We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2020 RSA Student and Early Career Awards. The Regional Studies Association have determined that all the winners have made an original and outstanding contribution to the field of regional studies.
Mia Gray, University of Cambridge, UK and the Secretary of the RSA and the Chair of the Prizes and Awards Committee awarded the 2020 Award virtually:
- Nathaniel Lichfield Award: ELENA CATHARINA LUTZ, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
- RSA PhD Student Award: TIANREN YANG, University of Cambridge, UK
- RSA Routledge Early Career Award: MAXWELL HARTT, Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada
Nathaniel Lichfield Award: Elena Catharina Lutz, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Elena’s thesis investigates the puzzle of Switzerland’s extraordinary innovation success over the past decades. To investigate Switzerland’s innovation success, Elena tests different hypotheses on institutional complementarities using the Varieties of Capitalism framework. Her paper finds that Switzerland’s innovation success can only be understood by allowing for regional differences in innovation specialization, i.e. “regional varieties of capitalism”. Thus, the paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the important role of regions in explaining national innovation success. Second, the paper makes a methodological contribution to the literature by developing a new measurement for the concepts of radical versus incremental innovation.
I am very happy and honored to receive this award. I would like to thank the Regional Studies Association for encouraging young scientists in their work and for providing such as great research network.
RSA PhD Student Award: Tianren Yang, University of Cambridge, UK
Tianren’s research focuses on how to create successful urban sub-centres characterised by higher land value uplift to capture and improved lives for residents. To enable a causal inference and long-term prediction to inform policy design, the modelling method he has developed combines spatial equilibrium of business and residential activities with spatio-temporal dynamics of land-use and transport supply. The model findings provide new insights for city leaders, developers and other stakeholders in a quantified range of market impacts that are induced by investments in large-scale urban development projects.
I feel deeply honoured to receive the RSA PhD Student Award 2020 and am particularly grateful to the Committee for this esteemed recognition. I have been recently appointed a Research Associate at Cambridge and look forward to continuing my engagement with the RSA colleagues to deliver high-quality research and influence policy debate.
RSA Routledge Early Career Award: Maxwell Hartt, Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada
Maxwell’s research challenges the notion that population shrinkage is inherently synonymous with economic decline. His work has conceptually and empirically established the notion of a prosperous shrinking city, and in doing so, has contributed to alleviating the stigma of population loss and the reliance on ill-conceived damaging policy responses in shrinking cities and regions. Maxwell continues to work at the intersection of demographic change and planning policy with current projects focused on economic resilience in the US Rust Belt and ageing communities in Canadian and Australian suburbs.
Thank you very much for this award. It is an honour to have my work commended by the Regional Studies Association.