Waldo Rudolph Tobler (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
-
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
*Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
*Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
*Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
* Swiss Internation ...
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
and
cartographer
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an ...
. Tobler's idea that "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things" is referred to as the "
first law of geography." He has proposed a
second law as well: "The phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on inside". Tobler was an active Professor Emeritus at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
Department of Geography until his death.
Academic background
In 1961, Tobler received his
Ph.D. in the
Department of Geography at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...
at Seattle. At Washington, he participated in geography's
William Garrison-led quantitative revolution of the late 1950s. After graduating in 1961, Tobler became an Assistant Professor at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, where he remained until moving to the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1977. Until his retirement he held the positions of Professor of Geography and Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The
University of Zurich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
, Switzerland, awarded him an
honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
in 1988.
Research
Tobler was one of the
principal investigator
In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often u ...
s and a senior
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosop ...
in the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
-sponsored
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. His career in geography had a profound impact on the discipline, and he is perhaps the most influential geographer of the past century. As a graduate student, he pioneered the use of computers in cartography in his 1959 paper "Automation and Cartography". This technology was extremely influential in early
Geographic Information Systems
A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a ...
. His later research emphasized mathematical modeling and graphic interpretations in geography. In the course of his research, he formulated the "
first law of geography" in 1970 while producing a computer movie of Detroit.
[Tobler W., (1970]
"A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region"
''Economic Geography'', 46(Supplement): 234–240. He is the inventor of novel and unusual
map projection
In cartography, map projection is the term used to describe a broad set of transformations employed to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and l ...
s, among which was the first derivation of the partial differential equations for area cartograms. He also invented a method for smooth two-dimensional mass-preserving areal data redistribution. In 1989, the
American Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...
awarded Tobler with the
Osborn Maitland Miller Medal.
["The Cullum Geographical Medal"]
. American Geographical Society. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
Tobler was involved in building a global,
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...
-
longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...
oriented, demographic information base with resolution two orders of magnitude better than was previously available. He also examined the development of smooth finite element and categorical pycnophylactic geographic information reallocation models. In July 1999 he presented a
keynote
A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...
speech, "The World is Shriveling as it Shrinks," at the
ESRI
Esri (; Environmental Systems Research Institute) is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 43% market share, Esri is the world's leading supplier of GIS ...
International User Conference, and was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in
GIS by ESRI.
Taylor and Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...
of London recently published a
map projection
In cartography, map projection is the term used to describe a broad set of transformations employed to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and l ...
book, co-authored with Q. Yang of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and the late
John P. Snyder. More recent interests related to ideas in computational
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
including the analysis of geographical
vector fields and the development of migration and of global
trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exc ...
models.
Tobler was also concerned with representing flow (due to its involvement with movement as a mechanism of geographic change). In 2003, Tobler released a
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the ...
,
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
-based version of his flow representation software Flow Mapper. In 2005, an ESRI ArcGIS version of the software, inspired by Tobler, was developed by
Alan Glennon and
Michael Goodchild
Michael Frank Goodchild (born February 24, 1944) is a British-American geographer. He is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After nineteen years at the University of Western Ontario, including th ...
at UCSB. Both versions are available from the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (http://vgi.spatial.ucsb.edu/clearinghouse/FlowMapper/)
Honors
*Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States;
*Honorary Fellow,
American Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...
;
*
Osborn Maitland Miller Medal, American Geographical Society 1989;
*Meritorious Contributor Medallion, Association of American Geographers, 1971;
*Andrew McNally Award, 1986;
*ESRI Lifetime Achievement Award, 1999.
*AAG Microcomputer Specialty Award, 1993.
*GIS Hall of Fame Inductee, URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association), 2016.
*
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
,
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...
,
Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...
Tobler served on the
National Research Council the Board on Earth Sciences. He has been on the editorial board of several journals, including ''
The American Cartographer'', ''
Journal of Regional Science
The Journal of Regional Science is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. Proceeded in the field of Regional Science only by ''Papers and Proceedings of the Regional Science Association'' (now ''Papers in Regional Science ...
'', ''
Geographical Analysis'', and the ''
International Journal of Geographical Information Systems''. He was a charter member of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, a council member of the Regional Science Association, member and chairman of the Mathematical Social Science Board, and served as the United States delegate to the
International Geographical Union
The International Geographical Union (IGU; french: Union Géographique Internationale, UGI) is an international geographical society. The first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871. Subsequent meetings led to the estab ...
Commission on Geographical Data Processing and Sensing. Until his retirement, he was a member of the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
of Great Britain.
See also
*
Tobler's first law of geography
*
Tobler's second law of geography
*
Tobler's hiking function
*
Tobler hyperelliptical projection
References
;General
*W. Tobler, (2002) “Ma Vie: Growing Up in America and Europe”, in Geographical Voices, W. Pitts and P. Gould, eds., University of Syracuse Press; Syracuse; pages 292–322.
*In French: (2000) “Ma Vie: Grandir en Amérique et en Europe”, dans Mémoires de Géographes, P. Gould et A. Bailly, eds., Anthropos, Paris, 209–242.
;Specific
External links
Waldo R. Tobler at UCSBCSISS/Flow Mapper SoftwareUCSB Geography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobler, Waldo R.
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
American geographers
Swiss geographers
1930 births
2018 deaths
University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
University of Michigan faculty
Human geographers
University of Washington alumni
American cartographers