#  A Look Back - The CGA’s 20th Anniversary Conference 

 





November 04, 2026

 

 

The Center for Geographic Analysis celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with a special annual conference, “Celebrating Geographic Analysis: Past, Present, and Future.” The conference, which attracted over 180 participants, was held October 2 and 3 at the David Rubenstein Treehouse on Harvard University’s campus. The conference opened with a brief retrospective, looking back at 20 years of spatial analysis at the CGA, from Peter Bol, CGA’s founding Director, as well as Subu Subramanian, the outgoing Chair of CGA’s Faculty Advisory Group.

The next day and a half featured keynote talks from Dawn Wright, Esri’s Chief Scientist, Francesca Dominici, Director of Harvard’s Data Science Initiative (HDSI), and Matt Zook, from the University of Kentucky. The [full conference program](https://harvard-cga.github.io/cga-conference-2026/) also included plenary panels on geospatial skills and industry and humanitarian crisis mapping, as well as over 80 presentations and lightning talks and four panel sessions.

This year’s conference attracted a diverse audience of 180 participants from over 53 universities, 16 non-university research institutes, and 8 companies. Additionally, five pre-conference workshops were offered, covering the topics machine learning and satellite imagery, working with web data, spatial AI, and more. Workshops were attended by 80 students. Exhibitions at the conference included vendor tables, and large TVs featuring a [slideshow ](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRJjv_monpMjj1iR6c0H6RcB28mQSQqgZbOX93wBaInYAy1P0AgvqNjR3sQ7Rikxg/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=15000)by the Harvard Map Collection of 400 historic maps, and a [retrospective video](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-DL4MljdF2B2KfZFnsnUXH-58bZ0fa5B/view?usp=sharing) of CGA maps and projects developed over the years. The conference concluded with the presentation of the 2026 Fisher Prize for Excellence in GIS to one Harvard undergraduate student and one graduate student. Thanks to everyone who helped make the 2026 CGA Conference a success!

 ![photo of Peter Bol, CGA conference](/sites/g/files/omnuum9996/files/2026-11/IMG_4340_crop.jpg)

 

*CGA Founding Director Peter Bol speaking at the conference opening. Photo by Jeff Blossom.*

   ![Photo of Dawn Wright speaking.](/sites/g/files/omnuum9996/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2026-11/dawn_wright.jpeg?itok=0cYEzzXU) 

 

*Keynote speaker Dawn Wright. Photo by Rachel Franklin.*

   ![Francesca Dominici speaking](/sites/g/files/omnuum9996/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2026-11/dominici_1.jpeg?itok=HgLNUK6G) 

 

*Keynote speaker Francesca Dominici. Photo by Rachel Franklin.*

   ![Photo of Matthew Zook speaking](/sites/g/files/omnuum9996/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2026-11/zook_0.jpeg?itok=ZZBQL1M6) 

 

*Keynote speaker Matthew Zook. Photo by Rachel Franklin.*

   ![Attendees of the CGA Conference](/sites/g/files/omnuum9996/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2026-11/attendees_lo_res.jpg?itok=YoevqKtH) 

 

*Conference attendees. Photo by Rachel Franklin.*

 ![CGA staff after the conference.](/sites/g/files/omnuum9996/files/2026-11/IMG_4349.jpeg)

 

*Pictured from left to right at the conference closing: Zifu Wang (CGA), Matthew Scott Tan (Fisher Prize winner, undergraduate category), Rachel Franklin (CGA), Jeff Blossom (CGA), Kyungmin Kim (Fisher Prize winner, graduate category), Devika Jain (CGA), and Jaiany Rocha Trindade (CGA). Photo by Matthew Wilson.*





 

 

 



 

 

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