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'''Waldo Rudolph Tobler''' (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) was an [[United States|American]]-[[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[geographer]] and [[cartographer]].<ref name = "Karan2000">{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTMjAQAAIAAJ&q=Waldo+R.+Tobler+1930 |title = Leaders in American Geography: Geographic research|isbn = 9780964384118|last1 = Karan|first1 = Pradyumna Prasad|last2 = Mather|first2 = Cotton|date = March 2000| publisher=New Mexico Geographical Society }}</ref><ref name="AAG1">{{cite web |title=Waldo Tobler (1930 - 2018) |url=https://www.aag.org/memorial/waldo-r-tobler/ |website=American Association of Geographers |access-date=8 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="Yang2018">{{cite web |last1=Yang |first1=Henry T. |title=Sad News - Professor Emeritus Waldo Tobler |url=https://chancellor.ucsb.edu/memos/2018-03-01-sad-news-professor-emeritus-waldo-tobler |website=Chancellor's Messages |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref>
'''Waldo Rudolph Tobler''' (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) was an [[United States|American]]-[[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[geographer]] and [[cartographer]].<ref name = "Karan2000">{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTMjAQAAIAAJ&q=Waldo+R.+Tobler+1930 |title = Leaders in American Geography: Geographic research|isbn = 9780964384118|last1 = Karan|first1 = Pradyumna Prasad|last2 = Mather|first2 = Cotton|date = March 2000| publisher=New Mexico Geographical Society }}</ref><ref name="Getis2020">{{cite book |last1=Getis |first1=Arthur |editor1-last=Batey |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Plane |editor2-first=David |title=Great Minds in Regional Science |date=2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |location=Switzerland |isbn=978-3-030-46157-7 |pages=185-198 |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-46157-7_12 |access-date=13 January 2024 |chapter=Waldo Tobler (1931–2018): Analytical Cartographer and Regional Scientist}}</ref><ref name="Yang2018">{{cite web |last1=Yang |first1=Henry T. |title=Sad News - Professor Emeritus Waldo Tobler |url=https://chancellor.ucsb.edu/memos/2018-03-01-sad-news-professor-emeritus-waldo-tobler |website=Chancellor's Messages |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref> Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century.<ref name="Getis2020"/><ref name="UCSantaBarbra2023">{{cite web |title=Preserving Groundbreaking Research in Geography, Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Science |url=https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/waldo-tobler-academic-archives |website=The Waldo Tobler Academic Archives |publisher=UC Santa Barbra Library |access-date=12 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="UCGIS1">{{cite web |title=Waldo R. Tobler |url=https://www.ucgis.org/waldo-r--tobler |website=University Consortium for Geographic Information Science |access-date=8 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="Clarke1">{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Keith C. |date=2018-07-04 |title=Waldo R. Tobler (1930–2018) |journal=Cartography and Geographic Information Science |language=en |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=287–288 |doi=10.1080/15230406.2018.1447399 |bibcode=2018CGISc..45..287C |s2cid=133763290 |issn=1523-0406|doi-access=free }}</ref> Tobler is most well known for his proposed idea that "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things," which has come to be referred to as the "[[first law of geography]]."<ref name="Getis2020"/><ref name="UCGIS1" /><ref name="Tobler1970">Tobler W. R. (1970) "A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region", ''Economic Geography'', 46(Supplement): 234-240</ref><ref name="Tobler2004">{{cite journal |last1=Tobler |first1=Waldo |title=On the First Law of Geography: A Reply |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |date=2004 |volume=94 |issue=2 |pages=304–310 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09402009.x |s2cid=33201684 |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09402009.x |access-date=10 March 2022}}</ref> He proposed a [[Tobler's second law of geography|second law]] as well: "The phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on inside."<ref name="Tobler2004" />
Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century.<ref name="UCSantaBarbra2023">{{cite web |title=Preserving Groundbreaking Research in Geography, Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Science |url=https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/waldo-tobler-academic-archives |website=The Waldo Tobler Academic Archives |publisher=UC Santa Barbra Library |access-date=12 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="UCGIS1">{{cite web |title=Waldo R. Tobler |url=https://www.ucgis.org/waldo-r--tobler |website=University Consortium for Geographic Information Science |access-date=8 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="Clarke1">{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Keith C. |date=2018-07-04 |title=Waldo R. Tobler (1930–2018) |journal=Cartography and Geographic Information Science |language=en |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=287–288 |doi=10.1080/15230406.2018.1447399 |bibcode=2018CGISc..45..287C |s2cid=133763290 |issn=1523-0406|doi-access=free }}</ref> Tobler is most well known for his proposed idea that "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things," which has come to be referred to as the "[[first law of geography]]."<ref name="UCGIS1" /><ref name="Tobler1970">Tobler W. R. (1970) "A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region", ''Economic Geography'', 46(Supplement): 234-240</ref><ref name="Tobler2004">{{cite journal |last1=Tobler |first1=Waldo |title=On the First Law of Geography: A Reply |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |date=2004 |volume=94 |issue=2 |pages=304–310 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09402009.x |s2cid=33201684 |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09402009.x |access-date=10 March 2022}}</ref> He proposed a [[Tobler's second law of geography|second law]] as well: "The phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on inside."<ref name="Tobler2004" />


Tobler established the discipline of analytical cartography, contributed early to [[Geographic information systems]] (GIS), and helped lay the groundwork for [[geographic information science]] (GIScience) as a discipline.<ref name="UCGIS1" /><ref name="Clarke1"/> He had significant contributions to [[computer cartography]], including contributing to the literature on [[map projection]]s, [[choropleth map]]s, [[flow map]]s, [[cartogram]]s, [[animated mapping]].<ref name="Clarke1" /><ref name="Tobler1970"/><ref name=Tobler1973>{{cite journal |last1=Tobler |first1=Waldo |title=Choropleth Maps Without Class Intervals? |journal=Geographical Analysis |date=1973 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=262–265 |doi=10.1111/j.1538-4632.1973.tb01012.x |bibcode=1973GeoAn...5..262T |doi-access=free }}</ref> His work with analytical cartography included contributions to the mathematical modeling of geographic phenomena, such as human movement in the creation of [[Tobler's hiking function]].<ref name="Clarke1" /><ref name="Tobler1970"/><ref name="Tobler93">{{cite journal |last=Tobler |first=Waldo |date=February 1993 |title=Three presentations on geographical analysis and modeling: Non-isotropic geographic modeling speculations on the geometry of geography global spatial analysis |journal=Technical Report |volume=93 |issue=1 |publisher=National center for geographic information and analysis |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/05r820mz.pdf |access-date=21 March 2013}} Available also in [http://www.geodyssey.com/papers/tobler93.html HTML] format.</ref> Tobler's work has been described as ahead of its time, and many of his ideas are still unable to be fully implemented due to limitations of technology.<ref name="Dorling2018">{{cite journal |last1=Dorling |first1=Danny |last2=Hennig |first2=Benjamin |title=Waldo Tobler: Remembering a genius |journal=The Cartographic Journal |date=2018 |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=303-304 |doi=10.1080/00087041.2018.1507181 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HYqyQ9SzWIj5BAF6XZS3/full |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref>
Tobler established the discipline of analytical cartography, contributed early to [[Geographic information systems]] (GIS), and helped lay the groundwork for [[geographic information science]] (GIScience) as a discipline.<ref name="Getis2020"/><ref name="UCGIS1" /><ref name="Clarke1"/> He had significant contributions to [[computer cartography]] and was one of the first geographers to explore using computers in geography<ref name="Getis2020"/>. including contributing to the literature on [[map projection]]s, [[choropleth map]]s, [[flow map]]s, [[cartogram]]s, [[animated mapping]].<ref name="Clarke1" /><ref name="Tobler1970"/><ref name=Tobler1973>{{cite journal |last1=Tobler |first1=Waldo |title=Choropleth Maps Without Class Intervals? |journal=Geographical Analysis |date=1973 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=262–265 |doi=10.1111/j.1538-4632.1973.tb01012.x |bibcode=1973GeoAn...5..262T |doi-access=free }}</ref> His work with analytical cartography included contributions to the mathematical modeling of geographic phenomena, such as human movement in the creation of [[Tobler's hiking function]].<ref name="Clarke1" /><ref name="Tobler1970"/><ref name="Tobler93">{{cite journal |last=Tobler |first=Waldo |date=February 1993 |title=Three presentations on geographical analysis and modeling: Non-isotropic geographic modeling speculations on the geometry of geography global spatial analysis |journal=Technical Report |volume=93 |issue=1 |publisher=National center for geographic information and analysis |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/05r820mz.pdf |access-date=21 March 2013}} Available also in [http://www.geodyssey.com/papers/tobler93.html HTML] format.</ref> Tobler's work has been described as ahead of its time, and many of his ideas are still unable to be fully implemented due to limitations of technology.<ref name="Dorling2018">{{cite journal |last1=Dorling |first1=Danny |last2=Hennig |first2=Benjamin |title=Waldo Tobler: Remembering a genius |journal=The Cartographic Journal |date=2018 |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=303-304 |doi=10.1080/00087041.2018.1507181 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HYqyQ9SzWIj5BAF6XZS3/full |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref>


Tobler held the positions of professor of geography and professor of statistics at [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] and was an active Professor Emeritus at the Department of Geography until his death.<ref name="AAG1" />
Tobler held the positions of professor of geography and professor of statistics at [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] and was an active Professor Emeritus at the Department of Geography until his death.<ref name="AAG1">{{cite web |title=Waldo Tobler (1930 - 2018) |url=https://www.aag.org/memorial/waldo-r-tobler/ |website=American Association of Geographers |access-date=8 October 2023}}</ref>


==Early life==
==Early life==

Revision as of 20:37, 13 January 2024

Waldo Rudolph Tobler
Waldo Tobler in front of the Newberry Library. Chicago, November 2007
Born(1930-11-16)November 16, 1930
DiedFebruary 20, 2018(2018-02-20) (aged 87)
EducationUniversity of Washington
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Michigan
University of California, Santa Barbara
Doctoral studentsSandra Arlinghaus

Waldo Rudolph Tobler (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer.[1][2][3] Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century.[2][4][5][6] Tobler is most well known for his proposed idea that "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things," which has come to be referred to as the "first law of geography."[2][5][7][8] He proposed a second law as well: "The phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on inside."[8]

Tobler established the discipline of analytical cartography, contributed early to Geographic information systems (GIS), and helped lay the groundwork for geographic information science (GIScience) as a discipline.[2][5][6] He had significant contributions to computer cartography and was one of the first geographers to explore using computers in geography[2]. including contributing to the literature on map projections, choropleth maps, flow maps, cartograms, animated mapping.[6][7][9] His work with analytical cartography included contributions to the mathematical modeling of geographic phenomena, such as human movement in the creation of Tobler's hiking function.[6][7][10] Tobler's work has been described as ahead of its time, and many of his ideas are still unable to be fully implemented due to limitations of technology.[11]

Tobler held the positions of professor of geography and professor of statistics at University of California, Santa Barbara and was an active Professor Emeritus at the Department of Geography until his death.[12]

Early life

Tobler was born in Portland, Oregon in 1930 to parents Verner Tobler and Hanny Urech Tobler.[13] His father was a Swiss consular employee, and this granted Waldo Tobler both Swiss and United States citizenship.[3] His fathers career resulted in moves to Seatle when Waldo Tobler was young, and later to Washington D.C. when World War II started.[6][13] When World War II ended in 1945, the family moved to Bern, Switzerland.[13] In Switzerland, Tobler would join the United States Army at the age of 18.[6][13][14] Geographers Pradyumna Prasad Karan and Cotton Mather speculated that this frequent moving in early life may have influenced Tobler's later career choices and passion for geography.[1]

Education and field

Tobler received his B.A. (1955), M.A. (1957), and Ph.D. (1961)[15] in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington at Seattle. At Washington, he participated in geography's William Garrison-led quantitative revolution of the late 1950s, becomming one of many of Garrison's grad students (dubbed the "space cadets") who would go on to be highly influential geographers.[16][17]

Career

Military

Tobler joined the United States Army in 1948. A native speaker of English, Sweitzerdeutsch, and French, the military trained him to speak Russian to serve as an interpreter for the Counter-Intelligence Corps.[13] During his time in the military, he served as both an intelligence analyst and an interpreter in Europe during the Korean War, and participated in interviewing Austrian Prisoners of War who had been released from the Soviet Union.[3][6] He left the military in 1952 and used his G.I. Bill to attend university.[14]

Academic and Research Organizations

After graduating in 1961, Tobler became an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, remaining until moving to the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1977.[18] Until his retirement he held the positions of Professor of Geography and Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[12]

Tobler was one of the principal investigators and a senior scientist in the National Science Foundation-sponsored National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis.Tobler served on the National Research Council the Board on Earth Sciences. He has been on the editorial board of several journals, including The American Cartographer, Journal of Regional Science, Geographical Analysis, and the International Journal of Geographical Information Systems. He was a charter member of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, a council member of the Regional Science Association, member and chairman of the Mathematical Social Science Board, and served as the United States delegate to the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Data Processing and Sensing. Until his retirement, he was a member of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain.

Research

The Tobler hyperelliptical projection with Tissot's indicatrix of deformation; α = 0, k = 3
Tobler's hiking function – walking speed vs. slope angle chart.

His career in geography profoundly impacted the discipline, and he is perhaps the most influential geographer of the past century[4]. As a graduate student, he pioneered the use of computers in cartography in his 1959 paper "Automation and Cartography".[19] This paper's concepts, such as the "Map in-Map out" system (MIMO), was extremely influential in early Geographic Information Systems.[20] His later research emphasized mathematical modeling and graphic interpretations in geography. In the course of his research, he formulated the "first law of geography" in 1970 while producing a computer movie of Detroit.[7] He is the inventor of novel and unusual map projections, among which is the family of Tobler hyperelliptical projections, and the first derivation of the partial differential equations for area cartograms.[21] He also invented a method for smooth two-dimensional mass-preserving areal data redistribution.

Tobler was involved in building a global, latitude-longitude oriented demographic information base with resolution two orders of magnitude better than was previously available. He also examined the development of smooth finite element and categorical pycnophylactic geographic information reallocation models. In July 1999 he presented a keynote speech, "The World is Shriveling as it Shrinks," at the ESRI International User Conference and was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in GIS by ESRI. Taylor and Francis of London recently published a map projection book, co-authored with Q. Yang of China and the late John P. Snyder. More recent interests related to ideas in computational geography including the analysis of geographical vector fields and the development of migration and global trade models.

Tobler was also concerned with representing flow (due to its involvement with movement as a mechanism of geographic change). In 2003, Tobler released a freeware, Microsoft Windows-based version of his flow representation software Flow Mapper. In 2005, an ESRI ArcGIS version of the software, inspired by Tobler, was developed by Alan Glennon and Michael Goodchild at UCSB. Both versions are available from the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (http://vgi.spatial.ucsb.edu/clearinghouse/FlowMapper/)

Awards and Honors

The University of Zurich, Switzerland, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1988.

The Austrian Academy of Sciences created the Waldo Tobler GIScience Prize to recognize Tobler's contributions to geographic research.[4][22] The award seeks to "encourage scientific advancement in the disciplines of Geoinformatics and/or Geographic Information Science."[22] The award has been issued since to David Mark (2016), Thomas Poiker (2017), Helena Mitasova (2018), Michael Batty (2019), Luc Anselin (2022), and Sara Irina Fabrikant (2023).[23]

Tobler was a member of the honor societies Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Phi Kappa Phi.

Other awards and honors Tobler received throughout his life include:

Osborn Maitland Miller Medal
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States;
  • Honorary Fellow, American Geographical Society (1965);[24]
  • Osborn Maitland Miller Medal, American Geographical Society 1989[24][25];
  • Meritorious Contributor Medallion, Association of American Geographers, 1971;[26]
  • Andrew McNally Award, 1986;[4]
  • ESRI Lifetime Achievement Award, 1999.[4][27]
  • AAG Microcomputer Specialty Award, 1993.[4]
  • UCGIS Honorary Fellow, 2012;[5]
  • GIS Hall of Fame Inductee, URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association), 2016.[28]

See also

References

General
  • W. Tobler, (2002) “Ma Vie: Growing Up in America and Europe”, in Geographical Voices, W. Pitts and P. Gould, eds., University of Syracuse Press; Syracuse; pages 292–322.
  • In French: (2000) “Ma Vie: Grandir en Amérique et en Europe”, dans Mémoires de Géographes, P. Gould et A. Bailly, eds., Anthropos, Paris, 209–242.
Specific
  1. ^ a b Karan, Pradyumna Prasad; Mather, Cotton (March 2000). Leaders in American Geography: Geographic research. New Mexico Geographical Society. ISBN 9780964384118.
  2. ^ a b c d e Getis, Arthur (2020). "Waldo Tobler (1931–2018): Analytical Cartographer and Regional Scientist". In Batey, Peter; Plane, David (eds.). Great Minds in Regional Science. Switzerland: Springer Nature. pp. 185–198. ISBN 978-3-030-46157-7. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Yang, Henry T. "Sad News - Professor Emeritus Waldo Tobler". Chancellor's Messages. University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Preserving Groundbreaking Research in Geography, Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Science". The Waldo Tobler Academic Archives. UC Santa Barbra Library. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d "Waldo R. Tobler". University Consortium for Geographic Information Science. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Clarke, Keith C. (2018-07-04). "Waldo R. Tobler (1930–2018)". Cartography and Geographic Information Science. 45 (4): 287–288. Bibcode:2018CGISc..45..287C. doi:10.1080/15230406.2018.1447399. ISSN 1523-0406. S2CID 133763290.
  7. ^ a b c d Tobler W. R. (1970) "A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region", Economic Geography, 46(Supplement): 234-240
  8. ^ a b Tobler, Waldo (2004). "On the First Law of Geography: A Reply". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94 (2): 304–310. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09402009.x. S2CID 33201684. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  9. ^ Tobler, Waldo (1973). "Choropleth Maps Without Class Intervals?". Geographical Analysis. 5 (3): 262–265. Bibcode:1973GeoAn...5..262T. doi:10.1111/j.1538-4632.1973.tb01012.x.
  10. ^ Tobler, Waldo (February 1993). "Three presentations on geographical analysis and modeling: Non-isotropic geographic modeling speculations on the geometry of geography global spatial analysis" (PDF). Technical Report. 93 (1). National center for geographic information and analysis. Retrieved 21 March 2013. Available also in HTML format.
  11. ^ Dorling, Danny; Hennig, Benjamin (2018). "Waldo Tobler: Remembering a genius". The Cartographic Journal. 55 (3): 303–304. doi:10.1080/00087041.2018.1507181. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Waldo Tobler (1930 - 2018)". American Association of Geographers. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  13. ^ a b c d e Thoits, Sandy (5 March 2018). "Waldo R. Tobler of Santa Barbara, 1930-2018". Noozhawk. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  14. ^ a b "Geographers on Film Interview With Waldo Tobler". Library of Congress. Association of American Geographers. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  15. ^ "Waldo Tobler". AAG. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  16. ^ "William Garrison 1925 - 2015". Memorials. American Association of Geographers. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  17. ^ Getis, Arthur (16 July 2008). "A History of the Concept of Spatial Autocorrelation: A Geographer's Perspective". Geographic Analysis. 40 (3): 297–309. Bibcode:2008GeoAn..40..297G. doi:10.1111/j.1538-4632.2008.00727.x.
  18. ^ "Waldo Tobler". www.geog.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  19. ^ Tobler, Waldo (1959). "Automation and Cartography". Geographical Review. 49 (4): 526–534. Bibcode:1959GeoRv..49..526T. doi:10.2307/212211. JSTOR 212211. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  20. ^ DeMers, Michael N. "GIS". Geography & Travel. Britannica. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  21. ^ Tobler, Waldo (1973). "The hyperelliptical and other new pseudocylindrical equal area map projections". Journal of Geophysical Research. 78 (11): 1753–1759. Bibcode:1973JGR....78.1753T. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.495.6424. doi:10.1029/JB078i011p01753.
  22. ^ a b "WALDO-TOBLER GISCIENCE PRIZE". Kommision Fur Geographic Information Science. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  23. ^ "LAUREATES". Kommision Fur Geographic Information Science. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  24. ^ a b "HONORARY FELLOWSHIPS 1960s". Honorary Fellowships. American Geographical Society. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  25. ^ "The Cullum Geographical Medal" Archived 2009-07-04 at the Wayback Machine. American Geographical Society. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
  26. ^ "AAG Honors". American Association of Geographers. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  27. ^ "Dr. Waldo Tobler Presented the Lifetime Achievement in GIS Award". ArcNews. ESRI. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  28. ^ "URISA GIS HALL OF FAME". The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Retrieved 13 January 2024.

External links