Trustees Approve Honorary Degree for Alumnus, Spatial Scientist

March 31, 2006

At a special meeting, members of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Council of Trustees approved granting an honorary doctorate of science degree (Sc.D.) to IUP graduate Dr. Daniel A. Griffith.

Dr. Griffith will receive the degree at IUP’s May commencement ceremony, where Griffith will serve as the commencement speaker. The commencement ceremony will be held May 13 at 11 a.m. at Miller Stadium.

More than 1,400 graduates are expected to participate in this year’s May ceremony.

Griffith was nominated by the Senate Academic Committee and recommended for the degree by the IUP Commencement Committee and IUP President Dr. Tony Atwater.

“Dr. Griffith has achieved an outstanding record of academic accomplishments in the field of geography,” Dr. Atwater said. “His extraordinary success as a teacher and scholar and as an alumnus of IUP speaks loudly about IUP’s legacy of academic excellence. I look forward to his remarks to the May graduating class and to presenting his honorary doctorate in science.”

Honorary degree recipients must be approved by the Council of Trustees and submitted to the Office of the Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

IUP has granted only 45 honorary degrees in its history. Others receiving this honor include Congressman John P. Murtha, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Andre Previn, James “Jimmy” Stewart, Art Rooney, Fred Rodgers, former governor Richard Thornburg, and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Griffith, a Greensburg native, has led a distinguished career in teaching and research. He is the recipient of a 1982 Distinguished Alumni Award from IUP.

Currently, he serves as the Ashbel Smith Professor of Geospatial Information Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas and the author of 15 books, 18 book chapters and 170 papers, including 76 articles in major refereed geography, regional science, statistics and mathematics journals. He has donated a copy of all of his books to the IUP libraries.

Griffith started his educational career at IUP, where he received a bachelor of science degree in mathematics (1970) and a master’s degree in geography (1972). He received his doctoral degree in Ph.D. in geography at the University of Toronto in 1978 and earned a second master’s degree in statistics at Pennsylvania State University in 1985.

He is listed in various publications recognizing excellence in his profession, including Who’s Who in The World and Who’s Who in American Education and is the recipient of the Pennsylvania Geographical Society's Distinguished Geographer award.

Prior to his current position, he served as a faculty member at the University of Miami, Syracuse University, SUNY/Buffalo, and Ryerson Polytechnical University in Toronto.

While at Syracuse University, he served as chair of the Department of Geography, Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, and Deputy Director of the New York State Program in Geographic Information and Analysis.

He also was an adjunct professor with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, a member of the Syracuse University Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics faculty, a visiting research affiliate for the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge, Erasmus University/Rotterdam, and the University of Rome "La Sapienza."

Dr. Griffith also has seved as a superfund site remediation consultant for Syracuse Research Corporation, and a spatial statistics consultant for the Ministerio de Educación del Perú.

Dr. Griffith began his teaching and research career by receiving the Association of American Geographers’ J. Warren Nystrom dissertation award, followed by a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Canada, an American Statistical Association USDA-NASS Research Fellowship, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a Leverhulme visiting professorship to the University of Cambridge, a University of Miami research fellowship, a Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research/Rostock visiting researcher position. He is a Fulbright Senior Specialist.

His spatial statistical research has been featured twice by the Syracuse Herald-Journal, as well as in both the Syracuse University Magazine and the IUP Magazine.

Dr. Griffith is an elected Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, a past president of the North American Regional Science Council and of the Syracuse Chapter of Sigma Xi.

Dr. Griffith has published 15 books or monographs and 170 papers, including 76 articles in major refereed geography, regional science, statistics and mathematics journals, and 18 book chapters.

He has received nearly $3.1 million in research funding, and given more than 175 invited talks, including 21 keynote lectures, at, among other places, the Tinbergen Institute/Rotterdam, the Max Plank Institutes of Solid State Research/Stuttgart and for Demographic Research/Rostock, the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, St. Andrews, Cambridge and Cornell Universities, and the Universities of Paris I (Sorbonne), Vienna, Geneva, Rome, Toronto, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Dr. Griffith is the developer of spatial statistical software, receiving two software awards from the Association of American Geographers Microcomputer Specialty Group.

He provides significant leadership and service in his field, having served on the editorial boards of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Geographical Analysis, Journal of Geographical Systems, and URISA J., on the Scientific Advisory Boards of NATO Scientific Affairs and of the Third International Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, and on review panels for, among others, the National Science Foundation.

His recent spatial statistical urban research focuses on public health, emphasizing geographic perspectives in environmental health, medical geography, and health policy, especially health-environment issues associated with urban and social environments at the local level. Current active projects include: malaria intervention, pediatric lead poisoning, and environmental remediation, as well as eigenfunctions associated with spatial statistical models.
 

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