Michael Frank Goodchild (born February 24, 1944) is a British-American

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 ...

. He is an Emeritus Professor of

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

. After nineteen years at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

, including three years as chair, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1988, as part of the establishment of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, which he directed for over 20 years. In 2008, he founded the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies.

Education

*Ph.D., Geography,

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

, Hamilton, Ontario, 1969 *B.A., Physics, Downing College, Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1965

Scholarship

His most influential work has involved research on

Geographic Information Science Geographic information science (GIScience, GISc) or geoinformation science is a scientific discipline at the crossroads of computational science, social science, and natural science that studies geographic information, including how it represe ...

(aka GIS). He is widely credited with coining " Volunteered Geographic Information" and is considered the world's foremost expert on the topic.

Caves and karst

As a doctoral student at

, Goodchild rediscovered Castleguard Cave in Banff National Park 20 kilometers long, the longest

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

). His student Alan Glennon discovered an entrance and made significant discoveries to the Martin Ridge Cave System,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

(51.8 kilometers long). Goodchild's dissertation advisor, Derek C. Ford, is a Canadian geomorphologist and

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

scientist.

Honors

* Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

, 2010- * Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 2010- * Researcher of the Year, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, 2010; * Prix Vautrin Lud, St Dié-des-Vosges,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, 2007; * Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, 2006–; * Honorary Doctor of Laws, Ryerson University, 2004; * Honorary Doctor of Science,

, 2004; * Professor, Wuhan University, 2003–; * Faculty Research Lecturer,

, 2003; * Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society, 2003; * Educator of the Year, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, 2002; * Foreign Fellow,

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

, 2002–; * Member,

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, 2002–; * National Associate of the National Academies, 2001–; * Lifetime Achievement Award, Environmental Systems Research Institute (

ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

), 2001; * Honorary Doctor of Science,

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

, 2001; * Award of Distinction for Exceptional Scholarly Contributions to Cartography, Canadian Cartographic Association, 1999; * Honorary Doctor of Science, Université Laval, 1999.

References

External links