Waldo R. Tobler

Waldo Rudolph Tobler
Waldo Tobler in front of the Newberry Library. Chicago, November 2007
Born	(1930-11-16)November 16, 1930 Portland, Oregon, USA
Died	February 20, 2018(2018-02-20) (aged 87)
Education	University of Washington
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Michigan University of California, Santa Barbara
Doctoral students	Sandra Arlinghaus

Waldo Rudolph Tobler (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer.^[1][2][3] Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century.^[2][4][5][6] He is most well known for coining what has come to be referred to as Tobler's first law of geography.^{[7][8][9][10]} He also coined what has come to be referred to as Tobler's second law of geography.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Tobler's career had a major impact on the development of quantitative geography, and his research spanned and influenced the study of any discipline investigating geographic phenomena.^[15][16] He established the discipline of analytical cartography, contributed early to Geographic information systems (GIS), and helped lay the groundwork for geographic information science (GIScience) as a discipline.^[2][6][17] He had significant contributions to computer cartography and was one of the first geographers to explore using computers in geography.^[2] In cartography, he contributed to the literature on map projections, choropleth maps, flow maps, cartograms, animated mapping.^[17][18][19] His work with analytical cartography included contributions to the mathematical modeling of geographic phenomena, such as human movement in the creation of Tobler's hiking function.^[17][18][20] Tobler's work has been described as ahead of its time, and many of his ideas are still unable to be fully implemented due to limitations of technology.^[4]

Tobler held the positions of professor of geography and professor of statistics at University of California, Santa Barbara and was an active Professor Emeritus at the Department of Geography until his death.^[21]