SAD - The Interviews

The Spatial Analytics and Data seminar series, brought to you by Newcastle University, Bristol University and The Alan Turing Institute, provides a forum for dialogue among scholars united by interest in geographic data and spatial analysis, as well as a platform for cutting-edge methods and thinking in spatial social science.

Throughout the years, spatial analytics and data have been nurtured by path-breaking scholars from a variety of backgrounds. But, who are these people? What reflections do they have on their experience? How have “Spatial Analytics” and “Data” changed, and what is their future? SAD: The Interviews is a new partnership between the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) through the Quantitative Methods Research Group (QMRG) and the Spatial Analytics and Data (SAD) Seminar Series.

Join us for SAD: The Interviews, long-form, informal conversations with influencers of our generation of spatial analytics and data for their insights on the evolution (and revolutions) of the field. You can sign up for events using the Evenbrite link, or catch up on previous recordings via the youtube link.

We also run seminars to promote excellent research that highlights the importance of spatial analytics and data. You can catch up on these seminars on our youtube channel.

Season I (2021)

April 13th - Michael Batty

For our inaugural SAD Interview, we welcome Professor Michael Batty, internationally esteemed scholar of cities, complexity, and urban systems. Professor Batty is Founder and Past Director of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, Editor of Environment and Planning B, and 2015 awardee of the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal.

May 4th - Luc Anselin

Luc Anselin is the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, where he founded and directs the Center for Spatial Data Science. Luc is one of the principal developers of the field of spatial econometrics. His work spans political science, sociology, economics, statistics, and urban studies. He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.

May 25th - Helen Couclelis

Helen Couclelis is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After joining the department at UCSB in 1982, Professor Couclelis has held numerous visiting appointments at the University of Waterloo, University of California Berkeley, and Princeton University. She won the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Career Research Award in 2018 for fundamental contributions to regional science, urban analytics, and geographic information science, and she continues to publish on urban systems, interaction, and uncertainty today.

July 20th - Alison Heppenstall

Alison Heppenstall is a Professor of Geocomputation at the University of Leeds, as well as an ESRC-Alan Turing Professorial Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. Professor Heppenstall’s research is centered around developing and applying transdisciplinary methods to solve complex spatial problems in Urban Analytics. She is interested in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, and visualization.

September 28th - Danny Dorling

Danny Dorling is Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Oxford in 2013, he worked in Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds, and New Zealand. Before a career in academia Danny was employed as a play-worker in children’s play-schemes and in pre-school education where the underlying rationale was that playing is learning for living. He tries not to forget this. Professor Dorling’s research focuses on social inequality as it manifests in housing, health, employment, and education.

[Bonus] November 16th - Sara Fabrikant

Season II (2022)

February 22nd - Trysalin Nelson

May 3rd - Antonio Paez

June 14th - Sarah Elwood