geography, University of Leeds since 2004. Congratulations! |
2010
The third winner of the prestigious Hirotado Kohno award, for outstanding service to the regional science community, was announced at the ERSA conference in Sweden. The award of the 2010 Kohno Prize went to Gunther Maier of WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. |
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2009
Congratulations to Lay Gibson who is the winner of the 2009 Kohno Prize. He is based at the University of Arizona. Congratulations!
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2007
RSAI is delighted to announce the winner of the 1st Kohno Prize, Kieran Donaghy of Cornell University for his many contributions to RSAI, PRSCO and the Western Regional Science Association. His principal contribution came as Executive Director of RSAI (1997-2002). At the time he was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Congratulations Kieran! |
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André Torre awarded the Kohno prize!
Daniela Constantin awarded the Kohno prize!
Congratulations to 
Prof. 
Congratulations to 
1. Goal
The Award honours and thanks a member of the RSAI who has provided long and outstanding service to the development and organization of Regional Science and to the development and management of RSAI at the International and/or Supra-Regional, including an outstanding contribution to the development of Regional Science at the Local Section level.
2. The Award
2.1 The Award is established to recognize and honour the outstanding service contribution Professor Hirotada Kohno has made to the Regional Science community, and especially his role in the development of PRSCO and the Japan Section of RSAI.
2.2 The Award recognizes outstanding service to the RSAI has incorporated service extending beyond the local level and which incorporates service of an international nature.
2.3 No more than two (2) Awards may be given in any one calendar year.
2.4 Awards will be presented at one of the three RSAI super-regional meetings/conferences (NARSC, ERSA, PRSCO) or at the RSAI World Congress.
3. Nomination Process
3.1 In the last quarter of each calendar year, the RSAI Executive Director will contact the RSAI Council, the Councils/Boards of NARSC, ERSA and PRSCO, and the Councils/Boards of all affiliated RSAI Sections, calling for written nominations of potential candidates for the Hirotada Kohno Award for Outstanding Service to the RSAI.
3.2 A nomination of a candidate for consideration for the Award must be made in writing by the President and/or Secretary and/or Executive Officer of an official body within RSAI - that is, the RSAI itself; NARSC, ERSA, PRSCO; or a Section of RSAI.
3.3 A written nomination of a candidate for consideration for the Award must include a detailed statement of the nature of the service contribution a candidate has made to RSAI. It must explain how and why that service contribution of the nominee meets the goal of the Award. It should contain testimonials from at least three persons who have held high office and/or currently hold high office in the organization within RSAI that is making the nomination. It must be demonstrated that the long and outstanding service of the nominee extends beyond the local Section of RSAI in the case where a Section of RSAI is initiating the nomination.
3.4 Nominations for the Award are to close by the end of January the following calendar year.
4. Jury and Process for Recommending Awardees
4.1 In the last quarter of each year, a four person Jury will be named by the RSAI Council to consider nominations for the H. Kohno Award for Outstanding Service to the RSAI.
4.2 The Jury shall comprise the current RSAI President, one current member of the RSAI Council, and two Past Presidents of the RSAI.
4.3 The Jury will convene (in person and/or by email/teleconference) after January in the following calendar year.
4.4 The Jury will evaluate the nominations received and passed onto it by the RSAI Executive Director. The Jury will submit its recommendation(s) to the RSAI Executive Director by the end of March in that year.
4.5 The recommendation will then be communicated by the RSAI Executive Director to the members of the RSAI Council, with Members of the Council having two weeks in which to inform the Executive Director of any dissent they may have regarding the recommendation.
4.6 If more than one-third of Council members expresses their dissent regarding a recommendation for the Award, then the recommendation will lapse.
4.7 The President and/or the Executive Director of RSAI shall inform the person(s) recommended for the Award before the end of June in that calendar year. The awardee(s) will be invited to attend one of the Supra-Regional (NARSC, ERSA, PRSCO) meetings or the RSAI World Congress to receive the Award.