Professor Roger Hayter
Roger Hayter began his academic career with distinction, obtaining a First Class Honours degree at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He came to Canada to pursue graduate studies at the University of Alberta, and followed that by attending the University of Washington at Seattle for his PhD, focussing his research upon the British Columbian forest products industry. Upon graduation, he was appointed to Memorial University and, at the end of three years, returned to the west coast to take up an appointment at Simon Fraser University. It is there that he has made his most notable research contributions.
In the time available here, reference can be made only to the later developments of Roger’s work. For several years he has been re-examining Innisian ideas, and has collaborated in this endeavour with a number of colleagues, within and without Geography. Through this inherently interdisciplinary work, Geography in Canada has been made more prominent.
Careful attention to conceptual frameworks has been a hallmark of Roger's research and writing, and this has been complemented by his career-long insistence that good geography involves detailed field work and attention to the empirical testing of ideas. In this he has led, strongly by example, but also by insisting that his graduate students become knowledgeable in theoretical structures and skilled in appropriate techniques. His own skill at directing research students is indicated by the fact that he attracts superior graduate students.
In recent years Roger has collaborated with colleagues abroad, most particularly in Germany, Scandinavia and Japan, from which places he has received increasing numbers of invitations to speak and do further research. The importance of this links back to his work in Canadian, specifically British Columbian, forestry and forest products. For the mid-latitude forests are globe-encircling, and Canadian geographers have the opportunity, and perhaps a duty, to conduct their research on a global scale. Export-led forestry in BC is a matter of economic life and death, and depends upon our understanding of free trade and globalization, much more than it does upon reliance on small national markets. The paradox, and geographical problem, is that it also depends upon an understanding of the relations between this industrial drive and the fate of various environmental contexts, to say nothing of the human rights issues relating to native land claims and the rights of Canadians to work, all of which are place-based rather than global. Canada will benefit or lose in proportion as these problems are addressed, and Roger is to the fore in leading the way into some of the essential enquiries.
As a case in point, Roger is just completing a new book entitled Flexible Crossroads: The restructuring of British Columbia's forest product industries. This volume comes hard on the heels of Roger’s recent (1997) volume, The Dynamics of Industrial Location: The factory, the firm and the production system. (Wiley) Designed as a text, this has been favourably reviewed and has been widely adopted in North America, Europe and Asia, and already reprinted.
Roger is one whose research contributions and directions of thought show a dedicated scholar at work. The cumulative impact of his work has already been significant; the productivity, consistently high; the ability to engage with others to enhance the effort, apparent; and the promise of more to come, strong.
Roger has taken a leadership role in his own university, insofar as scholarly work is concerned. He served both as Chair of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department. During these times he initiated major reviews of the curriculum structure, requiring a vision of the whole structure of the discipline. He has been appointed by the Academic Vice-President to chair the university's Asia Pacific Committee, was appointed by the Dean of Graduate Studies and VP-Research to serve on the Rhodes Scholarship Committee, and was elected by colleagues to the most recent Search Committee for a new Academic Vice-President. Such positions go only to those recognized as academic leaders.
Last but not least, Roger has served the CAG as the President of the Western Division, its Past President (who actually has duties), and as Councillor. Similarly, he has served as an elected Councillor on the national executive. And he has published some of his research in The Canadian Geographer.
Let me close by quoting one of the letters sent in support of this nomination: "By focussing on a major industry, basic to the BC economy, and by geographically unfolding the global competitive impacts on it by company and plant, (Roger) has made a major research contribution to Canadian geography. Extending this research by following the timber products exports and the trading linkages with Asia, particularly Japan, has been a natural expansion of his work. Needless to say, he has incorporated his research into his teaching and the well-received economic geography text, which he has published. He thoroughly deserves the CAG Distinguished Scholar award." I think we can all agree with these sentiments, and would want to congratulate Roger on this achievement.
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