News in Detail

Professor Michael Goodchild, Foreign Member of the Royal Society
May 21, 2010

Mike Goodchild is the unchallenged global leader of Geographic Information (or systems) Science. This seeks to conceptualize the complexities of field- and object-based geographic phenomena as manifested across both the traditional physical and 'hard' social sciences. Based on this, he has led research teams which have created new analytical methods for integration and analysis of very large spatial databases, leading to a $20bn+ industry. The quality and innovative nature of his work have led to him being elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a gold medalist of the Royal Geographical Society."

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Michael Goodchild receives 2010 UCGIS Award
April 10th, 2010

Professor Michael Goodchild was recently contacted by alumna Professor Dawn Wright (Oregan State University; Ph.D. in UCSB Physical Geography and Marine Geology, 1994) in her role as Chair of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Research Award committee: "It is my great pleasure and privilege to inform you that you have been selected as the recipient of the 2010 UCGIS Research Award. This award is given to the creator(s) of a particularly outstanding research work or series of works as published in a peer-reviewed medium, and that makes a significant contribution to geographic information science. Your professional and personal contributions to geographic information science research are highly regarded, and the award committee noted in particular your work on spatial data accuracy in GIS, based on measurement theory and visualizing error. We are therefore extremely pleased to recognize your important accomplishments and continuing contributions!"

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PH.D. Program in Spatially Integrated Social Science
University of Toledo, Ohio
April 16, 2009

The University of Toledo, Ohio is now accepting applications to the new PhD program in Spatially Integrated Social Science (SISS). This program is a cooperative multi-disciplinary effort of the Departments of Geography & Planning, Economics, Political Science & Public Administration, and Sociology & Anthropology. Admission will require a Masters of Arts degree or equivalent in a social science discipline and previous completion of graduate-level courses in GIS and multivariate statistics. This program is designed around the application of geographic information science, spatial statistics, spatial econometrics, and spatial analysis to study the spatial dimension of human and social dynamics, including interaction of individuals and society, government, and market participants. Applications are being accepted and classes will start August 24th, 2009. For more information, interested applicants are directed to http://www.utoledo.edu/as/siss/index.html or should contact Dr. Peter Lindquist, SISS Program Director at 419-530-4287, PLINDQU@UTNet.UToledo.Edu

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Spatial concepts the focus of Teachspatial.org
March 17, 2009

Teachspatial.org is a collaborative web site devoted to providing resources that promote applications of spatial concepts and spatial tools in teaching and learning. The site enumerates and defines core concepts of spatial thinking, presents schemas that interpret, synthesize, and model aspects of spatial thinking, and provides an archive of user-contributed resources for teaching and learning.

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