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    Geographer Goodchild Selected to National Academy

    By BILL SCHLOTTER

    Geographer Michael Goodchild is UCSB's 21st member of the NAS.
    Michael F. Goodchild, a professor of geography at UC Santa Barbara since 1988 and a pioneer in computer-based geographical information systems, has been elected to one of the nation's most prestigious scientific organizations, the National Academy of Sciences.
    Goodchild was one of 72 new inductees chosen by NAS members this year. He is the 21st active UCSB faculty member now included in the 1,907-member organization. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors an American scientist or engineer can achieve.
    "France Córdova brings outstanding academic credentials, solid leadership experience, a commitment to educational opportunity, and a talent for working cooperatively with both the campus community and the broader community," Atkinson said. "Her enthusiasm, intelligence, charisma, and record of achievement will make her a superb chancellor for UC Riverside."
    Chancellor Henry T. Yang said: "I am extremely excited and proud that another one of our distinguished colleagues has been recognized with this extraordinary honor. Being elected to this most prestigious academy is a magnificent achievement, one that shows the high regard in which Professor Goodchild is held by his peers in the scientific community."
    "I am both pleased and honored," Goodchild said. He was also surprised and a bit nostalgic. "It makes you think about how you got to where you are and about who your mentors were," he said.
    The Geography Department helped him celebrate with a party, including a sheet cake decorated with "Congratulations Mike" in large letters.
    "What I do has a lot to do with computerized maps and geographic computer systems," Goodchild said. "I've been doing this for 30 years or so. I think this academy selection recognizes that I was one of the people who got involved in this very early on and has seen it spread across the sciences."
    The road to Goodchild's current influential place in science--executive committee chair for the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at UCSB, associate director of the Alexandria Digital Library Project, director of NCGIA's Center for Spatially Integrated Social Sciences--began in 1967 when he left Cambridge University in his native England with a degree in physics and accepted a geography graduate post at McMaster University in Canada. Goodchild remembers eagerly telling one of his physics professors of his news, only to be dismissed with the comment that his decision was "curious."
    After earning a Ph.D. in geography, he quickly moved to the forefront in the emerging field of geographic information system technology. He came to UCSB as part of the university's successful effort to become home to the NCGIA.