Dr. Daniel A. Griffith
- Chair Emeritus of Geospatial Information Sciences
- Ashbel Smith Professor (Former)
The University of Texas at Dallas supports the Ashbel Smith Professorship. Dr. Ashbel Smith was the first president of the UT System Board of Regents. He had a long and distinguished career in medicine, education and public service. During his term on the Board of Regents, Smith was dedicated to recruiting the best faculty members available and to developing a curriculum befitting a “university of the first class.” Smith became known as both the “father of Texas medicine” and the “father of The University of Texas.”
“In recognition of Marinus of Tyre, father of mathematical geography, students need to: enroll in more geospatial science and mathematics courses as part of a life-long learning curriculum, know how to use a global positioning system unit, known fondly by many as a GPS unit, and know whether or not a hand calculator is giving correct answers.”
Dr. Daniel A. Griffith, a faculty member in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, has taught at UT Dallas since 2005.
His primary areas of research are in spatial statistics, quantitative urban and economic geography, and applied statistics. Griffith teaches courses about spatial statistics, urban economics and research design.
His recent spatial statistical research has focused on public health, emphasizing geographic perspectives in environmental health, medical geography and health policy — more precisely, health environment issues associated with urban and social environments at the local level.
Griffith is also a Fellow of the Regional Science Association International, and a past president of the North American Regional Science Council. Griffith was a faculty member at the University of Miami, Syracuse University, SUNY/Buffalo, and Ryerson Polytechnic 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, and a member of the Syracuse University Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics faculty.
Griffith has published 17 books and monographs, and more than 200 papers, including articles in geography, regional science, statistics and mathematics journals, and 22 book chapters. He has given nearly 200 invited talks, including 46 keynote lectures, and convened/co-convened 27 spatial statistical workshops. He has been the editor of Geographical Analysis since 2008.
Griffith was a Fulbright Research Fellow (to the University of Toronto), a Fulbright Senior Specialist (to the University of Alberta), a Guggenheim Fellow, an elected Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, an elected founding Fellow of the Spatial Econometrics Association, and a past president of the North American Regional Science Council. He also received Distinguished Research Honors from the Association of American Geographers in 2010.
Most recently, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) elected Griffith as a Fellow for his contributions to spatial statistics and quantitative geography.