Michael Frank Goodchild (born February 24, 1944) is a British-American geographer. He is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After nineteen years at the University of Western Ontario, including three years as chair, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1988, as part of the establishment of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, which he directed for over 20 years. In 2008, he founded the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies.

Education
B.A., Physics, Downing College, Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1965
Ph.D., Geography, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 1969

Scholarship
His most influential work has involved research on Geographic Information Science (aka GIS). He is widely credited with coining "Volunteered Geographic Information" and is considered the world's foremost expert on the topic.

Caves and karst
As a doctoral student at McMaster University, Goodchild rediscovered Castleguard Cave in Banff National Park 20 kilometers long, the longest cave in Canada). His student Alan Glennon discovered an entrance and made significant discoveries to the Martin Ridge Cave System, Kentucky (51.8 kilometers long). Goodchild's dissertation advisor, Derek C. Ford, is a Canadian geomorphologist and karst scientist.

Honors
Fellow of the British Academy, 2010-
Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 2010-
Researcher of the Year, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, 2010;
Prix Vautrin Lud, St Dié-des-Vosges, France, 2007;
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2006–;
Honorary Doctor of Laws, Ryerson University, 2004;
Honorary Doctor of Science, McMaster University, 2004;
Professor, Wuhan University, 2003–;
Faculty Research Lecturer, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003;
Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society, 2003;
Educator of the Year, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, 2002;
Foreign Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, 2002–;
Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2002–;
National Associate of the National Academies, 2001–;
Lifetime Achievement Award, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), 2001;
Honorary Doctor of Science, Keele University, 2001;
Award of Distinction for Exceptional Scholarly Contributions to Cartography, Canadian Cartographic Association, 1999;
Honorary Doctor of Science, Université Laval, 1999.

See also
Alexander Stewart Fotheringham – British-American geographerPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Arthur Getis – American geographer and spatial statistician
Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography – Series of geography texts, 1975–1996
George F. Jenks – American geographer and cartographer
Michael DeMers – American geographer and fiction writer
Technical geography – Study of spatial information
Quantitative geography – Subfield of geographic methods
Qualitative geography – Subfield of geographic methods
Waldo Tobler – American geographerPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

References

External links
Mike Goodchild's homepage archived 19 Jan 2022 Retrieved 6 April 2026