The biennial William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography supports innovative research into the computational aspects of geographic science. The award is intended to arouse a larger and deeper understanding of the important role that advanced computational approaches can play in resolving the complex problems of space-time analysis that lie at the core of geographic science. The award is one of the activities of the Marble Fund for Geographic Science of the Association of American Geographers (AAG).

The Garrison Award consists of a cash prize in the amount of $3,500 and a certificate of merit. The formal presentation of the award takes place at the annual meeting of the AAG in the year the award is announced (in the current instance, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 22�27, 2009).

There is no restriction placed on the formal disciplinary area of the research so long as it is directly related to advanced computational approaches to the solution of problems addressed by geographic science.

The award is open to candidates associated with any institution of higher education, anywhere in the world, authorized to award the doctorate.

Dissertations completed in the two-year period beginning on September 1, 2006, and terminating on August 31, 2008, are eligible for nomination. In the context of this award, a dissertation is considered to be completed when the final version of the document has been deposited with and accepted by the institution of higher education awarding the degree. All nominations will be carefully reviewed, and those determined to be within the stated goals of the competition will be invited to make a full submission for final consideration. It should be noted that the emphasis of the award is on innovative computational approaches, and submissions based on the routine application of standard software packages are not encouraged.

The first award in this program was made in April 2007 to Dr. St�phane Joost of the �cole Polytechnique F�d�rale de Lausanne for his dissertation entitled The Geographical Dimension of Genetic Diversity: A GIScience Contribution for the Conservation of Animal Genetic Resources.

More Information

Complete information on the William L. Garrison Award and instructions for the submission of nominations may be found at aag.org/cs/garrison.