Peter Burrough

Peter Alan burrough, an innovator in GIS research, died earlier this year in Leiden, The Netherlands. Burrough received his bSc (First Class Honors) in chemistry from the University of Sussex, brighton in 1965, and his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1969. In 1973, he went to Sydney, Australia to become Lecturer in Soil Science at the University of New South Wales. Burrough moved to The Netherlands in 1976, where he was based for nearly three decades. He first worked in Wageningen as a Senior Research Scientist at STIbOKA (the Dutch Soil Survey) from 1976 to 1980. He later moved to Wageningen Agricultural University, where he became Senior Lecturer in Spatial Analysis and Soil Science. Burrough was appointed Professor of Physical Geography and Geographical Information Systems at the Geographical Institute of Utrecht University in 1984. Research activities in physical geography at Utrecht University before that time had mainly focused on geomorphology. Under Burrough’s leadership, GIS, geostatistics, environmental modeling, and remote sensing were introduced to both the teaching curriculum and the research agenda of the department. Between 1984 and 1994, he was the initiator and chairman of two major five-year research programs: Landscape, Environment, and Land Use (LAMIRU) from 1984 to 1988, and Geographical Information Systems and Landscape Analysis (GISLA) from 1988 to 1993. Burrough is recognized for a seminal work in GIS, Principles of Geographical Information Systems. Published in 1986 by theClarendon Press, the book became an instrumental resource for soil scientists as well as geographers, surveyors, social scientists, urban planners and students in these fields. The book promoted interest in the newly developing GIS field. Peter A. Burrough (Necrology). 2009. AAG Newsletter 44(7): 19.