Dr. Robert B. McMaster, Professor of Geography, Vice Provost, and Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of Minnesota, is a scholar of international reputation who has made extraordinary contributions to research, education, and service in geographic information science (GIScience) and technology (GIS&T) and to UCGIS. Dr. McMaster has made significant research contributions in automated generalization of geospatial data and phenomena, environmental risk, GIScience and society and the history of U.S. academic cartography. Among the outstanding scholarly contributions for the broader community are his completion of a five-year NSF funded project to develop the “National Historical Geographic Information System,” data from which have been used in countless educational situations. He has published several books including: Map Generalization: Making Rules for Knowledge Representation (with B. Buttenfield), Generalization in Digital Cartography (with K. Stuart Shea), Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization (with T. Slocum, F. Kessler and H. Howard), and A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science (with E. L. Usery). He is an associate editor of the Manual of Geospatial Technology with John Bossler, Chris Rizos, and James Campbell. He is also co-editor of the Handbook of GIScience and Society Research with Timothy Nyerges and Helen Couclelis.
 
Dr. McMaster has a sustained record of contributions to GIScience education teaching classes for over 30 years  including courses in cartography, computer and digital cartography, geographic information systems, geographical statistics, introduction to maps and mapping, remote sensing, quantitative methods in geography, urban GIS and analysis, research methods in geography, GIS and medical geography, and others. He has supervised both masters and Ph.D. students in cartography and GIScience and continues to be actively engaged with student instruction and supervision. His students have secured positions in the academy as well as government and private industry. He received the 2010 UCGIS Education Award providing evidence of his outstanding contributions. In addition to teaching and advising, Professor McMaster currently serves as Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of Minnesota. He has long worked to advance GIS education through research, teaching, policy development, and service to the GIScience community. Dr. McMaster is also a co-author of Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization with Terry Slocum, Fritz Kessler, and Hugh Howard, that is widely used and becoming a standard in cartography classes in the English-speaking world.
 
Dr. McMaster served as editor of the journal Cartography and Geographic Information Systems from 1990-1996, and the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Resource Publications in Geography. He served as Chair of both the AAG’s Cartography and Geographic Information Systems Specialty Groups, served three years on the National Steering Committee for the GIS/LIS ‘92, ‘93, and ‘94 conferences, was Co-Director (with Marc Armstrong) of the Eleventh International Symposium on Computer-Assisted Cartography (Auto-Carto-11), served on the U.S. National Committee to the International Cartographic Association, and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Mapping at Ohio State University. In 1999, he was elected as a Vice President of the International Cartographic Association, and was re-elected in 2003. He served as President of the United States’ Cartography and Geographic Information Society and was appointed to a three-year term on the National Research Council’s Mapping Sciences Committee 2005-2008. Dr. McMaster has been a long-time contributor of service to UCGIS. He has been Chair of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science’s (UCGIS) Research Committee, UCGIS Board Member (1999-2002, 2005-2006), President of UCGIS (2007-2008), and past President (2008-2009). He currently serves as treasurer to the organization. He currently is in his second term on the National Research Council’s Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR).
 
For his exemplary contributions to research, education, and service to GIScience and to UCGIS, Dr. Robert B. McMaster is awarded the status of UCGIS Fellow, 2013.