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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2018Congratulations 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 |
2014Congratulations 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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2013Congratulations 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! |
2012Congratulations 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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2011Congratulations 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! |
2010The 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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2009Congratulations 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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2007RSAI 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! |
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.
2.1 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.
3.1 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.
4.1 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.
The Regional Science Association International ( www.regionalscience.org) and the Centre of Applied Economics Studies of the Atlantic ( www.ceeapla.uac.pt) organized a Summer Course, with the theme Regional and Urban Economics that was held from the 4th till the 9th of June, 2012 in São Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal.
The goal of the Summer Course is to provide PhD-students and young researchers wit:
The summer course will take place during six highly focused and intense days of advanced training, student presentations and discussion, and discussion of career strategies. It will also include a study visit to São Miguel Island that will complete the unique experience of the summer course.
Participants were selected by the scientific committee primarily taking into account:
There were 15 applicants and 6 students from 6 countries.
The lecturers consisted of well-known researchers from all over the world, such as Geofrey Hewings, Vicente Royela Mora, Mário Fortuna, Rosário Macário, Tomaz Ponce Dentinho and José Pedro Pontes.
Professor Geoffrey J.D. Hewings
Geoffrey J.D. Hewings is responsible for the overall direction of Regional Economic Applications Laboratory (REAL), coordination with funding agencies and clients and supervision of graduate students who work for REAL on the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings obtained his B.A. from the University of Birmingham (UK) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington (Seattle). Prior to coming to Illinois in 1974, he was on the faculty of the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK) and the University of Toronto (Canada). In addition to his position in REAL, he is a Professor of Geography and Regional Science, of Economics, and of Urban and Regional Planning. His major research interests lie in the field of urban and regional economic analysis with a focus on the design, implementation and application of regional economic models. He has devoted considerable time to the way in which these models might become useful in policy formation and evaluation.
Professor José Pedro Pontes
José Pedro Pontes is born in 1957. He holds a Phd in Economics from the Technical University of Lisbon in 1987. He holds the degree "Agregação" in Economics from the same University in 1995. He is currently Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (ISEG) of the Technical University of Lisbon. He has the following interest fields: Regional and Urban Economics, International Economics and Industrial Organization. José Pedro Pontes is a member of UECE (Research Unit on Complexity in Economics). He has visited other Universities and research centers such as CORE (Catholic University of Louvain), the Department of Economics of the University of Pennsylvania, KIER (University of Kyoto), the Dresden University of Technology and the RWTH Aachen University. José Pedro Pontes has performed several administrative functions in the University. In 1995 and 1996 he was a member of the Executive of the Scientific Board of ISEG.
Professor Mário Fortuna
Full Professor Universidade dos Açores (2003) PhD in Economics - Boston College, USA (1983). Masters in Economcs - Boston College, USA (1981). BA in Economics - U.Mass. Dartmouth, USA (1978). Has taught or teaches Public Sector Economics, Public Policy, Econometrics, Business Finance, Economic Theory – micro and macro. While in the US, between 1979 and 1983, taught at Boston College and Simmons College, in Boston. Colaborated with the Portuguese Catholic University in teaching of advanced programs for managers and with the University of Madeira, as coordinator of the economics program. Hás publilshed on the Azores, on the outer most region policy, on public finance on income support programs and on econometric and CGE modelling. While in the US, colaborated with the Social Welfare Research Institute, having taken part in economic studies of the US. In the University of the Azores has held various academic management positions: President of the Cientific Council; President of the Pedagogical Council;Chairman of the Economics Department. Outside academics, was regional Secretary for the Economy (1990). Is Presidente of the Regional Chapter of the Economist’s Bar (Ordem dos Economistas). Participated, as expert on fiscal and regional issues, in three IMF missions, two to Mongólia, in 2001, and one to China, in 2002. Is involved in business development and management, in various companies. Is president of the board of a tobacco company and is in the board of various other companies. Is partner and chief consultant in consulting comnpanies.
Professor Rosário Macário
Rosario Macario, has a degree in Organization and Management since 1987, Master of Transportation since 1994, PhD in Transportation Systems since 2005, Aggregate in Civil Engineering since 2011 at Instituto Superior Técnico. She is the Coordinator of the Master in Planning and Operations of Transportation (IST), and integrates the Science Council of various Masters and Doctorates of IST; she is also visiting professor at the Faculty of Applied Economics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. She has managed and developed projects and research studies and consulting in various areas, with particular emphasis in the areas of Policy, Planning and Operation of Transport, taking over the coordination of various European and International projects. He is a member of the Board of TIS since 2000, and President of the Assembly of Shareholders since 2005. In parallel with his academic work and business, she is also Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council of WCTRS (World Conference on Transportation Research Society), and co-founder of the Pan American Society for Research in Transport and Vice Chairman of the Association of European Transport .)
Professor Tomaz Dentinho
Tomaz Ponce Dentinho is the coordinator of the Group for Nature Conservation and Management at the Azores University, in Angra, Portugal, and member of the Research Centre for Applied Economics of the Atlantic. He is the promoter and coordinator of the Master on the Management of Nature Conservation and of the PhD on Interdisciplinary Management of the Landscape. His research group, involving around ten researchers undertake studies on regional sustainable development, integrated water management, marine resources’ economics, agricultural economics and cost-benefit analysis. Since 2008, he chairs the Portuguese Association for Regional Development (www.apdr.pt). He is Executive Director of the Regional Science Association International (www.rsai.org )
Professor Vicente Royuela Mora
Assistant Professor of Applied Economics in Universitat de Barcelona. Ph.D. in Economics (Universitat de Barcelona, 2000), and member of the Regional Quantitative Analysis Research Group (AQR). My research agenda is focused in applied economics and specially in Regional and Urban Economics. I am currently developing several projects related with Quality of Life and Urban Economics, and with Real Estate.
The Scientific Committee, indicated by the Board of RSAI is composed by the following members:
Organising Committee
Organization and Sponsors
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The Regional Science Association International ( www.regionalscience.org/) and the Portuguese Association for Regional Development ( www.apdr.pt/) organized a Summer Course, with the theme Regional and Urban Economics, Theory, Analysis and Operational Models, that was held in Terceira from the 13th till the 21st of June 2011, Azores, Portugal.
The goal of the Summer Course was to provide PhD-students and young researchers with:
The summer course took place along ten highly focused and intense days of advanced training, student presentations and discussion, and discussion of career strategies. It will also include a study visit to other island that will complete the unique experience of the summer course.
The summer course was focused on the issue Regional and Urban Economics, Theory, Analysis and Operational Models. In a format of combined lectures and hands on training provided by top-level experts that will lectures the following themes of regional science. The Summer Course was taught in English.
Participants were selected by the scientific committee primarily taking into account:
There were 40 applicants and 21 students from 10 countries.
The lecturers consisted of well-known researchers from all over the world, such as Henk Folmer, Mark Partridge, Alessandra Faggian, Ping Wang, Eduardo Haddad and José Pedro Pontes.
Professor Alessandra Faggian
Professor Eduardo Amaral Haddad
Eduardo Amaral Haddad is Professor in Department of Economics, FEA / USP, where he works at the graduate and postgraduate, teaching courses in Regional and Urban Economics and Applied General Equilibrium. His main research field is included in the regional analysis, with special interest in the specification, implementation and application of inter-regional economic models. In his works, has been concerned to use these analytical tools for formulating and evaluating economic policies, with particular interest in the Brazilian case. Within this line of research, other projects are closely related to their interests, especially in the large-scale economic models.
Professor Henk Folmer
Henk Folmer, Professor of Research Methodology and Spatial Econometrics at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, has been granted as a Renowned Overseas Scholar, recommended by Northwest A&F University. Dr. Folmer is founder and first President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics. He has served on various international, national and regional advisory councils and task forces. He has published widely in a large variety of international outlets in the fields of spatial econometrics, environmental and resource economics, regional economics, and economics research methodology. He is co-editor of The International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics and of Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg and is Fellow of the Regional Science Association International.
Professor José Pedro Pontes
José Pedro Pontes is born in 1957. He holds a Phd in Economics from the Technical University of Lisbon in 1987. He holds the degree "Agregação" in Economics from the same University in 1995. He is currently Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (ISEG) of the Technical University of Lisbon. He has the following interest fields: Regional and Urban Economics, International Economics and Industrial Organization. José Pedro Pontes is a member of UECE (Research Unit on Complexity in Economics). He has visited other Universities and research centers such as CORE (Catholic University of Louvain), the Department of Economics of the University of Pennsylvania, KIER (University of Kyoto), the Dresden University of Technology and the RWTH Aachen University.
Professor Mark Partridge
Mark Partridge is the C. William Swank Chair of Rural-Urban Policy at The Ohio State University and a Professor in the Agricultural, Environment, and Development Economics Department. He is also a Faculty Research Affiliate, City-Region Studies Centre, University of Alberta. Prior to Ohio State, he was the Canada Research Chair in the New Rural Economy at the University of Saskatchewan, where he is an Adjunct Professor. Mark Partridge current research interests include investigating rural-urban interdependence, why some communities grow faster than others, and innovations in regional policy and governance. Professor Partridge served as President of the Southern Regional Science Association. He is Co-Editor of the Journal of Regional Science and is on the Executive Council of the Regional Science Association International.
Professor Ping Wang
Ping Wang received a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the University of Rochester in May 1987, being affiliated with Penn State University from 1987 to 1998 and with Vanderbilt from 1999 to 2005. His is presently Seigle Family Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and Research Associate at the NBER. His major research areas include Growth and Development, Money and Macroeconomics, Economic Theory, and Spatial/Health Economics. He is currently Vice President for Planning and Development of the East Asian Institute, Associate Editor for Economics Bulletin, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Pacific Economic Review and Regional Science and Urban Economics, and on the editorial and advisory boards for Journal of Macroeconomics, Taipei Economic Review, and American Association for Chinese Studies. His current research focuses primarily on: (i) micro-founded theory in growth and development, (ii) intertemporally and spatially redistributive policy, (iii) search and match models of labor/family, money/credit and technology, (iv) agglomeration of productive economic activities, (v) labor market consequences of addiction/substance abuse and health/human capital investment decisions, (vi) positive and normative analysis of crime, corruption, casinos and networks, and (vii) economic integration, outsourcing, venture capital and institutions.
Scientific Committee, indicated by the Board of RSAI was composed by the following members:
Organising Committee
Organization and Sponsors
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The Population Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, has immediate openings in its domestic and international programs for qualified individuals in the areas of geography, demography, sociology,
and related social sciences. We are looking for well-qualified persons at all levels (BA, MA, PhD), especially those with training in demography, geographic information systems, quantitative data analysis of large datasets, and sociology/social research. These openings offer qualified applicants an opportunity to work on one or more of the following topics: population distribution, population estimates and projections, migration, and international programs. This is an exciting time for the Population Division, and we look forward to sharing our opportunities. You must be a
U.S. citizen to apply. To apply, visit the U.S. Census Bureau website: http://www.census.gov and click on Jobs@Census or contact the Census Bureau?s Recruitment Office at 1-800-638-6719. For specific questions about opportunities in the Population Division, please contact Jason Devine, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC 20233-8800; E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Department of Commerce and the US Census Bureau are Equal Opportunity Employers and encourage applications from all sources.
The Regional Science Association International (RSAI), founded in 1954, is an international community of scholars interested in the regional impacts of national or global processes of economic and social change.