Shashi Shekhar, a McKnight Distinguished University Professor at the University of Minnesota and an U.C. Berkeley alumnus, is a leading scholar of spatial computing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He is serving on the Computing Research Association (CRA) board, and as a co-Editor-in-Chief of Geo-Informatica journal (Springer). Earlier, he served as the President of the University Consortium for GIS (UCGIS), and on many National Academies' committees. Recognitions include IEEE-CS Technical Achievement Award, UCGIS Education Award, IEEE Fellow and AAAS Fellow. Contributions include algorithms for evacuation route planning and spatial pattern (e.g., colocation, linear hotspots) mining, an Encyclopedia of GIS, a Spatial Databases textbook, and a spatial computing book for professionals.