This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the newly formed Centre for GeoInformatics under the leadership of Professor Stewart Fotheringham in the Department of Geography and Sustainable Development. We are seeking an active researcher who will help the Centre develop a strong international research reputation.

The CGI is looking for someone with research interests in any area of Geographic Information Science (GIScience) with a PhD in GIScience/Geoinformatics or related topics in Computer Science. Additional expertise in health-related geoinformatics would be welcome. The candidate should have a proven record of research publication, a track record of international collaboration, be able to demonstrate excellent teaching and communication skills. Additionally, candidates and should have a track record of successful grant proposals and working with teams of researchers from different disciplines. Visit the above link or the St Andrews vacancies posting for more details.

The tour of St Andrews takes the visitor through four of the main streets of St Andrews and the local Lade Braes Walk. The stories told cover nearly 1000 years of history. Visitors can choose to do only parts of the walk or just sit by the beach and watch the waves.

“How can GeoInformatics help with Reducing Risks and Enhancing Effectiveness in Non-Profit Housing Provision”

The University of St Andrews has been awarded an interdiciplinary PhD Studentship co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and HOME Housing Association to commence at the latest on 1 January 2013. The project aims to develop new spatial data analysis and/or visualisation methods. These methods should cover both a theoretical approach, such as for example, introducing new appropriate spatio-temporal statistical, data analysis and/or visual analytical methods for tracking occupation and analysing changes in housing in general, as well as specific implementations to use available housing data in Scottish context.

Student will be jointly supervised by Professor Stewart Fotheringham, Centre for Geoinformatics, and Professor Duncan Maclennan, Centre for Housing Research, at the University of St Andrews, in collaboration with HOME.

Candidate should preferably have spatial analysis skills and technical capabilities (e.g. programming knowledge is highly desirable) and needs to be UK-based to fulfill the requirements of the funding agency.

Application deadline is 23 November, 2012. More information is available here.

1. Despite its large population, the UK seems to be punching above its weight compared to most countries
2. The leaders (China and the US) are only slightly inflated when looking at total medals, and appear to be under-achieving when we consider the pool they have to pull from
3. Despite their massive population size, India (pop. 1.2 billion) and Indonesia (pop. 242 million) are doing very poorly, especially compared to Slovenia (pop. 2.0 million), and New Zealand (pop. 4.4 million), who are massively overcompensating for their smaller populations!
4. Countries like Australia and Japan are pretty much ‘on par’ with their medal achievements
5. *Jamaica and North Korea are dwarfing big hitters like Spain and Brazil.
6. *When population is taken into account, China’s 1.3 billion people are slimmed down against New Zealand and Sweden, who perform well despite their small numbers.

We’ll keep adding to the list as things progress…

* From The Telegraph article.

Andrew, M. E., T. A. Nelson, M. A. Wulder, G. W. Hobart, N. C. Coops, and C. J. Q. Farmer (in press).  Ecosystem classifications based on summer and winter conditions.  Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.  doi:10.1007/s10661-012-2773-z

The University of St Andrews has been awarded a PhD Studentship co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and HOME Housing Association to commence on 1 October 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter.  The project will be jointly supervised by Professor Duncan Maclennan, Centre for Housing Research and Professor Stewart Fotheringham, School of Geography & Geoscience at the University of St Andrews, in collaboration with HOME.

Enquiries should be directed to Professor Duncan Maclennan (dm103@st-andrews.ac.uk)

More Info: here

Demsar U, Harris P, Brunsdon C, Fotheringham AS and McLoone S, 2012, Principal Component Analysis on Spatial Data: An Overview, AAAG.

In the paper we review the use of Pricnipal Component Analysis for spatial data across all disciplines that use geographic information. We identify four methodologies for PCA on attribute-space only: (1) PCA applied to spatial objects, (2) PCA applied to raster data, (3) atmospheric science PCA, and (4) PCA on flows. Further, we look at PCA adapted for effects in geographical space by looking at PCA adapted spatial heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation and investigate how PCA can be used to investigate multiple scales of spatial autocorrelation. We disambiguate various uses of the term “spatial PCA” and finally look at recent new PCA methodologies in statistics/CS/volumetric data processing that have potential for use in spatial cases.

Prof Nelson is a Research Chair in Spatial Sciences and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria. She is also director of the Spatial Pattern Analysis and Research (SPAR) Lab. She is giving a seminar at CGI on 20 July, entitled: From Biodiversity to Bears: Spatial Ecology Research.

More info on the seminar here: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/geoinformatics/centre-for-geoinformatics-seminar-series/friday-20-july-2012-4pm-5pm/

Geocrowd is a Marie Curie International Training Network focusing on processing and analysing Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) on the web. It is a network of universities from Greece, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and UK, led by the National Technical University of Athens. The network supports a number of international PhD students who work on various VGI-related research themes. At St Andrews, the CGI PhD student Siła Nowicka is supported by this network.