Biography
Dimitris Ballas is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield and Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of the Aegean.
He is an economist by training (1996, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece) and also has a Master of Arts (with distinction) in Geographical Information Systems (1997, University of Leeds, UK) and a PhD in Geography (2001, University of Leeds, UK).
He has extensive experience in using GIS and spatial microsimulation for the evaluation of the socio-economic and spatial impact of national social policies, as well as area-based policies. He has recently completed an ESRC mid-career research fellowship project (in the context of the "Understanding Population Trends and Processes" programme). This project aimed to critically review past studies and theories of happiness and to add a geographical dimension to recent innovative work of economists, psychologists and other social scientists in this relatively new research area. In particular, amongst the key objectives of the project were to analyse secondary survey data in order to determine what are the factors and life events increase or decrease the level of well-being of different types of individuals and to then explore the geographical distribution of subjective happiness and well-being using appropriate statistical modelling methods.
His most recent work includes The Human Atlas of Europe: A Continent United in Diversity, co-authored with Danny Dorling and Benjamin Hennig (Policy Press, Bristol, forthcoming in 2017): https://policypress.co.uk/the-human-atlas-of-europe
