Dr. Brian Berry
- Professor Emeritus of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
- Lloyd V. Berkner Professor (Former)
The University of Texas System supports the professorship.
“Nihil sine labore. (Nothing without labor.)”
Dr. Brian Berry began his academic career more than 60 years ago.
His early spatial analytic research helped spark the scientific revolution that occurred in geography and urban studies in the 1960s. After moving to Texas, his studies turned to long-wave rhythms in the economy, society and polity.
Throughout his career he also has focused on bridging theory and practice and has been heavily involved in urban and regional planning in both advanced and developing countries.
A Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Dr. Berry received his bachelor’s degree in economics at University College, London in 1955. He earned his master’s in geography in 1956 and his doctoral degree in 1958, both at the University of Washington, Seattle.
His academic career began in 1958 at the University of Chicago. When he left Chicago for Harvard University in 1976, he was the Irving B. Harris Professor of Urban Geography, chairman of the Department of Geography and director of the Center for Urban Studies.
At Harvard, he became the Frank Backus Williams Professor of City and Regional Planning, chairman of the PhD Program in Urban Planning, director of the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, professor in the Department of Sociology and faculty fellow of the Harvard Institute for International Development. He left Harvard in 1981 to become dean of what is now Heinz College and University Professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, positions that he held until moving to UT Dallas in 1986.
In 1975, he was the youngest social scientist ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He subsequently was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the British Academy. In 2005, he was named the Laureat Vautrin Lud – an international juried award – and became the Royal Geographical Society’s Victoria Medalist. Berry received the Kondratieff Medal from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2017, and, in 2021, he was awarded the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Research Award.
In 2005, Berry became dean of what was then called the School of Social Sciences before he engineered its transformation into the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.
He was named a fellow of his alma mater, University College, London, in 1983. In 2012, he was reaffirmed as Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Washington and elected a fellow of the Regional Science Association International. During his career, he has guided hundreds of doctoral students in their degrees.