Vice-Rector
(1987 - 1994)
Dr. Roland J. Fuchs, an American geographer specializing in development problems and policies, has been appointed Vice-Rector of the Development Studies Division of the United Nations University. The appointment, announced by the Rector of the University, Soedjatmoko, is effective 1 January 1987. Dr. Fuchs has been Chairman of the Department of Geography and Special Assistant to the President at the University of Hawaii. He has also served concurrently as Adjunct Research Associate at the Population Institute, East-West Center in Honolulu.
The Development Studies Division, one of three programme divisions of the UN University, is concerned with empirical, country specific and comparative research on development issues as well as policy research and related post-graduate training. From its Tokyo planning and coordinating centre, the UNU directs research, training and dissemination efforts in more than 6O countries through global networks of participating scientists and scholars. Dr. Fuchs, who has been active in both the U.S. and international geographical communities in varying capacities for three decades, has been particularly concerned with spatial population and urbanization and regional development policies. Much of his research and writing has focussed on the countries of Eastern Europe and Asia.
He has been a member of the University of Hawaii faculty since 1958 and Chairman of the Department of Geography since 1964. At the East-West Population Institute, he has been involved in research on urbanization, migration and development. Dr. Fuchs did post-doctoral work in Soviet urban geography and planning at Moscow State University in 196O-61, and was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Tribhuvan University, Nepal in 1966.
In addition to his academic career, Dr. Fuchs has served the United Nations system in various capacities. He has been a consultant to UNFPA and UNDP, and was a member of the ESCAP Technical Working Group on Migration and Urbanization in 1981.
Dr. Fuchs is a member of the Association of American Geographers, and serves on its Committee for International Cooperation. He is currently First-Vice President of the International Geographical Union and Chairman of its Research Development Committee. He has been active in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, where he has been Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). He was Chairman of the U.S. delegations to the ICSU conferences in Amsterdam (1980) and Berne (1986). He is a member of the Council of the Pacific Science Association and of the U.S. National Committee for Pacific Basin Economic Cooperation.
He has published extensively in scientific journals on development, demography, land use and urbanization. He is co-author of the soon-to-be published volume, Urbanization and Urban Policies in the Asia-Pacific Region and a number of other books on geographical policies and problems, particularly as they relate to development. Dr. Fuchs was educated at Columbia University (New York) and Clark University (Worcester, Mass.) from which he received his Ph.D. in 1959. He is a native of Yonkers, New York (born 15 January 1933).
The United Nations University was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1972, and began operations from Tokyo in 1975. It is mandated by its Charter to work through world-wide networks of collaborating institutions and scholars on "pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare."
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