Brian Joe Lobley Berry (born February 16, 1934) is a British-American
human geographer and
city and regional planner. He is
Lloyd Viel Berkner
Lloyd Viel Berkner (February 1, 1905 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – June 4, 1967 in Washington, D.C.) was an American physicist and engineer. He was one of the inventors of the measuring device that since has become standard at ionospheric stations ...
Regental
Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the
University of Texas at Dallas. His
urban and
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
al research in the 1960s sparked geography’s social-scientific revolution and made him the most-cited geographer for more than 25 years.
Biography
Berry was born in
Sedgley,
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. He was educated at
Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire and
Acton County Grammar School Acton may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Acton
Australia
* Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie
* Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton
Canad ...
, Acton, Middlesex, now the Ark Acton Academy. He graduated from
University College, London, with a
B.Sc.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
(
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
) degree with first class honors in 1955. With a Fulbright scholarship he went on to the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
where he completed an
M.A. in 1956, and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in 1958, studying under noted geographer and leader of the "
quantitative revolution
The quantitative revolution (QR) was a paradigm shift that sought to develop a more rigorous and systematic methodology for the discipline of geography. It came as a response to the inadequacy of regional geography to explain general spatial dynam ...
"
William Garrison in the
Department of Geography.
Upon completing his Ph.D., Berry was appointed to the faculty at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, rising to the position of Irving B.Harris Professor of Urban Geography, geography department chair and director of the Center for Urban Studies, positions that he held until 1976. During this time his urban and regional research sparked geography’s social-scientific revolution and made him the most-cited geographer for more than 25 years, known for his refinement of
central place theory
Central place theory is an urban geographical theory that seeks to explain the number, size and range of market services in a commercial system or human settlements in a residential system.Goodall, B. (1987) The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geo ...
and for laying the foundations of analytic
urban geography, of
spatial analysis, and of
geographic information science Geographic information science or geographical information science (GIScience or GISc) is the scientific discipline that studies geographic information, including how it represents phenomena in the real world, how it represents the way humans unders ...
. In 1965 he acquired dual US-UK citizenship.
Since 1990 his studies have focused on
long-wave theory and its relationships to
macrohistorical
Macrohistory seeks out large, long-term trends in world history in search of ultimate patterns by a comparison of proximate details. It favors a comparative or world-historical perspective to determine the roots of changes as well as the developmen ...
phasing of
economic development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...
and political behavior. He also has researched variations in the quality of life ("happiness") across and within nations.
From 1976 to 1981 Berry was the Frank Backus Williams Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Graduate School of Design, chair of the PhD Program in Urban Planning and professor in sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, director of the
Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis and a faculty fellow of the Institute for International Development at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, and following that was appointed University Professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy and dean of the
Heinz College
The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, often called Heinz College, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a private graduate college that consists of one of the nation's top-ranked public policy schools†...
at
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
for a period of 5 years. In 1986 he joined the
University of Texas at Dallas, occupying the Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professorship, and becoming founding dean of the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. He has remained active there since.
Among his honors, Berry was elected a member the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 1975 and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1976.
He is also a Fellow of the
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
and
University College, London. He was the 1978-79 President of the Association of American Geographere, and among many other awards and recognitions, in 1988 he was awarded the
Victoria Medal from the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
. In 1999 he was elected a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2004 was a founding member of the
Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science
The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST) is a not-for-profit interdisciplinary scientific organization, whose membership consists of all Texas-based members of the three national academies, including ten Nobel laureates.The ...
(TAMEST), later serving on its council. In 2005 he was named the
Laureat Internationale de Geographie 'Vautrin Lud' (the 'Nobel Prize of Geography') and became a Fellow on the
American Institute of Certified Planners
The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is the American Planning Association's professional institute. AICP certifies professionals in the United States in the field of town planning and assists planners in the areas of ethics, profess ...
, followed thereafter by Fellowship in the Regional Science Association International. In 2017 the
International N.D. Kondratieff Foundation named him a Kondratieff Medal Laureate and in 2020, still active, the American Association of Geographers gave him the Stan Brunn Award for Scholarly Creativity.
Publications
Berry has authored over 550 books and articles, and attempts to bridge theory and practice via involvement in urban and regional development activities in both advanced and developing countries. During his career he also has been advisor to more than 150 new PhDs and has served on an equal number of other doctoral committees. Many of his students have gone on to successful academic and professional careers in their own right. He also has been an active family historian and genealogist, with many additional publications to his name, most recently delving into genetic genealogy, where testing by FamilyTreeDNA documents his y-Dna to be the Bell-Beaker R-L21>A5846>A5840>A5835>Y18815>Y42681, which he shares with descendants of John Berry of Honley in Yorkshire (1510-1569), and his mitochondrial DNA to be T2f1a1.
References
Brian J.L. Berry, Nihil Sine Labore. An Autobiography. 2006.
External links
Brian J Berryat University of Texas in Dallas website: School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Brian
1934 births
20th-century American geographers
British geographers
Recipients of the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellows of the British Academy
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
University of Texas at Dallas faculty
Alumni of University College London
University of Washington alumni
University of Chicago faculty
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Harvard University faculty
Living people
People from Sedgley
People educated at Queen Elizabeth's High School
Presidents of the American Association of Geographers
Urban geographers
Regional scientists
British expatriate academics in the United States
Victoria Medal recipients
21st-century American geographers