Prof. David Unwin, until his retirement in 2002, was Professor of Geography at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he retains an Emeritus Chair in the subject. His work using and developing spatial statistics in research stretches back some 40 years, and he has authored over a hundred academic papers in the field, together with a series of texts and a series of edited collections at the interface between geography and computer science. Having developed the world’s first wholly internet-delivered Master’s program in GIS in 1998, David Unwin has considerable experience of teaching and tutoring online.  Most recently, in 2012 David has been awarded the Ron F Abler Honor of the Association of American Geographers for distinguished service to their discipline.