AAG President Douglas Richardson to deliver 17th Grosvenor Lecture

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
Office of Media Relations
April 7, 2016

Douglas Richardson, executive director of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), will deliver the 17th Annual Grosvenor Distinguished Lecture Wednesday, April 13 at Texas State University.

This year’s lecture, “Transforming How We Experience and Understand our World: Real-time Space-time Interaction in Geography and GIScience,” will be at 6 p.m. in Alkek Library Teaching Theater on campus. The event is free and open to the public. All seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Richardson has served as executive director of AAG since 2003, joining the organization in 2001 as director of research and strategic initiatives.

Richardson holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in geography from Michigan State University. He has worked closely with Native American tribes for more than 20 years on natural resource, cultural and ecological issues. His firm, GeoResearch, Inc., achieved international prominence with the invention, development and patenting of the first interactive global positioning system/geographic information system (GPS/GIS) technology, which has led to major advances in the way geographic information is now collected, mapped, integrated and used within geography and in society at large. As president of GeoResearch, Richardson also directed many large-scale mapping, environmental, natural resource and transportation research projects for domestic and international governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and private firms.

The Association of American Geographers is a scholarly, nonprofit organization founded in 1904 to advance professional studies in geography and to encourage the application of geography in business, education and government. From a charter membership of 49 in 1904, the association's membership has grown to more than 8,000 individual and institutional members in 2003. Richardson is the association's eighth full-time executive director.

The 17th Annual Grosvenor Lecture is being co-sponsored by the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education and the Department of Geography. For more information about the upcoming Grosvenor Distinguished Lecture contact the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at (512) 245-1823 or e-mail LisaDickson@txstate.edu.