Biography for invited talks (250 words)

Shashi Shekhar is a leading scholar of spatial computing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He is an U.C. Berkeley alumnus and serving as a McKnight Distinguished University Professor and a Distinguished University Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota. He is also 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 including Priorities for GEOINT Research at the NGA , and From Maps to Models.

Shashi's publications includes 350+ refereed papers, a Spatial Computing (MIT Press, 2020) book for professionals, a Spatial Database textbook (Prentice Hall, 2003) and an Encyclopedia of GIS (Springer, 2017). Many of Shashi's 100 advisees are serving in leadership positions and have received prestigious recognitions such as the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers and NSF CAREER.

In early 1990s, Shashi's research developed core technologies which paved the way for modern navigation apps, which are used by Billions today. Recently, his research played a critical role in evacuation route planning for homeland security. Moreover, he pioneered the research area of spatial data mining via pattern families (e.g., colocation, linear hotspots, patterns of evasion), keynotes, surveys and workshop organization.

Recognitions include IEEE-CS Technical Achievement Award, UCGIS Education Award, IEEE Fellow, AAAS Fellow and Research Partnership Award for significant impact on transportation. He was also named a key difference-maker for the field of GIS by the most popular GIS textbook.