Call for Nominations

The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science

The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science was established in 1999 to honor the memory of a revered, pioneering scholar. In 1960 William Alonso was awarded the first Ph.D. in Regional Science by the University of Pennsylvania. The book based on his dissertation, Location and Land Use (Harvard University Press, 1964), is often credited with launching the field of urban economics. He made numerous major contributions to the study of migration, regional development, and the politics of numbers, and his work ranged from meticulous mathematical theory to far-ranging think pieces. William Alonso was Assistant and Associate Professor of Regional Planning at Harvard University (1959-67), Professor of Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley (1966-76), and Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Policy at Harvard (1976-99).

The objective of the Prize is to recognize the recent innovative research contribution of Regional Science scholars in the spirit of Dr. William Alonso. Previous Prize Winners are:

2002       Masahisa Fujita and Paul Krugman, The Spatial Economy (MIT Press, 1999)

2004       Jacques-François Thisse, Economics of Agglomeration (Cambridge University              Press, 2002)

2006       Luc Anselin, Local Indicators of Spatial Association (Geographical Analysis,                            1995)

                Ann Markusen, Sticky Places in Slippery Space (Economic Geography, 1996)

2011       Michael Batty, Cities and Complexity (MIT Press, 2007)

2013       Robert Sampson, Great American City (University of Chicago Press, 2012)

The next prize, the 2015 Prize, is scheduled to be announced in 2014 at the occasion of the North American Meetings of RSAI.

Although occasionally awarded to an article, the Alonso Prize is primarily a book prize. A book’s key idea might have been presented first in a journal article, such as Alonso’s “A Theory of the Urban Land Market,” Papers of the Regional Science Association, 1960, but its fuller development and synthesis with other work can make the book innovative and eligible for the Prize.

Nominations for the 2015 prize to be announced in 2014 are invited by the Alonso Prize Committee. They may come from any individual or organization including book publishers, university departments, government agencies, and other public or private entities. Each organization is limited to make two nominations for each occasion. The deadline for nominations is July 30, 2014.

The nominated work must be a book published in 2009 or later. An edited book will be considered only if it is tightly-integrated, not a loose collection of chapters.

The nominated work may have single or multiple authors.

Authors are encouraged to self-nominate, and jurors will not know which books were self-nominated.

Previously nominated books may be re-nominated and will be considered anew.

Six copies of the book must be received by the deadline. Please send books to Neil Reid, Department of Geography and Planning, Mail Stop 140, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606

To nominate a book (1) send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with citation information, such as William Alonso, Location and Land Use, Harvard University Press, 1964, (2) attach up to three published book reviews, if available, using pdf files, and (3) arrange for the six copies to be sent, usually by the author or publisher. No letters of nomination or support are required, and, if provided, will not be sent to jurors. The selection criteria are innovation and expected impact.