The American Association of Geographers (AAG) has established the AAG Wilbanks Award for Transformation Research in Geography in memory of Dr. Thomas (Tom) Wilbanks. Dr. Wilbanks is a former AAG President and long-standing AAG member, who earned the admiration and respect of colleagues around the world for his many years of scholarship and research bridging the academic, public and private sectors.
Dr. Wilbanks was a scientist and corporate research fellow at The Climate Change Science Institute (CCSI) and ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, and also served as science team lead for MultiScale Energy-Environmental Systems. His work centered on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability science, with a focus on risk management. He authored, co-authored or co-edited nine books and more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and other open-literature publications. Wilbanks’ research was utilized by several US and international panels focused on developing policy recommendations related to climate change impacts. He was formally recognized as a co-laureate for the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace for contributing to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Wilbanks was an active member of several professional societies.
Before joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1977, he was a professor at Syracuse University and chaired the Geography Department at Oklahoma University.
The AAG Wilbanks Award for Transformational Research in Geography will honor researchers from the public, private, or academic sectors who have made transformative contributions to the fields of Geography or GIScience.