Kevin R. Cox, Distinguished University Professor of Geography, is the recipient of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Lifetime Achievement Honors Award for 2012. The AAG Honors Committee recognized Cox for his superlative achievements that have led, defined, and transformed multiple fields within the discipline of Geography; and for a career marked by a generosity of spirit in the training of generations of intellectual leadership.

Cox has been an internationally recognized scholar in the areas of geography of voting, and behavioral geography, and currently in the politics of urbanization and globalization. According to the AAG citation, for almost fifty years, Cox has engaged the fundamental puzzles of geography, making major contributions to questions of voting behavior, urban growth and development and the politics of global change. In the process, he helped to imagine and create the fields of Behavioral Geography and modern Political Geography.

Cox's long and outstanding career also includes exceptional mentoring of students and colleagues The AAG cites Cox's superlative care and mentoring of graduate students, fostering several generations of influential Geographers, who occupy academic leadership positions in places as wide-ranging as South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, India, and Canada, as well as the United States and United Kingdom.

Cox is the author of thirteen major books and more than one hundred articles and chapters. He has received numerous prestigious recognitions including a Guggenheim Fellowship and Ohio State's Distinguished Scholar Award. In 2003, Cox was awarded the title of Ohio State Distinguished University Professor, the university's highest honor

The awards ceremony will take place at the AAG Annual Meeting in New York City on February 28.