Happy new year to you all!

Nominations for Fellowship
RSAI members are invited to nominate distinguished scholars for consideration to become 2011 Fellows of RSAI. The nomination process can be initiated by any member of RSAI and consists of a letter of nomination, detailing the scientific merit and contribution of the nominee and an up to date curriculum vitae. Current Fellows are not allowed to submit nominations. To ensure full consideration by the committee, these materials should be provided in electronic format (pdf preferred) by January 31, 2011 to Prof. Anna Nagurney, Chair 2011 Fellows Election Committee at: nagurney@gbfin.umass.edu

Newsletter
The theme of the next newsletter is regional science and climate change – please get in touch with Eveline Van Leeuwen if you feel you can contribute. Don’t forget to download previous editions from the RSAI website. They are an excellent read!!

Conferences
The next main RSAI conference is the PRSCO meeting in Seoul 3-6th July.

Obituaries
RSAI was sad to learn of the recent death of Marvin Carbonneau, husband of Beth who ran the RSAI office in Illinois for many years. Our thoughts and best wishes are with Beth at this sad time.

New Director
Please note that the RSAI head office is now based at the University of the Azores under the directorship of Tomaz Dentinho.

New President
New president Yoshiro Higano (University of Tsukuba Japan) begins his term of office this month and we wish him well in his presidency (2011-2012). RSAI is delighted to inform you that Jean-Claude Thill has been appointed President elect and will serve as President in 2013-2014. Congratulations Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude is Professor of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. He has previously held positions at SUNY – Buffalo, the University of Georgia, Florida Atlantic University and the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He has also served NARSC superbly for many years in many administrative capacities. His research has centered on the spatial dimension of mobility systems and their consequences on how space is used and organized in modern societies; statistical and computational methods of spatial analysis; and most recently urban land-use dynamics.

2010 Dissertation prize
RSAI is pleased to announce that the 2010 Dissertation prize has been awarded to Frank Neffke of the Erasmus University Rotterdam for his thesis on ‘Productive Places, the influence of technological change and relatedness on agglomeration externalities’. Congratulations Frank – he wins a free trip to the ERSA conference in Barcelona! Don’t forget to submit your own students next year – details on the 2011 application procedure will be updated soon on the RSAI website.

Best wishes

Professor Graham Clarke