Professor
Stanley Openshaw
Stan
Openshaw retired from the University in 2000 after suffering
a disabling stroke in 1999, following a glittering career
of achievement in the application of quantitative (particularly
computational) methods to geographical problems. In the
Centre of Computational Geography (CCG), which he set
up, he left behind a group of dedicated researchers who
continue to develop his pioneering ideas in fields such
as cluster detection, the application of artificial intelligence
and life techniques and zone design. His algorithm for
zone design (the optimal aggregation of small areas to
zones fitted for analysis purposes) is currently being
employed in the creation of output areas from the 2001
Census of Population.
Born
in 1946, Stanley Openshaw graduated with a First Class
Honours BA degree in Geography from the University of
Newcastle in 1968 and followed this with a PhD in 1974,
gained while working as a Planning Officer for Durham
County Council. He returned to the University as a lecturer
in the Department of Town and Country Planning in 1974,
and then moved to Geography in 1982. He was awarded a
Personal Chair in Quantitative Geography in 1989 and migrated
to the Chair of Human Geography at the University of Leeds
in 1992. Stan Openshaw's research productivity was prodigious:
he published 11 books, 114 book chapters, 140 papers in
refereed journals, 48 contributions to conference proceedings
and 69 departmental papers. More important than the volume
of his scientific output was its originality: he tackled
hard problems in geographical analysis using computer
algorithms in new ways. He recognised the importance of
the information explosion of the computer age and wanted
geographers to be at the heart of making sense of it.
He never shirked the difficulties posed by the volumes
of data being generated. While official statisticians
were content with classifying the country’s 459 districts
and 11,000 wards, Stan tackled the problem of classifying
the socio-economic attributes of 130,000 census collection
areas. Recent research involved working with AI and ALife
techniques and parallel processing strategies with colleagues.
He was one of very few geographers or social scientists
active in these hard science fields, publishing Artificial
Intelligence in Geography in 1997 with Christine Openshaw
and High Performance Computing and the Art of Parallel
Programming in 2000 with Ian Turton, his collaborator
in the 1990s. His innovative and iconoclastic mind will
be sorely missed by social science researchers, particularly
those who will be working with the gigabytes of data to
be produced from the 2001 Census.
Since
his stroke he has been lovingly cared for by his wife
Christine and visited frequently by his young CCG researchers.
Though disabled, he is still cheerful and enjoys the company
of visitors at his Sheffield home.
