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Dr Roger Beecham

Dr Roger Beecham

  • Position: Associate Professor in Visual Data Science
  • Areas of expertise: data visualization; applied data science; usable statistics; open source computing; active transport
  • Email: R.J.Beecham@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 10.107 Irene Manton Building
  • Website: Personal homepage | Twitter | ORCID

Profile

Roger Beecham is Associate Professor in Visual Data Science at School of Geography and Director of Research & Innovation at Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA). He is a member of the Institute for Spatial Data Science and co-leads LIDA’s Visualization and Science of Data Science programme. His research and teaching develops, applies and evaluates visualization techniques in the analysis of large social science datasets. He has published award-winning methodological research in Data Visualization, as well as applied studies in top-tier journals in Transport, Health and Political Geography. Roger’s approach to analysis is demonstrated in his upcoming book, with CRC Press, Visualization for Social Data Science.

Responsibilities

  • Director of Research & Innovation, Leeds Institute for Data Analytics
  • Programme Leader, GISc Distance Learning
  • Co-Lead for LIDA Visualization and LIDA Science of Data Science

Research interests

Roger joined Leeds in 2017 after completing a PhD and postdoc at the giCentre. His research develops, applies and evaluates visualization techniques in the analysis of large social science datasets. This spans several disciplinary areas: Information Visualization, Spatial Statistics, Transport, Health, Crime Science and Political Geography. A current focus is in the role of new data and methods in shaping scientific practice, see his Alan Turing Institute Methods Challenge on the Forking Paths problem in applied data science.

Roger has been involved with funded research projects from diverse sources, including the EPSRC, ESRC, ERC, NIHR and Wellcome Trust. For the latest updates see Roger’s personal research page.

His research has been published in numerous top tier journals in Computer Science, Transport and Geography, including IEEE TVCG, Accident Analysis & Prevention, Transport Research Part C, Journal of Transport Geography. He is author of Visualization for Social Data Science, to be published in 2025 by CRC Press.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD GIScience, University of London
  • BA Geography, Durham University (Robin Mills Award)

Student education

Roger is Programme Lead on the GISc Distance Learning MSc and convenes GEOG5009 Visualization for Social Data Science.  He currently supervises three doctoral students at the University of Leeds and externally via the SENSE CDT.​

 

Research groups and institutes

  • Institute for Spatial Data Science

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>
Projects
    <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2164-infuze:-visualization-for-evaluating-probabilistic-and-agent-based-models-of-mobility-transitions">INFUZE: Visualization for evaluating probabilistic and agent-based models of mobility transitions</a></li>