Dr. Stewart Fotheringham is awarded University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Fellow status in recognition of his advancement of research, education, and community building within the geospatial community. He is Regent’s Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and Director of the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC) at Arizona State University.

Dr. Fotheringham has been at the forefront of GIScience research in the areas of spatial analysis and geocomputation. His pioneering work on Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) has revolutionized our understanding of spatial non-stationarity and has been widely adopted in diverse fields ranging from public health to urban planning. His recent work, as outlined in publications such as Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression: Theory and Practice, continues to push the boundaries of local modeling techniques, underscoring his role as a leading researcher in our field. His groundbreaking research has received over 40,000 citations ranking him in the top 1% in the field of social sciences,

Throughout his career, Dr. Fotheringham has been deeply committed to GIS education. In addition to substantial course development and teaching efforts at ASU, he has conducted numerous workshops worldwide and has significantly contributed to curriculum development at several universities in both the US and the UK. Dr. Fotheringham’s advocacy for ethical GIS practices is evident from his involvement in policy-making committees and advisory boards, including the US Geographical and Geospatial Sciences Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. His commitment to promoting open access to geographic information technologies, by developing and sharing his novel spatial statistics methods as open-source software, has significantly benefited the GIScience research community.

An exemplary leader in building scholarly communities, Dr. Fotheringham has been instrumental in creating networks that foster multidisciplinary research in GIS. His directorship at the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC) at ASU, and his role in organizing international conferences and workshops, underline his dedication to enhancing collaborative ties across disciplines. For example, he has spearheaded a number of SPARC workshops gathering specialists internationally to discuss cutting edge GIScience topics, such as Reproducibility and Replicability, GeoAI, scale in spatial analysis, and Digital Twins. These workshops have drawn significant interest and attention in the geospatial community, resulting in multiple research publications and grants, as well as follow-up workshops and symposia at the AAG, UCGIS, and other international venues. For his substantial contributions to the advancement of GIScience, education, and academic community building. UCGIS is very pleased to name Dr. Stewart Fotheringham as a UCGIS Fellow.