ostromElinor Ostrom, the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, will give a keynote presentation as a part of Indiana University’s GIS Day celebration on November 18.

Ostrom’s presentation, titled Using GIS and Remote Sensing to Study the Effects of Diverse Institutions, will explore the broader implications of mapping and geographic technologies. The distinguished professor will make her presentation at 5 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

An IU faculty member since 1965, Ostrom is currently the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. She is also co-founder and senior research director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at IU.

Ostrom is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, established in 1968. She shares the award with Oliver Williamson, Edgar F. Kaiser Professor Emeritus of Business, Economics and Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Her award recognizes her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.

The GIS Day event leading up to the keynote presentation will take place in the lobby of the Herman B Wells Library in Bloomington from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a host of informational booths and activities to show off the exciting work that Indiana researchers, staff, government agencies, and businesses are doing with Geographic Information Systems.

This is the 11th anniversary of GIS Day, the worldwide, annual event celebrating GIS technology and its applications. Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, connects people with the geo-intelligence they need to work more efficiently and make better decisions. GIS supports a geographic approach to problem solving. From Google Maps technology to systems that monitor the spread of disease, GIS technologies are tools that help people do a better job and make a difference.

To learn more, see: http://gisday.indiana.edu.

[Source: Indiana University news release]