Roger Tomlinson | |
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| Born | Roger Frank Tomlinson (1933-11-17)17 November 1933 Cambridge, England |
| Died | 7 February 2014(2014-02-07) (aged 80) San Miguel de Allende, Mexico |
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| Alma mater | University of Nottingham,Acadia University,McGill University,University College London |
| Occupation | Geographer |
| Awards | UCGIS Fellow,[1]Order of Canada,Alexander Graham Bell Medal of theNational Geographic Society, Gold Medal of theRoyal Canadian Geographical Society,Murchison Award of theRoyal Geographical Society, honoraryDoctorate of ScienceUniversity of Nottingham, honoraryDoctorate of ScienceAcadia University, honoraryDoctorate of ScienceMcGill University, honorary Member of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors, honoraryDoctorate of ScienceUniversity of Lethbridge, URISA GIS Hall of Fame |
Roger Frank TomlinsonOC FRCGS (17 November 1933 – 7 February 2014)[2] was an English-Canadian geographer and the primary originator of moderngeographic information systems (GIS), and has been acknowledged as the "father of GIS."[3]
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Roger Tomlinson was a native of Newmarket, England, and prior to attending university, he served in theRoyal Air Force from 1951–1954 as a pilot and flying officer.
After his military service, Tomlinson attended theUniversity of Nottingham andAcadia University for two separate undergraduate degrees in geography and geology, respectively. He received a master's degree in geography fromMcGill University where he specialised in the glacialgeomorphology ofLabrador. His Doctoral thesis atUniversity College London was titled:The application of electronic computing methods and techniques to the storage, compilation, and assessment of mapped data.
Tomlinson's early career included serving as an assistant professor at Acadia, working as the manager of thecomputer mapping division at Spartan Air Services inOttawa, Ontario (following his studies at McGill), and work with theGovernment of Canada first as a consultant and later as a director of regional planning systems with the Department of Forestry and Rural Development.
It was during his tenure in the 1960s with Ottawa-based aerial survey company Spartan Air Services that Tomlinson conceptualized combining land use mapping with emerging computer technology. This pioneering work led him to initiate, plan and direct the development of theCanada Geographic Information System, the first computerised GIS in the world.
From the 1970s until his death, Tomlinson worked in geographic consulting and research for a variety of private sector, government, and non-profit organisations, largely through his Ottawa-based company, Tomlinson Associates Ltd., which has branches of consulting geographers in Canada, the United States, and Australia.
He was Chairman of the International Geographical Union GIS Commission for 12 years. He pioneered the concepts of worldwide geographical data availability as Chairman of the IGU Global Database Planning Project in 1988. He was also a president of the Canadian Association of Geographers.
He was recipient of Canadian Association of Geographers rare award for Service to the Profession. The Association of American Geographers in the United States awarded him the James R. Anderson Medal of Honor for Applied Geography in 1995 and he was the first recipient of the Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award in 2005.[4]
Tomlinson was an Honorary Fellow of theRoyal Geographical Society and winner of theirMurchison Award for the Development ofGeographic Information Systems. In 1996 he was awarded the GIS World Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of work with GIS, and he was the first recipient of theESRI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. In 2004, in recognition of his numerous achievements in the industry, the GIS Certification Institute awarded Tomlinson the GISP Certificate for Lifetime GIS Achievement and he was inducted into URISA's GIS Hall of FameArchived 22 February 2014 at theWayback Machine[5] and awarded lifetime membership. In 2010 Tomlinson received theAlexander Graham Bell Medal of theNational Geographic Society (together withJack Dangermond).[6] In 2011, he was presented with an Honorary Membership in the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors. Tomlinson also received the Geospatial Information & Technology Association Lifetime Achievement Award.[7] In 2013, Tomlinson was awarded a Fellow of theUniversity Consortium for Geographic Information Science.[8]
More recently, he was made a fellow ofUniversity College London and received honorary Doctorates of Science from theUniversity of Nottingham,Acadia University,McGill University, and theUniversity of Lethbridge. He was awarded the Gold Medal of theRoyal Canadian Geographical Society and was awarded theOrder of Canada by the Governor General for "changing the face of geography as a discipline." In 2013, he was promoted to Officer of the Order of Canada by the Governor General.[9]
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