I was honored to receive the 2018 University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents Faculty Award for Teaching. This represents the highest award for teaching in the University System, and out of thousands of USM faculty, only 4 are chosen each year. I want to thank all my colleagues in the GIS field who wrote letters on my behalf*. It was humbling to read the letters, and gratifying to have made so many good friends over the years.
I was particularly struck by the fact that this award could have easily gone to a poet, philosopher, or physicist, but instead went to some GIS guy. This is an opportunity to celebrate that GIScience is making significant headway into education, and the education community is showing their appreciation of it.
*thank you to David DiBiase, ESRI; Owen MacDonald, University of Edinburgh; Jack Ma, University of Maryland at College Park; Julia Fisher, State of Maryland Geographic Information Officer; Michael Scott, Dean of the Henson School of Science and Technology at Salisbury University; Dr. Janet Dudley-Eshbach, President of Salisbury University