It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our fellow Regional Scientist, Oleg Smirnov. Oleg passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, June 8, 2025. Oleg was 62 years old.
Oleg was from Russia and completed his B.S. in Economic Cybernetics from Novosibirsk State University in 1985. He then came to the United States for graduate school and completed his M.A. in Economics at West Virginia University in 1992. Oleg stayed at West Virginia for his doctoral work and completed his PhD in Natural Resource Economics in 1998. His dissertation was titled “Computational Aspects of Spatial Data Analysis” under the mentorship of Professor Luc Anselin.
Upon completion of his PhD Oleg held several positions including Research Associate in the Bruton Center for Development Studies, at University of Texas at Dallas, Senior Research Associate in the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Lecturer in both the Departments of Geography and Economics at San Diego State University.
In 2006, Oleg attained a tenure-track position in the Department of Economics at The University of Toledo, where he worked until his untimely death. At the time of his death, Oleg was Chair of the Department of Economics. At The University of Toledo, Oleg taught courses in Econometric Models and Methods, Regional Economics, Advanced Spatial Data Analysis, and Advanced Microeconomic Theory. He was also a key faculty member in Toledo’s interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Spatially Integrated Social Sciences (SISS), where he taught several of the required courses and served as dissertation advisor to many of the program’s students. As a mentor, Oleg cared deeply about the students he advised. He dedicated a lot of his time to meet with them, give them extensive and thoughtful feedback on drafts of their work, and pushed them to challenge themselves in terms of learning new skills.
Oleg also cared about the field of spatial econometrics and geographical analysis. It was not uncommon for him to raise his hand during conference presentations to challenge the presenters about the way in which they went about their analyses and always offered constructive feedback for them to improve their methodological framework. He was a helpful reviewer that, as an editor, you could turn to ensure that technically difficult papers received a fair and constructive review. While often critical, he was always constructive—with students and fellow scholars alike.
As for his own research, Oleg made significant contributions in terms of new methods to estimate spatial econometric models, including spatial discrete choice and large spatial autoregressive models. He also wrote a very insightful article challenging the epistemological and broader philosophical principles of geographic space published in the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers where he uses set theory to define concepts related to geographic space; an article worth including in an any advanced geographical analysis and geographic theory course. Oleg published his work in leading Regional Science and Geography journals, including Regional Science and Urban Economics, Geographical Analysis, Journal of Transport Geography, Papers in Regional Science, and Journal of Regional Science. Oleg was also a regular attendee at the North American Meetings of RSAI.
Oleg will be greatly missed by all who knew him, particularly his colleagues at the University of Toledo, his former students, and collaborators.
Neil Reid, The University of Toledo
Isabelle Nilsson, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte