Biography
Berry was born in Sedgley, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough and Acton County Grammar School, Middlesex. He graduated from University College, London, with a B.Sc. (Economics) degree in 1955. He went on to the University of Washington where he completed an M.A. in 1956, and a Ph.D. in 1958, studying under noted geographer and leader of the "quantitative revolution" William Garrison.
Upon completing his Ph.D., Berry was appointed to the faculty at the University of Chicago, becoming a chaired professor and director of the Center for Urban Studies, positions that he held until 1976. During this time his urban and regional research sparked geography’s social-scientific revolution and made him the most-cited geographer for more than 25 years. His studies subsequently focused on long-wave dynamics and their relationships to macrohistorical phasing of economic development and political behavior.
From 1976 to 1981 Berry was chaired professor and director of the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis at Harvard, and following that was appointed dean of the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University for a period of 5 years. In 1986 he joined the University of Texas at Dallas, becoming founding dean of the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. He has remained there since.
Berry was elected a member the National Academy of Sciences in 1975 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy and University College, London. In 1988 he was awarded the Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. In 1999 he was appointed as a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2004 was a founding member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science (TAMEST). In 2005 he was named the Laureat Internationale de Geographie 'Vautrin Lud' (geography's 'Nobel Prize') and became a Fellow on the American Institute of Certified Planners.
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