James Cheshire is Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography in the UCL Department of Geography and the inaugural director of the UCL Social Data Institute. A world-leading map maker and geographer, his cartographic creations have been enjoyed by millions. He is an elected fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and has been recognised with awards from the likes of the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the British Cartographic Society.
James’ books have achieved global success, being translated into tens of languages and receiving widespread critical acclaim. His co-authored book Atlas of the Invisible won the American Association of Geographer’s Globe Award for a book that conveys most powerfully the nature and importance of geography to the non-academic world, and more recently he contributed to the maps for the Atlas of Finance which won awards for professional and scholarly excellence from the Association of American Publishers.
James has made significant contributions to the social sciences, particularly in spatial data analysis and visualisation. His research portfolio is extensive and interdisciplinary, covering topics such as behavioural changes during COVID-19, cartographic representation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and innovative visualisations of population datasets. His work has been supported by over £15 million in research funding, and he has helped to create data and mapping portals that have been widely used in education and policy. He also oversees a world-leading programme of data intensive teaching to undergraduates in the social sciences, which includes a thriving internship scheme.
James works at the intersection of cartography, data science, and the social sciences. For over a decade he has been a Deputy Director of major ESRC-funded data services, first the Consumer Data Research Centre and now the Geographic Data Service, and his academic publications focus on the ways that new forms of data can give fresh insights into population research. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings, and his recent work has tackled the use of innovative mobility datasets, cartographic representations of social inequality and the ethics of new forms of data for population research.
He has overseen the development of mapping websites that have attracted tens of millions of users and that have become a core part of the educational offer in geography (and other subjects) in secondary schools. For example, the 2011 Census-based website “Datashine” became the primary source of data and maps, featuring widely in GCSE and A-Level assessments and revision guides.
James completed a BSc (1st Class Hons.) in Physical Geography at the University of Southampton in 2008 before undertaking a PhD in GIScience at the UCL Department of Geography. His topic was the spatial analysis and visualisation of large surname databases. After completing his PhD in 2011 he was appointed Lecturer in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation at CASA before moving to the UCL Department of Geography where he became Associate Professor of Quantitative Human Geography before promotion to full professor in 2019.
Email: james(at)jcheshire.com
