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Geographers
and friends from around the world will gather to honor GIS pioneer
Roger Tomlinson when he receives the first Robert T. Aangeenbrug
Distinguished Career Award on April 7, 2005, at the Association
of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Denver. This first ever
award will be formally bestowed at the AAG Banquet by the Association’s
Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group. Roger
Tomlinson, often referred to as the “Father of GIS” was born in
Cambridge, England in 1933, and received degrees in geography from
Nottingham University in England and McGill University in Montreal,
and a PhD from University College in London. After a stint in the
Royal Air Force, he adopted Canadian citizenship and joined Canada’s
government as a GIS developer in the early 1960s. In that position,
he conducted a geographic analysis of Canada’s vast landbase, a
major national need at the time. An outgrowth of that project in
which he played the leading role was the development of the Canada
Geographic Information System, widely regarded as the first serious
GIS. In his approach to Geographic Information Systems, Tomlinson
has consistently stressed the idea that GIS begins with and is based
on geography. He recently emphasized that the strength of the term
GIS comes from its fundamentals: “The word “geography” is not going
to go away. It has been in use for hundreds (some would say thousands)
of years…It is clear to me that the overall process is that of earth
description; in short, it is geography. It has been demonstrated
beyond any refutation that geography matters in human decision making.”
His career has focused on the development of major international
GIS programs, ranging widely in geographic scope and content, but
with a special emphasis on environmental protection, natural resources
management, national parks, and forests. Throughout his impressive
career in geography and GIS, Tomlinson has served as a consultant
to many governmental and international organizations, including
the World Bank; several branches of the United Nations, including
UNESCO, the FAO, UNIDO, and UNEP; the U.S. Departments of Commerce
and Agriculture, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service,
the U.S. Bureau of the Census; several U.S. state governments; and
the national governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, France,
Australia, and Sweden. Roger also places enormous importance on
geographic education, calling it a vital goal, and has long supported
geography education at all levels of our schools and universities.
He says that it was a high school geography teacher that first captured
his imagination in the geography of the world around him, and led
to his lifelong interest and pioneering career in the field. Jack
Dangermond, president of ESRI, sees Tomlinson as one of the great
contributors to the origin and development of GIS. Regarding Tomlinson’s
career, Jack commented, “Roger has brought great distinction to
our field by defining the basic and essential vision that GIS is
both an extension of geographic science and a practical way to apply
geographic knowledge to a whole world of applications. His work
over the last three decades has also defined our field as a kind
of profession with formal methodology for designing and implementing
systems. Finally, Roger always makes me realize that GIS must first
and foremost be focused on providing information that really matters
(maps, reports, etc.) and that improves our sciences, processes,
and decision making.” It is fitting that this Distinguished Career
Award is named after the late Dr. Robert Aangeenbrug, also an early
leader in GIS and a contemporary of Roger Tomlinson. Aangeenbrug’s
impressive life included service as Executive Director of the Association
of American Geographers and as Chair of the Department of Geography
at the University of South Florida. In the mid-1980s, Aangeenbrug
was one of principal motivating forces in the formation of the AAG’s
Geographic Information Science and Systems specialty group. For
more information about Roger Tomlinson’s award, his career and his
contributions to geography and GIS, visit www.aag.org/tomlinson.
To attend the AAG’s Annual Meeting and the Banquet at which this
award will be presented, or to learn more about the AAG Geographic
Information Science and Systems specialty group, visit www.aag.org. |
