Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award

Deadline: October 31, 2025

This award, together with the Marble Fund Award for Innovative Master’s Research in Quantitative Geography and the William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography, are activities of the Marble Fund and are supported by donations to the fund. Additional support from Mr. Jack Dangermond is gratefully acknowledged.

The award is named for Dr. Duane Marble, creator of the Marble Fund, and for the late Dr. A. R. (Ray) Boyle who was a major contributor to the early development of both computer cartography and geographic information systems.  Dr. Ray Boyle was born in England in 1920 and served with the British Admiralty during World War II. After the war, he developed and patented many graphic systems for plotting and digitizing and was the inventor of the “free cursor” digitizing system that was the basis for the digital entry of much early spatial data. After moving to Canada in 1965 he was appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan where, among many other achievements, he developed the first digital system for nautical chart production for the Canadian Hydrographic Service. He worked for many years with Dr. Roger Tomlinson on the technical evaluation of GIS software and was also an active member of the IGU Commission on Geographical Data Sensing & Processing for many years.

The Award

This award aims to recognize excellence in academic performance by undergraduate students from the United States and Canada who are putting forth a strong effort to bridge geographic science and computer science as well as to encourage other students to embark upon similar programs.

Each of the Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Awards consists of a cash prize of $1,000 and a certificate of recognition. Esri has also agreed to provide priority consideration to any of the awardees who may be interested in participating in their Summer Intern Program.

Initially, up to three awards will be made available each year. Formal presentation of the awards will be made at the AAG Annual Meeting. Awardees are encouraged, but not required, to attend.

Applications will be reviewed by the Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award Committee. After review, the committee will recommend up to three applications to the Marble Fund Trustees as winners. Final awards will be made by the Trustees.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be enrolled in a full–time program of undergraduate study at an accredited United States or Canadian college or university.
• At the time of the application, the applicant must be no more than twelve months from graduation.
• Applicants must demonstrate a reasonable intent to embark upon a career or further education that will make use of their joint geographic science and computer science knowledge.
• There is no limit with respect to the number of students who can apply from a single institution. There will be, however, only one student per year from a single institution who may receive an award.
• Applicants do not need to be members of the Association of American Geographers, but they are strongly encouraged to consider membership.
• As with all other AAG awards, eligibility also rests on the candidate being in compliance with the AAG Professional Conduct Policy. Nominations may be rescinded, and the award may also be revoked for any candidate or awardee who is found in violation of the AAG’s Professional Conduct Policy.

Applications

A complete application must be received no later than the close of business on the deadline (Eastern Standard Time).

Applicants must provide:

1. An essay of no more than 800 words, formatted in 12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced with 1” margins, identifying the individual’s areas of interest within geographic science and computer science, a description of his or her career goals, and a statement as to how his or her joint background in geographic science and computer science will help to meet these goals.
2. A letter of recommendation from the student’s faculty advisor, department chair or program director. The letter should clearly address both the applicant’s academic performance as well as their potential for a career or further education that utilizes their geographic science and computer science background. Recommendation letters must be signed and written on institutional letterhead as a PDF.  Applicants will make a direct request for a letter of recommendation within the application portal.
3. An official or unofficial copy of the applicant’s transcript(s) with all relevant courses in geographic science and computer science, and grades received in these courses, highlighted.
4. For each highlighted course, the applicant must provide a one or two sentence description of the course content, the text book(s) used (if applicable), and the name(s) of the instructor(s).

Apply Now

For questions or difficulties, please contact grantsawards@aag.org or call the AAG at 202-234-1450.