David A. Parr

I see my discipline, Geographic Information Science (GIS) as the intersection of Geography and Computer Science – from which I have earned my degrees. Therefore, I want students to be able to think geographically – that is, to critically consider the dynamic spatial and temporal issues of a problem and to consider how scale and distance impact our human and physical environments. I also want them to think computationally – that is, to break problems into smaller components in a logical sequence and consider how a representation in a computer is related to the object in the real world. These skills – understanding spatial relations and logical problem solving – are critical skills in our discipline and in the wider world.