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We are delighted to announce that Michał Iliev, PhD student in the @uclgeography.bsky.social, received the Jack Dangermond Award by Esri UK! Michał won the prize for his Data After Dark StoryMap: Locating London's night-time food deserts. 🧵

As part of the award, he attended and presented his research as the 2026 Esri User Conference in San Diego.

Reflecting on the experience, Michał said: "I never imagined that a project on London's night would carry me all the way to San Diego. Presenting our work outside Europe for the first time was exciting, especially in the US, where the study of the urban night is still largely uncharted territory.

"Most of the Esri User Conference attendees that I discussed my work with have never considered how cities and people behave and change throughout the night, so it was rewarding to introduce them to the 'urban night' studies.

"Winning an award there gave me a real lift near the end of my PhD, and extra motivation to continue my research on the challenges facing night workers. On top of it all, sharing the experience with Young Scholars from over 30 countries made it one of the most memorable trips of my PhD."

Food inaccessibility is a major issue for London’s 1.3 million night-workers; however, to date, there has been little geospatial or quantitative evidence to show how this issue unfolds across space and time.

The study addresses this gap by mapping where and when access to food retail options is most limited for those working between 6 pm and 6 am.

The results reveal a stark contrast: while over 92% of daytime workers can reach a grocery store within 10 minutes, this figure drops below 60% after midnight, leaving an estimated 150,000 people still working across many parts of the city without sufficient access to food retail options.