On March 5, 2007, the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA) announced that Professor Michael Goodchild has been named as the 2007 recipient of GITA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. “This distinguished award recognizes an individual’s outstanding contribution and longstanding commitment to the geospatial industry. A specially appointed blue-ribbon panel of experts — representing geospatial users, solution providers, academia, publishing, government, and business — carefully evaluates nominees for this prestigious award using a stringent set of criteria. Candidates for this award include those whose pioneering spirit and demonstrated dedication have contributed greatly to the geospatial industry and whose example serves as an inspiration to others. The Geospatial Industry Lifetime Achievement Award is presented at the GITA Annual Conference. Nominations are open to any current or former member of the geospatial community” ).
To quote GITA’s press release, “Goodchild first encountered geographic information systems and computer mapping in the late 1960s, when it was a struggling high-end computing application, and said he’s particularly gratified by the response the technology has received in universities. Goodchild said he’s happy that the general public has reached the point where virtually anyone with a Web browser can make use of geospatial tools; but, at the same time he said that geospatial professionals have only begun to recognize how far they still have to go in giving everyone access to the basic spatial literacy that’s needed to use the tools effectively.” “I’m immensely honored by this award, especially as it comes from an organization that emphasizes the importance of education in the broad and expanding geospatial community. This is a very exciting time to be working in this area, particularly for the younger generation,” Goodchild said (http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/10965/).
Professor Goodchild received a BA in Physics from Cambridge University and a PhD in Geography from McMaster University. He joined the UCSB Department of Geography in 1988, and he has served as Chair of the Department (1998-2000); chair of the Executive Committee of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis since 1997; Associate Director of the Alexandria Digital Library Project since 1994; Chair of the Mapping Science Committee, National Research Council, 1997–1999; and Director of NCGIA’s Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science since 1999. His research interests include urban and economic geography, geographic information systems, and spatial analysis. Considered the father of GIScience, Goodchild’s many honors include being elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002, being awarded the Founder’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 2003.and being elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. For more, see Mike’s web site at www.geog.ucsb.edu/~good.
