Ash Amin

Ash Amin CBE FAcSS (born Kampala, 31 October 1955) is an Uganda-born British academic of Pakistani descent^[1] and the 1931 Chairman at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge^[2] and formerly at Durham University. He was head of the geography department at Durham and Executive Director of the Institute of Advanced Study.^[3]

Early life

He was born in Kampala, Uganda.^[4] He graduated from the University of Reading in 1979 with a upper second class degree in Italian Studies and then gained a PhD in geography from Reading in 1986. He is a prominent and world renowned^[5] economic geographer, with research in the areas of spaces of social, political and economic change. He is also the co-editor and founder of the journal 'Review of International Political Economy' and has written over 75 journal articles.^[6]

Career

He is an economic geographer,^[7] with research in the areas of spaces of social, political and economic change. He has authored 19 books and 110 journal articles.^[6]

His career started at Newcastle University in 1982. He was a Research Fellow and Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies and also a Lecturer and later a Professor in the Department of Geography. In 2005 he left Newcastle for Durham University, he was head of the geography department at Durham and the founding Executive Director of the Institute of Advanced Study in 2006. In 2011 he took the appointment of 1931 Chair in Geography at University of Cambridge and became a professorial Fellow of Christ's College.

Awards and fellowships

Amin has held and received numerous fellowships in his career, including visiting professorships to the University of Bologna, University of Copenhagen, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Uppsala.^[6] Moreover, he was a member of the ESRC's Research Priorities Board from 1997 to 2001. At present he is in his final year as a race and ethnicity adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.^[8] Ash Amin has received various awards and membership to prestigious bodies such as:

• Life Corresponding member of the Italian Institute of Geographers
• Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science
• Royal Geographical Society’s Edward Heath Prize in 1998
• Fellow of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences
• Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences ^[9]
• Fellow of the British Academy^[10]

Amin was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to social science.^[11]

Personal life

Ash Amin is married Lynne Brown, an English artist. The couple have three children.

References