IGU Awards 2021

It gives me great pleasure in this special edition of the IGU e-Newsletter to announce that the IGU Awards Committee, chaired by former President Ron Abler, has concluded its selection process for the prestigious IGU Awards for 2021. Jack Dangermond is awarded the Planet and Humanity Medal (which honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to peace, welfare, or sustainability). Professor Eckart Ehlers and Helen Kerfoot are each awarded the Laureate d'Honneur (which recognizes individuals who have achieved particular distinction or who have rendered outstanding service in the work of the IGU or in international geography).

Please join me in congratulating these three excellent ambassadors of Geography, who so richly deserve their respective accolades. Further details of the awardees are included below.

Michael Meadows

President IGU

2021 Planetary and Humanity Medal

Jack Dangermond

Jack Dangermond is the Founder and CEO of Esri - Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., headquartered in Redlands, California since 1969. Esri is the leading geographic information systems (GIS) company in the world, providing ArcInfo, ArcView GIS, and ArcExplorer software to clients in 90 countries.

He has consistently and constantly argued that GEOGRAPHY is the key to understanding the patterns and processes GIS reveals: “At Esri, we believe that geography is at the heart of a more resilient and sustainable future.” Dangermond has generously supported major environmental programs and has donated or pledged more than US$1 billion worth of free Esri software to schools and environmental organizations. Although not trained as a geographer, Jack Dangermond has done more to advance geography and create opportunities for its employees than any individual in history.

2021 Lauréat d'honneur

Helen Kerfoot

Helen Kerfoot has been a leading light in the multidisciplinary high-level international authority, the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names.

She worked tirelessly to promote geographical aspects of naming, and one of her major aims was to include developing countries into UNGEGN’s work. She was instrumental in supporting the founding, in 2011, of the joint Commission/Working Group of the International Geographical Union and International Cartographic Association (ICA), with the aim to foster toponymic research in geography and cartography complementary to UNGEGN with its focus on standardization and the International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS) with its focus on linguistics.

Her exceptional scientific contributions to the promotion of the discipline, together with her Honorary Fellowship of ICA, are symbolic of the esteem in which she is held and provide ample evidence to distinguish her with the award of IGU Lauréat d’honneur.

2021 Lauréat d'honneur

Prof. Eckart Ehlers

Eckart Ehlers is a geographer who has consistently and successfully promoted internationalism and interdisciplinarity in the subject and, in so doing, has stimulated and enriched numerous geographical communities and institutions. Having chaired the German National Committee of the International Geographical Union between 1988 and 1992, he served as IGU’s Secretary-General and Treasurer (1992-2000) with distinction. Later, he was Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP) (1996 to 2002).

He supported many initiatives of internal and outreach significance and contributed to geography’s integration into global interdisciplinary research programs. Eckart Ehlers received his doctorate in 1965 at the University of Tübingen. As a geographer renowned for academic excellence he is highly qualified to be the recipient of the IGU Lauréat d’Honneur