At the August 2016 Congress of the International Geographical Union (IGU) in Beijing Maria Dolors Garcia-Ramon was one of three scholars presented with the Lauréat d’Honneur, the highest award given by the organization. She is only the fifth woman and the first Spanish geographer to have received the Lauréat since it was established in 1976. Maria-Dolors is recognized as a distinguished mentor who has promoted gender studies in geography and advanced linguistic and cultural diversity in the construction and dissemination of knowledge. She has shared these perspectives by hosting international scholars in Barcelona and as a visiting scholar in Latin America, other countries in Europe, in Israel, and the US. Within her university she established the Gender and Geography Study Group mentoring 23 doctoral students including those from abroad. She was founding Secretary of the IGU Gender and Geography Study Group and is long-term translator of its newsletter into Spanish.
