Serge Rey Serge Rey is Professor in the School of Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Spatial Sciences at UCR. 
His research interests focus on the development, implementation, and application of advanced methods of spatial and space-time data analysis. His substantive foci include regional inequality, convergence and growth dynamics as well as neighborhood change, segregation dynamics, spatial criminology and industrial networks. Recent and current research projects include geodemographic approaches to neighborhoods in space-time contexts (NSF), new methods for spatial distribution dynamics (NSF), an analysis of the relationships between spatial linkages and urban economic dynamics (EDA), flexible geospatial visual analytics and simulation technologies to enhance criminal justice decision support systems (NIJ), spatial analytical framework for examining community sex offender residency issues over space and time (NSF), and cyberGIS software integration for sustained geospatial innovation (NSF). 
Serge Rey is the creator and lead developer of the open source package STARS: Space-Time Analysis of Regional Systems as well as co-founder and lead developer of PySAL: A Python Library for Spatial Analysis. 
He is an elected fellow of the Regional Science Association International, a fellow of the Spatial Econometrics Association, and has served as the Editor of the International Regional Science Review from 1999-2014, editor of Geographical Analysis 2014-2017, and the president of the Western Regional Science Association. More information is available here.

Ron Martin is Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Business Research attached to the Judge Business School. He is also one of the Team in the Centre for Geographical Economic Research. He holds a Professorial Fellowship at St Catharine's College. He was also a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow for 2015-2017. More information is available on his extensive experience and achievements in regional analysis is available here.

Eveline van Leeuwen is Professor of Urban Economics at Wageningen University. She has a broad interest in economic and social interactions between places at the regional and urban level and how these interactions impact wellbeing/happiness; economic activities and participation. In her research, she focuses on the integration of micro- and macro approaches in the field of regional science. Linking agent-based modelling and micro simulation with macro models is an important common thread. Currently, Eveline and her group are working on how social and physical neighbourhood characteristics contribute to individual level decisions. They focus on sustainable energy consumption and the uptake of renewable energy, local participation and social networks, and healthy lifestyles. In addition, at the regional level, a project on the opportunities for regional food systems and the preferences of urban consumers started in early 2018. More detail on Eveline van Leeuwen's research profile is available here.

The session is organised in collaboration with REGION - ERSA's open access journal.

This panel discussion will be aimed at identifying current major issues and formulating future research agendas in regional science. It is ten years since a similar roundtable was held at the ERSA Congress in Liverpool in 2008. It is an opportune time to renew this innovation. The panel comprises distinguished early career researchers and possible emerging future leaders in the discipline, but not part of the "establishment". The session will hear how early academics perceive future developments in regional science and seek to link the members' different research agendas by identifying common empirical approaches and potential conceptual synergies.

The session is chaired by Professor Dimitris Ballas (University of Groningen) who also chaired the session in Liverpool in 2008. The panel comprises of Frank Crowley (University College Cork), Dimitris Kallioras (University of Thessaly), Nik Lomax (University of Leeds), Ozge Oner (University of Cambridge), Anna-Theresa Renner (Vienna University of Economics and Business), Cristina Serbanica (Constantin Brancoveanu University), Alexandra Tsvetkova (Ohio State University), and Viktor Venhorst (University of Groningen).

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (Professor of Economic Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, UK) is awarded the ERSA Prize in Regional Science. The Jury of the ERSA Prize Committee recognises his outstanding contribution to pushing the boundaries of regional science. His research is widely cited in academic circles and frequently attracts the attention of policy-makers and the wider public.
The Jury also praises his long-standing service to the regional science community: his career shows a perfect match between scientific contribution, contribution to society/policy, and contribution to the regional science community. As such he is a very good example of a 'social' Regional Science Leader.

More detail on Andrés Rodríguez-Pose 's research profile is available here.