The votes have now been counted and the final result is

190 for the changes - 6 against the changes

The constitutional changes are therefore approved.

Thank you all for your votes (and comments).

The 6 against were mainly concerned with the wording regarding the section's option of which Supra Regional Organization it would belong to. The intent of the wording was to enable a section to self determine what and how many Supra Regionals it would join. We are initiating discussions to address the issue and try to clarify the wording.

Best wishes

Graham Clarke

Roger Stough

Roberta Capello

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

RSAI members are invited to nominate distinguished scholars for consideration to become 2010 Fellows of RSAI. The nomination process can be initiated by any member of RSAI and consists of a letter of nomination, detailing the scientific merit and contribution of the nominee and an up to date curriculum vitae. Current Fellows are not allowed to submit nominations. To ensure full consideration by the committee, these materials should be provided in electronic format (pdf preferred) by January 31, 2010 to Geoffrey Hewings, Chair 2010 Fellows Election Committee at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The RSAI is dellighted to announce the new Fellows for 2009. Congratulations to all on this marvellous achievement. The presentations will take place at the three Supra-regional meetings later this year.

Here is the list in alphabetical order:

Antoine Bailly

Richard Church

Bernard Fingleton

Reginald Golledge

Peter Gordon

Daniel Griffith

Keith Ihlanfeldt

James LeSage

Janice Madden

Piet Rietveld

Anthony Venables

RSAI has the great pleasure to announce that the jury of the Martin Beckmann Prizehas chosen the paper "Good governance, trade and agglomeration (nr.4, p 483-504) by Fabien Candau (Université de Pau) as the best paper published in 2008 in PiRs and thus as the winner of the Martin Beckmann Prize 2009. Many congratulations to Fabien.

Elizabeth Mack, Indiana University, Selected to Receive the Tenth Annual Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship in Regional Science
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.
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 2009-10 Stevens Fellowship competition was judged by a Selection Committee composed of: Edward Feser, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, chair; Brigitte Waldorf, Agricultural Economics, Purdue University; Edward Coulson, Economics, Penn State University; Cynthia Rogers, Economics, University of Oklahoma; and Lawrence Brown, Geography, Ohio State University. 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 Committee thanks all students who entered the competition this year, as well as their thesis supervisors. Faculty at all North American Ph.D. programs are asked to encourage their best students to apply for the Eleventh Annual Stevens Graduate Fellowship, which will support the winning student’s thesis research in the field of Regional Science for the 2010-2011 year with a one-year stipend of $29,000. The application deadline is February 15, 2010. Full submission guidelines are posted at http://www.narsc.org/bapp.html
April 25, 2009

Steven Brakman joins the Journal of Regional Science Editorial Team

Steven Brakman has joined Marlon Boarnet and Mark Partridge as co-editor of the Journal of Regional Science. Matthew Kahn, co-editor since 2007, has left the editorial team to devote more time to his research and duties at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kahn will join past editors Andrew Haughwout, Walter Isard, Ronald Miller, Gordon Mulligan, and David Plane on the journal’s Advisory Board of Former Editors. The journal’s editorial offices will remain at UC Irvine.

Brakman provides an editorial presence in Europe, expanding the journal’s international reach. He is Professor of International Economics at the University of Groningen, and honorary Professor at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He was born in the political capital of Holland, The Hague. He studied economics at the University of Groningen where he graduated in 1981. His first working experience was at the Research Department of the Central Bank of the Netherlands, working mainly on monetary issues. He returned to the University of Groningen in 1985 to work on his Ph D, which was finished in 1991. His work has been published in the Journal of Regional Science, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Urban Economics,Journal of Economic Geography, and Regional Studies. The second edition of his book The New Introduction to Geographical Economics (Cambridge University Press), co-authored with Harry Garretsen and Charles van Marrewijk, has just been published. His website is:  http://www.eco.rug.nl/~brakman/.

Since 1958, the Journal of Regional Science has been the premier outlet for regional science scholarship. TheJRS will publish its 50th volume in 2010. That volume will feature a Golden Anniversary issue, guest edited by Gilles Duranton, which will convene leaders in regional science and allied fields who will collectively assess emerging research opportunities and challenges. The journal publishes original analytical research at the intersection of economics and quantitative geography. This includes rigorous methodological contributions and seminal theoretical pieces. The JRS is one of the most highly cited journals in urban and regional research, planning, geography, and the environment. The JRS continues to publish work that advances our understanding of the geographic dimensions of urban and regional economies, human settlements, and policies related to cities and regions. Articles appearing in recent issues cover the full span of topics within regional science, and submissions on all regional science topics are welcomed.

The 2008 Impact Factors have just been released and we are delighted to report that Papers in Regional Science has a 2008 Impact Factor of 1.259, which ranks it 23rd of 51 journals in the Geography category and 18th of 58 in Environmental Studies. This is a 119% increase on last year's Impact Factor, 0.576. Many congratulations to editor Jouke van Dijk and his editorial team, including the Blackwell production and marketing team.

The European Investment Bank (EIB)- European Prize in Regional Science was created to recognize the outstanding contribution of scholars to the advancement in regional science and in related spatial area studies. The EIB-European Prize in Regional Science is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of six eminent regional scientists, four from Europe, one from the Americas and one from the rest of the world.

The European Prizes in Regional Science were awarded since 2003. Prize winners were Peter Nijkamp, Jean Paelinck, Ake Andersson, Martin Beckmann, Jacques Thisse and Tony Venables.

The jury has decided that the 2009 prize will be awarded to Paul Cheshire, Professor Emeritus of Economic Geography, at LSE, London, for his contributions to among others the economics of land markets, and European urban and regional development.

The awarding ceremony will take place in August 2009 at the ERSA annual Congress in Lodz (Poland).  RSAI would like to add its congratulations to Paul. 

The RSAI is pleased to announce that the 2009 ISI Impact Factor data has been released and we are delighted to report that the Impact factor for Papers in Regional Science (PIRS) has increased from 1.259 to 1.397, placing the journal 23/61 in the Geography category, (vs 23 of 51 in 2008). PIRS is also now ranked 22/66 in the Environmental Studies category and 21/95 in the Public, Environmental & Occupational Health category. As you can see, the geography category has grown for 2009, and so the result for Geography is all the more impressive.This is a great result - congratulations to all the production team, especially Jouke van Dijk and his editors!