Professor Nigel Thrift of the School of Geographical Sciences has been elected in recognition of his outstanding contributions to human geography and social science theory.
His research focuses on economic and cultural geography, exploring new forms of capitalism, the cultural impact of information technologies, the history of time and time consciousness, and the cultural interpretation of individual behaviour within cities.
He has a particular interest in current developments in robotics and software, and how the world will be changed by the development of locational tagging of almost every object that exists. He has also nearly completed a book on the history of time, the culmination of more than ten years of research.
Educated at the Universities of Wales and Bristol, Professor Thrift held positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds, the Australian National University, and the University of Wales, before moving to the University of Bristol in 1987.
Throughout his career, he has also held overseas positions at several institutions, including the National University of Singapore, the University of Vienna, UCLA, and Institutes of Advanced Study in the Netherlands and Sweden.
He is a member of the ESRC Research Priorities Board, and earlier this year, received the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal for 'conspicuous merit in research in human geography'.
In October this year he will take up a new post as Head of the Life and Environmental Sciences Division at the University of Oxford.
Election to Fellowship of the British Academy is the culmination of a rigorous selection process in which each of the Academy's 18 Sections is involved. The number of Ordinary Fellows elected in each year is limited to 35. There are currently 751 Ordinary Fellows, 310 Corresponding Fellows (scholars of international distinction), and 15 Honorary Fellows.
This latest election brings to 8 the number of academics currently at Bristol University whose work has been honoured in this way.