Thill honored with prestigious Kohno Award

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

UNC Charlotte faculty member Jean-Claude Thill has received the Hirotada Kohno Award for outstanding service to the Regional Science Association International (RSAI).

Thill, who is the Knight Distinguished Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, will take office as president of RSAI next year. He is a long-time supporter of the organization’s efforts to exchange ideas and research within regional science throughout the world.

The Kohno Award honors an organization member who has provided long and outstanding service to the development and organization of regional science. The award guidelines also require service that extends beyond the local level and incorporates international service.

“Jean-Claude Thill is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of geography and regional science,” said Craig Allan, chair of the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences. “His service to his discipline and to graduate student mentoring is outstanding, as evidenced by how his students in the Ph.D. programs in geography and regional and urban analysis, public policy and infrastructure and environmental systems are publishing in top journals and have been repeatedly recognized at international meetings for their scholarly achievements.”

Prior to joining UNC Charlotte in 2006, Thill was a professor in the Department of Geography at the University at Buffalo, and he previously was affiliated with the University of Georgia. He received his doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

From 1996 to 2002, Thill was the North American editor of papers in regional science for the Journal of the Regional Science Association International, and he is executive director of the North American Regional Science Council.

Founded in 1954, RSAI is an international community of scholars interested in the regional impacts of national or global processes of economic and social change. The work of RSAI draws on the expertise of many different disciplines and this multi-disciplinary approach helps to facilitate new theoretical insights for tackling regional problems.