John P. Wilson

John Wilson

UCGIS is pleased to announce that Dr. John P. Wilson, of the University of Southern California (USC), has been selected for its 2019 Education Award.  Dr. Wilson is Professor of Sociology and Spatial Sciences in USC’s Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, where he directs the Spatial Sciences Institute as well as the Wilson Map Lab. He also holds courtesy appointments as Professor in the School of Architecture, in the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Preventive Medicine, and in the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Departments of Computer Science and Civil & Environmental Engineering.

The diversity of Dr. Wilson’s affiliations reflects the vital educational roles he has played at USC over the last several decades, where just since 2012 he has designed and established 15 new joint programs, degrees, and certificates through partnerships across campus. His promotion of the spatial sciences as an enabling educational platform is his own prime directive, and he is strongly dedicated to the nurturing and success of the programs with which he has been involved. Internationally, this includes the UNIGIS International Network, a worldwide consortium of universities focused on online geographic information science academic programs.

Despite his extremely busy administrative schedule, John maintains his own teaching career, which has now spanned nearly 40 years at both USC and prior at Montana State University. He regularly supervises numerous graduate students and continues to offer a large, general education class each year. John is known for his exacting standards for the faculty and instructors that he hires. In his directorial capacity, he mentors both junior and senior faculty to ensure that they are contributing the best that they can to the academic enterprise that he oversees. He works tirelessly to promote scholarship through his editorial leadership of the Transactions in GIS journal, plus he has served as the Editor-in-Chief for UCGIS’s GIS&T Body of Knowledge since its 2016 digital launch. His commitment to the vision and potential for the GIS&T BoK as an academic resource is the significant factor in its development. 

UCGIS will honor John Wilson and other award recipients during its annual Symposium in June 2019 in Washington, D.C.