The Waldo Tobler Distinguished Lecture in GIScience

If any one paradigm within cartography has an “intellectual leader,” it is analytical cartography. Waldo Tobler originated (in the 1960s) and nurtured (in the 1970s and 1980s) the idea of mathematical, transformational, or analytical approach to the subject. Tobler laid out the agenda for an analytical cartography in his seminal 1976 paper, “Analytical Cartography,” published in the American Cartographer. This paper, and Tobler’s ideas, had a profound effect on American academic cartography” (A History of Twentieth Century American Academic Cartography: McMaster, Robert B, Susanna McMaster, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 29 305-320, 2002).

Each year, the AAG Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group and the GIScience Journal Transactions in GIS collaborate to honor the legacy of Waldo Tobler by hosting a sponsored session, “The Waldo Tobler Distinguished Lecture in GIScience”, featuring a leading light in the field of GIScience. Please join AAG-GISS this year for an exciting and informative talk by a driving force in the field of GIScience.

Past Tobler Lecture Awardees

2026: Dr. Peter Kedron, University of California, Santa Barbara; Dr. Shawn Newsam, University of California, Merced

2025: Dr. Kathleen Stewart, University of Maryland – College Park; Dr. Song Gao, University of Wisconsin-Madison

2024: Dr. A-Xing Zhu, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dr. Yao-Yi Chiang, University of University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

2023: Dr. Shaowen Wang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Dr. Christopher Lippitt, University of New Mexico

2022: Dr. Trisalyn Nelson, University of California, Santa Barbara; and Dr. Clio Andris, Georgia Institute of Technology

2021: Dr. Robert Roth, University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Dr. Elizabeth Delmelle, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

2019: Dr. Keith Clarke, University of California, Santa Barbara

2018: Dr. May Yuan, The University of Texas at Dallas

2017: Dr. Arthur Getis, San Diego State University

2016: Dr. Alan MacEachren, The Pennsylvania State University

2015: Dr. Elizabeth Wentz, Arizona State University

2014: Dr. Matt Duckham, University of Melbourne

2013: Dr. Dawn Wright, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)

2012: Dr. Andrew Frank and Dr. Nick Chrisman (Discussant: Dr. Daniel Sui)

2011: Dr. Richard J. Aspinall, Macaulay Institute

2010: Dr. André Skupin, San Diego State University

2009: Dr. David M. Mark, University at Buffalo

2008: Dr. Marc P. Armstrong, University of Iowa