COLUMBUS -- Kevin R. Cox, professor of geography at The Ohio State University, was awarded one of 182 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships for 2000-2001 in the United States and Canada. Cox is Ohio State's only Guggenheim Fellow this year.

Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

Cox of WORTHINGTON said the fellowship will allow him to expand his study of differences in the politics of local economic development between Western Europe and the United States.

"The politics of local economic development in the United States is very distinctive," Cox said. "It is that distinctiveness that I want to understand."

Cox said he has been preparing for this project for some time, and has already completed a number of smaller studies.

Over the next year, Cox will visit both England and France in order to complete these studies, and will write a book on his research.

An Ohio State faculty member since 1965, Cox received his master's degree and Ph.D. in geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his bachelor's degree in geography from Cambridge University in England.

Guggenheim Fellowships support scholars and artists for six to 12 months. The average grant amount is $33,866. There were 2,900 applicants. Because the program helps provide fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants carry no special conditions.

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(LO/HT)