Dr. Mei-Po Kwan of the Department of Geography at the Ohio State University has been selected as the 2005 UCGIS Researcher of the Year. The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), with about 70 US universities as members, is dedicated to the development and use of GIS theories and methods. The UCGIS Research Award is given to the creator(s) of a particularly outstanding research contribution to Geographic Information Science (GIScience). The award statement of the UCGIS
Research Committee describes Dr. Kwan's research achievement as follows:

"Dr. Kwan has a strong and varied research program and one of the researchers who is asking fundamental questions about the methods of geography and, as such, is shaping the field of GIScience. Dr. Kwan's work focuses on the geographical and temporal characteristics of people's daily activities, and the impact of recent social, economic and political changes on their everyday lives as manifested through changes in the geographies of their daily activities. This past year, Dr. Kwan has been recognized with the Edward Ullman Award from the Transportation Specialty Group at the Association of American Geographers meeting in Denver for her outstanding contributions to transportation geography. She has also been recognized as a
Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a Huber Fellow at the Ohio State University - both granted based on her outstanding scholarship."

Mei-Po is the fourth recipient of this award. The past three were Reginald Gollege (2002), Max Egenhofer (2003) and David Mark (2004).