The AAG Wilbanks Award for Transformational Research in Geography

The Tom Wilbanks family has created a new award to memorialize Tom, the AAG Wilbanks Award for Transformational Research in Geography, to honor researchers from the public, private, or academic sectors who have made extraordinary contributions to Geography and GIScience.

Wilbanks was a groundbreaking scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he conducted research and published extensively on sustainable development, energy and environmental technology and policy, responses to global climate change, and the role of geographic scale in addressing these issues. He also helped lead the first comprehensive U.S. national energy plan and led over 70 projects in more than 40 developing countries. Wilbanks played key roles in numerous climate change studies at the National Academies of Science, including America’s Climate Choices, and co-authored and edited several books, among them The Geographical Dimensions of Terrorism.

Among his many honors, Wilbanks was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and in 2007 was named a co-laureate for the Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Before joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1977, he was a professor at Syracuse University and chaired the Geography Department at Oklahoma University.

To donate to or to learn more about the AAG Wilbanks Award for Transformational Research in Geography, visit here.