Dr. Arthur (Art) Getis was awarded University Consortium of Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Fellow status in 2010 to recognize his outstanding impact on the field of GIScience as well as for his service to UCGIS. He received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Washington in 1961. He received his Master and Bachelor degrees from the Pennsylvania State University. Within GIScience, Getis’ specialties included spatial statistics, pattern analysis, urban geography, and disease and crime clustering. Getis retired as Professor Emeritus of Geography at San Diego State University in 2004.

Getis’ record of sustained contributions over more than forty years distinguishes him among scholars in GIScience. Getis authored more than one hundred refereed journal articles and book chapters about various aspects of GIScience. Several of the publications, such as his work on local statistics (with J.K. Ord), have been cited hundreds of times – with “Analysis of spatial association by use of distance statistics” showing over 700 citations in Google Scholar (in 2010, the number of citations in 2023 is almost 7000!). Getis also authored or edited eleven books - most notably Models of spatial processes: an approach to the study of point, line, and area patterns (Getis and Boots, 1978), Point pattern analysis (Boots & Getis, 1987), and Spatial econometrics and spatial statistics (Getis et al., 2004).

Throughout his career, Getis’ interests in urban and population geography led him to develop tools to solve important problems in analyzing spatial patterns. In turn, the use of those tools and models helped others understand how spatial analysis can enhance work in their own field of research. As a result, Getis was a great evangelist for geographic applications in other disciplines such as economics, criminology, public health, regional science, and demography. His work took him to lecture and teach at prestigious universities around the world – many without formal geography departments – about the importance of geographical analysis. As a result, he broke many research barriers and helped enhance the respect for GIScience as a discipline.

In addition to Getis’ tremendous contributions through his research, he also made a significant contribution with his service to UCGIS. Getis served on the UCGIS Board of Directors from 1997-2001, the Executive Committee from 2002-2004, and was UCGIS President in 2001-2002. During this time, he also served as the UCGIS representative to the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) from 2000-2004.

For later details on the accomplishments of Prof. Getis, see the Memoriam for Prof. Getis published by The Regional Science Association in May 2022.