Title: Geography Professor, Researcher (Retired)
Location: Iowa City, Iowa, United States
Gerard Rushton, PhD, Retired Geography Professor and Researcher, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in geography.
The best advice that Dr. Rushton received in his career is this: Respect interdisciplinary work and have integrity in all that you do. Today, he celebrates a career that has brought him across the globe from his education in the United Kingdom to his first role in Canada to his career and life in the United States. Now retired, he demonstrated expertise in geographic information science and medical geography in many noteworthy roles throughout his career. He concluded his tenure as a full professor for the University of Iowa, where he taught for 44 years. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at Michigan State University in Lansing, MI, and an assistant professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON. Driven by a love of science combined with an eagerness and curiosity to always learn more, he has shared his expertise over the years by contributing articles to professional journals and consulting for the Iowa City Community School Board.
Dr. Rushton holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from the University of Wales, which he earned in 1959 and 1961, respectively. He earned a PhD from the University of Iowa in 1964. When asked of his decision to enter the field of geography, Dr. Rushton reflects on what he saw to be a great opportunity in his collegiate years while already studying in the scientific field. “At the time, there were many developments being made in technology and I had a feeling that the computerization of geography was something that would be coming in the future. I started taking classes in the computerization of hydraulics so I could understand the foundations of computerization when the time came that it would enter the geographic field,” he shares. By studying in an area that others in his field were not, Dr. Rushton had a competitive advantage to his peers which later afforded him the opportunity with the Ford Foundation to review a piece of work in India. AS a Ford Foundation consultant, he traveled to India four times between 1971 and 1974, and was also supported in this venture by the National Science Foundation. In recognition of his professional excellence in his career, Dr. Rushton was the recipient of an award from the Association for American Geographers – an accomplishment that he notes to be the highlight of his career.
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