Brian Berry

Brian Joe Lobley Berry (born February 16, 1934) is a British-American human geographer. He is Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. His urban and regional research in the 1960s sparked geography’s social-scientific revolution and made him one of the most-cited geographers for more than 25 years.

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 in the Department of Geography.

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.