(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — UC Santa Barbara geography professor Richard Church has been selected for the 2014 University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Research Award for his highly cited “Maximal Covering Location Problem” paper and relevant fundamental contributions to geographic information science (GIS). Church will receive the award May 21 at the UCGIS summer symposium in Pasadena, California, where he will address the audience.
“I am truly honored by being selected for this award and the recognition it brings to the field of location science,” Church said.
Also UCSB’s associate dean of mathematical, life and physical sciences, Church is a leading figure in scientific efforts to use and combine spatial analysis methods with GIS. He has made sustained academic contributions to GIS, location analysis and modeling, natural resource management and transportation. His findings have impacted a range of disciplines and enhanced planning and decision-making for urban, regional and environmental management.
One of Church’s seminal contributions to location analysis was introduced in the “Maximal Covering Location Problem,” a 1974 article in the “Papers in Regional Science.” This work, upon which he has expanded over the ensuing years, constitutes a major contribution to the theory and application of location analysis. It has also made the transition to location software packages included in commercial GIS, such as ArcGIS and TransCAD.
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