RSAI NEWS

The new RSAI Newsletter May 2012 can now be found under: http://www.regionalscience.org/Publications/RSAI-Newsletters/ 

RSAI is pleased to announce the election of the following Fellows in 2012:

         Brian J.L. Berry, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA

         Ronald E. Miller, University of Pennsylvania, USA

         Stuart S. Rosenthal, Syracuse University, USA

         Yves Zenou, Stockholm University, SWEDEN 

The jury of the Martin Beckmann Annual Award for 2012 consisting of Jouke van Dijk, Masahisa Fujita, Jean H. Paelinck and John M. Quigley selected for the Martin Beckmann Prize 2012 as clear winner Michael Fritsch and Holger Graf for the paper "How sub-national conditions affect regional innovation systems: The case of the two Germanys", published in Volume 90 Number 2 June 2011 as the best paper published in Papers in Regional Science in 2011.

Motivation: The paper by Fritsch and Graf represents an innovative empirical research on regional innovation systems (RIS). In comparison of two RIS in East Germany with two RSI in West Germany, with careful study of characteristics of the inventor networks within and surrounding the four RIS, the paper convincingly demonstrates that an analysis of RIS should account for the (sub-)national economic conditions as well as for the region’s position in its spatial environment.The paper will contribute significantly to the empirical and theoretical study of RIS in the future.

Dear RSAI Members,

As some of you may have learned earlier this week from the Urban Economics Association, our colleague and friend, John Quigley, died on Saturday, May 12.

The following notice was posted at http://gspp.berkeley.edu/news-events/quigleyObit.html:

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Professor John Quigley, after a long illness, on Saturday, May 12, 2012.

John Quigley was an extraordinarily distinguished academic, a great mentor for his students, and an untiring contributor to the Goldman School and the University of California. In just the past three years he published 22 articles. Since 1990 he has been a member of an astounding 84 PhD Committees and he chaired 26 of them. In just the past two months, even though he was on leave and quite ill, he was actively helping the school in its recruiting efforts. Personally, John had exceptionally high standards for himself, and he helped make all of us better through his example and his generosity. As Dean, on several occasions, he helped me solve very difficult problems by offering his wise counsel and by jumping in to help solve them. John epitomized all that is best in academia: path-breaking scholarship, rigorous standards, mentorship for students, and unceasing service to the institution. He is irreplaceable.

Very best regards,

Henry E. Brady

Dean, Goldman School of Public Policy

University of California Berkeley

The contents of John’s website on the Department of Economics homepage are attached.

It seems appropriate to mention at this time John’s role in establishing the RSAI Fellows Award. On November 7, 2000, I sent a letter to Geoffrey Hewings, then President of RSAI, proposing the establishment of a Fellows Award for our association. I did not discuss the proposal, or argue for its implementation, but only asked that it be presented to the RSAI Council for discussion.

As I recall, one member of the Council especially liked this idea, drafted a resolution for its implementation, and lobbied for its adoption. That person, of course, was John Quigley. We all have John to thank for whatever recognition we have received as RSAI Fellows.

John received the RSAI Fellows Award in 2004, the third group of scholars to be so honored.

David Boyce

RSAI Archivist

More News in http://www.regionalscience.org/