According to the Development Office, “At UC Santa Barbara, private philanthropic support is central to maintaining the quality of teaching, research, and public service. One of the most important types of gifts to higher education is an endowed chair, for an endowed chair ensures faculty excellence. Created by a philanthropic gift, these highly prized academic positions are supported by earnings from invested funds. While the state budget pays for the faculty member’s salary, the proceeds from the endowment provide enrichments—such as research money and support for instruction—that are important to the recruitment and retention of the world’s greatest scholars”
The Jack and Laura Dangermond Endowed Chair in Geography, the first endowed chair in the history of the department, has recently been established through a generous gift from Jack and Laura Dangermond, and Professor Michael F. Goodchild becomes the first scholar appointed to the prestigious position. The Dangermonds have established this chair because of their interest in geography, geographic education, and the development of advanced spatial-analytic methods and GIS (geographic information system) technology in an academic environment. They have had a long relationship with UC Santa Barbara in supporting student research in the field of GIS and its application to human and environmental problems.
Goodchild is a Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Director of UCSB’s Center for Spatial Studies. He received his BA degree from Cambridge University in Physics in 1965 and his PhD in geography from McMaster University in 1969. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002, as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006, and as a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society in 2010. In 2007, Mike received the Prix Vautrin Lud, considered the Nobel Prize of Geography. He was editor of Geographical Analysis between 1987 and 1990 and editor of the Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Sciences section of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers from 2000 to 2006. He serves on the editorial boards of ten other journals and book series and has published over 15 books and 400 articles. He was Chair of the National Research Council’s Mapping Science Committee from 1997 to 1999 and currently chairs the Advisory Committee on Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences of the National Science Foundation. His current research interests center on geographic information science, spatial analysis, and uncertainty in geographic data.
Dr. Goodchild’s appointment to the Jack and Laura Dangermond Chair in Geography will be celebrated via an inaugural lecture and reception to be held on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 3 p.m. at the UCSB Mosher Alumni House. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Hallie Anderson at 805-893-4337 or hallie.anderson@ia.ucsb.edu.
Article by Bill Norrington
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