Goodchild, Michael (1944-)

Michael Frank Goodchild is a well-known British-American geographer and educator and an influential theorist and pioneer in geographic information science (GIScience). As a professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) since 1989, and codirector (1991–1997) and executive committee chair (1997-) of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), Goodchild has led the development of GIScience from its origins within the technical specialty of geographic information systems (GIS) to the status of a full-fledged academic field. GIScience studies the fundamental principles underlying the acquisition, handling, analysis, and dissemination of geographic information, addressing issues of representation, computation, visualization, and societal impact.

Apart from the vision that helped shape a nascent discipline, Goodchild's notable contributions to geography include his persistent attention to the ...