Mark Named UCGIS "Researcher of the Year"

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- David M. Mark of Amherst, professor of geography in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences and director of the UB site of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), has been named "Researcher of the Year" by the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS).

The UCGIS Research Award is presented to scientists who make outstanding research contributions to geographic information science (GIS). While the award typically recognizes outstanding research work or a series of works published in a peer-reviewed medium, as well as such other research contributions as patents, software packages and non-refereed publications, Mark is being recognized for "numerous and high-quality contributions to the geographic information science research literature, particularly during the past half-dozen years."

The UCGIS citation calls Mark "an outstanding researcher in geographic information science."

"His work has been at the forefront of the advances in 'GIScience' since the inception of this field, and has had a huge impact on the GIScience research community in general," the citation says.

"His pioneering work on cognitive and linguistic aspects of spatial relations marked the beginning of a new era in GIScience research, going way beyond the then state of the art.

"His 1989 AutoCarto paper, 'Concepts of Space and Spatial Language,' as well as his subsequent leadership in the organization of the NATO ASI at Las Navas in 1990, formed an entire subdiscipline within geographic information science, which is represented by the highly successful COSIT conference series.

"In addition, Mark introduced to GIS research the notion of an experimental component through his seminal work on human subject testing of spatial relations, and reinforced such an approach to GIScience research later through his work on geo-ontologies, which has been among the most prominent threads in GIScience research during the past decade."

Dubbed "a true believer in interdisciplinary research," Mark has embraced the advancement of knowledge through intense and sustained collaboration with linguists, psychologists, philosophers and others across disciplinary boundaries, the citation says.

Moreover, as ontologies have emerged as an important topic within the semantic Web community, Mark has studied the topic in the geographic domain from a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic aspect, "aiming for a more deeply rooted understanding of the semantics of terms typically used for describing geographic phenomena," the citation says.

A UB faculty member since 1981, Mark also serves as director of UB's National Science Foundation-funded IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program) doctoral program in geographic information sciences. He has been a research scientist with the NCGIA since its inception in 1988 and has been director since 1995.

He has written or coauthored more than 200 publications, including 76 refereed articles, three edited books, 20 book chapters, 64 conference proceedings articles and 27 technical reports. He also has made about 160 academic presentations at professional meetings or at universities and government agencies.