2020 Peter Burrough Medal – Gerard Heuvelink
Gerard Heuvelink is Special Professor in Pedometrics and Digital Soil Mapping within the Soil Geography and Landscape chair group of Wageningen University. Since 2011, Gerard has also held a visiting professor position at the State Key Laboratory of Resources & Environmental Information System, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Gerard’s research focuses on mathematical and statistical techniques for modeling the spatial and temporal variability of soil. His work has developed and applied improved models that have contributed greatly to enhanced understanding of soil processes and patterns at multiple spatial and temporal scales. His PhD thesis, Error Propagation in Spatial Modelling with GIS (1993), completed under the supervision of Peter Burrough, represented groundbreaking developments in spatial error propagation and served as a launching pad for a distinguished career reflected by numerous important contributions to spatial accuracy and uncertainty analysis. Gerard has authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles and was recognized by the Web of Science Group as a Highly Cited Researcher ranking in the top 1% of authors by citations.
Gerard has made numerous contributions to ISARA and his efforts are one of the reasons that the Spatial Accuracy conferences have been successful for a quarter of a century. Principal among his contributions, Gerard has devoted many years of service as a member of the Steering Committee of ISARA, served as Chair and Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee of the highly successful Fourth and Thirteenth International Symposia on Spatial Accuracy (Amsterdam 2000 and Beijing 2018), and presented technical workshops at these conferences. Gerard has attended all but one of the Spatial Accuracy Symposia beginning with the initial meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1994. Gerard’s participation at these symposia is renowned as anyone who has attended one of his interesting and dynamic presentations can attest. Perhaps more importantly, Gerard’s ability and willingness as an audience member to ask insightful questions has enhanced numerous sessions and sparked productive discussions during question/answer periods and coffee breaks. ISARA has benefited immensely from Gerard’s behind-the-scenes organizational work and scientific contributions as well as his positive energy during the times we are able to meet at the bi-annual Spatial Accuracy Symposia.
2020 Peter Burrough Medal – Daniel Griffith
Daniel A. Griffith, Ashbel Smith Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, has devoted his career to the study of spatial statistics and quantitative urban and economic geography. His research has contributed to methodological and theoretical developments in these areas, especially spatial accuracy and uncertainty issues. With a strong early career focus on spatial autocorrelation, Dan was a pioneer in investigating the impacts of spatial autocorrelation and developing methodologies to appropriately model spatial data. His research addressed uncertainty in small area analysis, spatial error propagation in spatial data processes, location and measurement errors in georeferenced data, attribute sampling errors, and model specification errors. Recently, he developed Moran eigenvector spatial filtering (MESF), a flexible methodology for spatial modeling with linear and generalized linear regression that addresses potential model misspecification issues. Increasingly MESF is being adopted in various disciplines, including geography, ecology, economics, epidemiology, statistics, and public health. Another avenue Dan has pursued is research emphasizing geographic perspectives in health environment issues associated with urban and social environments at the local level.
Dan previously was honored with an ISARA Founder’s Award in 2016. He has earned numerous other awards having been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Geographers, American Statistical Association, Guggenheim, New York Academy of Sciences, Spatial Econometrics Association, Regional Science Association International, and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science. At the time of his nomination for the Burrough Medal, Dan had authored or co-authored 21 books and monographs, over 200 refereed journal articles, and 26 book chapters. Dan served as editor and associate editor of Geographical Analysis, and as North America and Quantitative Geography editor of Papers in Regional Science. He also served as an editorial board member for many journals, including Annals of the AAG, Geographical Analysis, and Journal of Geographical Systems.
Dan’s many contributions to ISARA and the Spatial Accuracy Symposia have been invaluable. He has been chair and member of the ISARA Steering Committee, co-chair of Spatial Accuracy 2016, scientific committee member for numerous Spatial Accuracy conferences, and co-instructor of workshops at Spatial Accuracy 2012 and 2014. He has given two keynote presentations at Spatial Accuracy, most recently his 2018 talk titled, “Some reflections on prediction error.” His dedication to the success of the series of Spatial Accuracy Symposia is legendary as he is the only person to have attended every one of the Spatial Accuracy Symposia. His active presence and leadership at these meetings contribute to the positive energy and scientific exchange of ideas that makes Spatial Accuracy such a special and productive event.
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