Stan Openshaw

Stan Openshaw (10 August, 1946 – 19 May, 2022) was a British geographer. His last post was professor of human geography based in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. After eighteen years at Newcastle University, including three years as professor of quantitative geography, he moved to work in Leeds in 1992. Openshaw was a researcher in computer-based/computational geography and his work aimed to automate aspects of geographical research and reduce subjectivity in geographical analyses. He worked on geographical information systems, analysis technology and models. He debated the direction geography should take putting forward a view that the subject needed an applied and scientific edge that harnessed the growing power of computers to make positive impacts to help us avoid and mitigate risk and cope better with disasters.

In 1992 Openshaw set up the Centre for Computational Geography (CCG) as an inter-disciplinary unit at the University of Leeds; it is a research unit dedicated to the use computers for exploring complex social and physical problems. He also became a fellow of the Institute of Statisticians and a member of the British Computer Society in 1983, as well as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Chartered Statistician in 1993. Openshaw had directed the CCG for seven years until he had a stroke and finally retired in 1999 . Because of his severe medical condition/sequelae, Openshaw struggled to communicate verbally and got around from 1999.

In 2012 at the GISRUK conference in Lancaster a special session was arranged to celebrate his work and geographical career. Provided by Wikipedia