Professor Mark Birkin

Profile

Professor of Spatial Analysis and Policy and Director of the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC). His major interests are in simulating social and demographic change within cities and regions, and in understanding the impact of these changes on the need for services like housing, roads and hospitals, using techniques of microsimulation, agent-based modelling and GIS.

He is co-editor of the journal Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, a member of the editorial board of GeoInformatics and GeoStatistics, and on the programme committee for the European Social Simulation Association and GeoComputation. 

Present position

Professor of Spatial Analysis and Policy, School of Geography, University of Leeds

Previous posts

• 2006-2009 Senior Lecturer, School of Geography, University of Leeds
• 2001-2006 Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Leeds
• 1996-2001 Managing Director, GMAP Ltd
• 1992-1996 Research Director, GMAP Ltd
• 1989-1992 Lecturer, School of Geography, University of Leeds

Consultancy

• Development of a network of innovative, high growth businesses in the Yorkshire & Humber region, funded by Yorkshire Forward, £228,000, 1st January 2002 – 31st December 2004.
• An investigation into variations in the use of secondary health care, Leeds FHSA, £95,000, 1st August 2001 – 31st January 2002.
• Cameo Lifestyle, Eurodirect Limited, £51,500, 1st April 2002 – 31st January 2003.
• Leeds and Environs Spatial Scoping Study, Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Assembly, £30,000, 1st September 2002 – 30th November 2002.
• West Yorkshire Visual Audits, West Yorkshire Police, £22,500, 1st April 2002 – 30th June 2003.
• Cameo International Classifications (Canada, Australia, New Zealand), £18,000, 1st May 2002 – 31st July 2002.
• Leeds Education Fundamental Review: Data Audit, West Yorkshire Learning and Skills Council, £6,500, 1st March 2003 – 30th June 2003.
• Regional Impact Study, Yorkshire Television, £5,000, 1st March 2003 – 30th April 2003.
• A survey of biotechnology companies in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, Yorkshire Forward, £4,500, 1st February 2003 – 31st March 2003.
• Relocation of the Birmingham Dental Hospital, South Birmingham NHS Trust, £4,500, 1st August 2003 – 30th September 2003.

Other posts

• Co-editor of the journal Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy
• Editorial Board, Transactions in GIS
• Strategy Board, National Centre for e-Social Science
• Programme Committee, European Social Simulation Association

2008

• Birkin, M. (2008)  An architecture for urban simulation enabled by eResearch, eResearch Australasia, Melbourne, 30th September.
• Birkin, M. (2008)  Modelling the dynamics of UK society: the Moses project, The e-Social Science agenda: challenges and opportunities for geographers, Royal Geographical Society AC 2008, 29th August.
• Birkin, M. (2008) Moses: Modelling, Simulation and e-Social Science, Sixth International Summer School on Grid Computing, Lake Balaton, Hungary, July 7th.
• Birkin, M., Martin Clarke (2008)  Spatial forecasting with Moses, ESRC Research Methods Festival, Oxford, July 3rd.
• Birkin, M. (2008)  Grid-enabled simulation for urban and regional planning, International Symposium on Grid Computing, Academia Sinica, Taipei, April.
• Birkin, M., Dianna Smith (2008)  A dynamic microsimulation model of urban housing markets, Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, April.
• Birkin, M., Alison Heppenstall (2008)  Extending spatial interaction models with agents for understanding relationships in a dynamic retail market, Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, April.
• Birkin, M. (2008)  Moses: Modelling and Simulation for e-Social Science, NCeSS Showcase, University of Manchester, January.

2007

• Birkin, M., Belinda Wu, Phil Rees (2007) Spatial Microsimulation Model of the UK Population in 2030,  IMA2007 Conference, Vienna, Austria, August.
• Birkin, M., Belinda Wu, Phil Rees (2007) A Spatial MSM with an ABM insight, RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, 29 August - 31 August.
• Birkin, M., Martin Clarke (2007)  A spatial microsimulation model of  residential location, AAG, San Francisco, April.

2006

• Birkin, M. Paul Townend (2006)  SimCity for Real.  Supercomputing, Tampa. November 06.
• Birkin, M. Justin Keen, Andy  Turner, Belinda Wu (2006)  Moses: A hybrid microsimulation model for social policy analysis, Regional Science Association (British and Irish Section), Jersey.
• Birkin, M. (2006)  Real Simulations for Real Cities:  From Computer Gaming to an Infrastructure for Research, Policy and Teaching, ESRC Research Methods Festival, Oxford, July.

2005

• Birkin, M. Modelling and Simulation for e-Social Science (MOSES): A Research Agenda and Progress Report, Royal Geographical Society/ Institute of British Geographers, London, September 2005.
• Birkin, M. and Turner, A. 2005. Decision Support Systems and Spatial Policy Analysis, World Conference on Transportation Research: Frontiers in Transportation; Social and Spatial Interactions, Amsterdam.
• Birkin, M. 2005. A multi-agent ‘Model of Metropolis’, CUPUM ‘05: The Ninth International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management, London.
• Birkin, M. 2005. Modelling and Simulation for e-Social Science (MoSES), Future Cities Workshop, Manchester.
• Birkin, M. 2005. GIS and Spatial Decision Support Systems: Moses and Hydra, Agenda setting workshop - Quantitative methods in e-social science, Lancaster University.
• Birkin, M. 2005. The National Centre for e-Social Science, What is the Grid, and hiw can it help your Research?, Sheffield.
• Birkin, M. 2005. e-Social Science, Leeds Social Sciences Institute, Leeds.
• Birkin, M. 2005. An introduction to e-Social Science, Rural Economy and Land Use Data Workshop, York.

2004

• Birkin, M. 2004. Hybrid Geographical Models of Urban Spatial Structure, The Dynamics of Complex Urban Systems, Ascona, Switzerland.
• Birkin, M., Dew, P., Macfarland, O. and Hodrien, J. 2004. Grid-enabled Spatial Decision Support Systems (Hydra): An ESRC e-Social Science Demonstrator Project, Poster presented at the launch of the National Centre for e-Social Science, Manchester.
• Birkin, M. 2004. Hydra: A Spatial Decision Support System enabled by the e-Science Grid, World Regional Science Association, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
• Heppenstall, A., Evans, A. and Birkin, M. 2004. Experiments with a Hybrid Multi-Agent Model for the Spatial Distribution of Petrol Prices, Third International Workshop on Agent-based Approaches in Economic and Social Complex Systems, Kyodai-Kaikan, Kyoto University, Japan.
• Birkin, M., Hodrien, J., Macfarland, O. and Dew, P. 2004. Hydra II: Spatial Planning Services, e-Social Science All Hands Meeting, Manchester.
• Birkin, M. and Macfarland, O. 2004. Using geodemographics to assess neighbourhood change, 34th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association British Section), Cork.
• Heppenstall, A., Evans, A., O’Sullivan, D., MacGill, J. and Birkin, M. 2004. Development of a Hybrid Multi-Agent Model for Petrol Markets, Sixth International Conference on Social Science Methodology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2003

• Birkin, M., Evans, A., Heppenstall, A. 2003. An intelligent agent simulation of price setting behaviour, European Colloguium on theoretical and quantitative methods in Geography, Pisa, September.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and Clarke, M. 2003. Addressing complex urban and regional problems: some examples and lessons from business, Institute of British Geographers, London, September.
• Clarke, M., Clarke, G., Birkin, M. 2003. Lessons and Suggestions from 20 years of applied Spatial Modelling, ESRC Research Methods Workshop on Modelling and Simulation, Leeds, March.
• Heppenstall, A., Evans, A. and Birkin, M. 2003. A hybrid multi-agent/spatial interaction model system for petrol price setting, Geocomputation, Southampton.
• Heppenstall, A., Evans, A. and Birkin, M. 2003. A hybrid multi-agent/spatial interaction model system for petrol price setting, Regional Science Association, St Andrews.

2002

• Birkin, M., Clarke, G., Dewhurst, R., Gibson, P. 2002. An analysis of geographical patterns in the utilisation of secondary health care services.  Wellington, New Zealand, December.
• Birkin, M., Dew, P., Hodrien, J., Kingston, R. and Wood, J. 2002. Grid-based support for spatial decision-making: a health-care example, ESRC Research Methods Programme, Combining data: using advanced technology to enhance social science resources, University of Manchester, 18 December 2002
• Birkin, M., Dew, P., Hodrien, J., Kingston, R. and Wood, J. 2002. Hydra: A spatial decision-support system on the grid.  An e-science demonstrator project.  Poster presented at ESRC Workshop on e-Social Science, London, 2 December 2002.
• Birkin, M., Dew, P. and Wood, J. 2002. Spatial decision-support systems on the grid, e-Science All Hands Meeting, Sheffield, September 2002
• Birkin, M., Gibson, P. 2002. Calibration of a small area incomes model using lifestyle data, Regional Science Association, Brighton, August
• Birkin, M., Clarke, M. 2002. Using spatial models to solve difficult retail location problems, Retail Decision Support, Nottingham, July.

2001

• Birkin, M., Clarke, M. 2001. From Spatial Interaction to Spatial Informatics: Approaches to solving difficult Business Location Problems, GIS in Business, Tokyo, Japan, November 2001.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, M. 2001. From Spatial Interaction to Spatial Informatics: Approaches To Solving Difficult Business Location Problems, GIS in Business, Tokyo, Japan.
• Birkin, M. 2001. Measuring the benefits of applied research, Paper presented to the Institute of British Geographers, Plymouth.

2000

• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and Douglas, L. 2000. Optimising retail mergers and acquisitions geographically, Paper presented to the 7th Recent Advances in Retailing & Services Science conference, Sintra, Portugal.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and Douglas, L. 2000. Retail mergers and acquisitions: A financial services case study, Paper presented to the Regional Science Association (European Section), Barcelona.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and L Douglas 2000. Network optimisation within the financial services industry, Paper presented to the Regional Science Association (British Section), Bath.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and Douglas, L. 2000. Decision-support systems for acquisitions and post-merger integration, IBG Retail Study Group Workshop, Manchester.

1990s

• Birkin, M. and Culf, R. 1998. The Application of Regional Science techniques to Business Planning problems, Regional Science Association (European Section), Vienna.
• Cardwell, W., Birkin, M. and Clarke, G. 1997. Optimising Product Delivery Through the Distribution System: A Case Study of Retail Banking, Paper prepared for the 4th International Conference on ‘Recent Advances in Retailing and Services Science’, Scottsdale, Arizona.
• Birkin, M. 1996. GIS and Geodemographics, Fannie Mae Institute, Washington DC.
• Birkin, M. 1996. GIS Applications in Strategic Location Decisions by Commercial Organisations, Paper presented at the RTPI North-West Update, Warrington.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and Clarke, M. 1996. Urban and regional modelling at the micro-scale, Paper presented to the 35th Annual Meeting of the Western Regional Science Association, Napa, California.
• Birkin, M. 1995. Paper presented to the British Pharmaceuticals Market Research Group, Bournemouth.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G. and Clarke, M. 1995. Urban and regional modelling at the micro-scale, Paper presented to the 26th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association, Dublin.
• Birkin, M. 1994. Finding the right sites: the WH Smith Approach, GIS in Business '94, Amsterdam.
• Birkin, M. 1994. HPCN Simulation and Distribution Networks, High Performance Computing, Simulation and Trans-European Activities, European IT Conference (DG III), Brussels.
• Birkin, M. 1994. Intelligent GIS and Branch Location Modelling, ESRC/AGI/ NCGIA Workshop on Spatial Modelling and GIS, Bristol,.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, G. 1994. Restaurometrics, Paper presented to the 1st Recent Advances in Retailing & Services Science conference., Lake Louise, Alberta.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, G. 1994. Progress in Applied Retail Modelling, Paper presented to the 25th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association, Dublin.
• Birkin, M. 1993. The simulation of whole populations with added income attributes, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Institute of British Geographers, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.
• Birkin, M. 1993. GIS for business and service planning. Customer targeting and geodemographics, ESRC/ AGI GIS Seminar Programme, Leeds.
• Birkin, M. 1993. Geodemographics versus geolifestyles, Paper presented to the Market Research Society, London.
• Williamson, P., Birkin, M. and Rees, P. 1993. The simulation of whole populations using data from the small area statistics, samples of anonymised records and national surveys, IBG/RSA 1991 Census Conference, Newcastle.
• Williamson, P., Rees, P. and Birkin, M. 1993. A meta-database of census variables and tables, IBG/RSA 1991 Census Conference, Newcastle.
• Birkin, M. 1992. Decision support systems for retail site selection and branch performance evaluation. Paper presented to the 24th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association (British Section), Dundee.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, G. 1991. IT and spatial decision support systems. Paper presented to a conference on 'Information Technology in business', Portsmouth Polytechnic.
• Birkin, M. and Jin, Y.X. 1991. An interregional input-output study for the Leeds Metropolitan District. Working Paper 546, School of Geography, University of Leeds.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G., Clarke, M and Wilson, A.G. 1990. Information Systems for urban policy appraisal. Paper presented to the Institute of British Geographers Annual Meeting, Glasgow.

1980s

• Birkin, M., Clarke, G., Clarke, M. and Wilson, A.G. 1989. Broadening the focus and extending the horizons: from GIS to EIS. IBG Workshop on Applied Geographical Information Systems.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, G. 1987. Synthetic data generation and urban performance: a labour market example. 5th European Colloquium on Quantitative and Theoretical Geography, Bardonecchia, Italy.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, G., Clarke, M. and Wilson, A.G. 1987. Geographical Information Systems and urban and regional analysis: Ships in the night or the beginnings of a relationship? Joint ESRC/NSF Meeting on 'Developments in Geographical Information Systems', Edinburgh.
• Birkin, M. 1986. Spatial interaction and the classical theory of urban residential land use. IBG Annual Meeting, Reading.
• Birkin, M. 1986. An Iterative Proportional Fitting procedure (IPF): Theory and implementation. Computer Manual 26, School of Geography, University of Leeds.
• Birkin, M. 1986. Extended comprehensive and dynamic urban models. IGU Workshop on Mathematical Models, Madrid.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, M. 1986. Integrating data and generating really useful information about metropolitan areas: methods and examples. 18th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association, British Section, Bristol.
• Birkin, M. and G Clarke 1985. On the design and implementation of an information system for urban modelling and spatial planning. 17th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association, British Section, Manchester.
• Birkin, M. and Clarke, M. 1985. Comprehensive models and efficient accounting frameworks for urban and regional systems. 3rd NATO ASI, Hanstholm, Denmark.
• Birkin, M., Clarke, M. and Wilson, A.G. 1984. Interacting fields: Comprehensive models for the dynamical analysis of urban spatial structure. 80th Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington DC.
• Birkin, M. and Wilson, A.G. 1984. Industrial location models in a metropolitan context. Presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Regional Science Association, British Section, Canterbury.
• Wilson, A.G. and Birkin, M. 1983. Industrial location theory: Explorations of a new approach. Working Paper 360, School of Geography, University of Leeds.
• Birkin, M. 1982. A manual for using 'CROSSTAB': A census data extraction program. Computer Manual 20, School of Geography, University of Leeds.
• Birkin, M. and Rees, P.H. 1982. The 1981 census small area statistics for West Yorkshire wards: How to access, extract and analyse. Working Paper 342, School of Geography, University of Leeds.
• Birkin, M. 1981. Mortality in England and Wales, 1916-1976: Causes of trends and trends in causes. Working Paper 315, School of Geography, University of Leeds.

Research interests

Research projects

• Northern Ireland Longitudinal Survey Research Support Unit (NILS-RSU): Continuation 2012-2017, £1,219,713, September 2012-August 2017 (Co-Applicant)
• Geospatial Data Analysis and Simulation, £1,396,658, ESRC (National Centre for Research Methods), October 2011-September 2014 (Principal Applicant)
• Developing Sustainability Pathways for Social Simulation Tools and Services, £49,376, ESRC (Digital Social Research), October 2011-June 2012 (Co-Applicant)
• Long term dynamics of inter-dependent infrastructure systems, £4,730,842, EPSRC, January 2011-December 2015 (Co-applicant)
• Social Simulation e-Infrastructure (£1.349,571) JISC (Information Environments Programme) (Principal Applicant), April 2009-March 2012
• Moses Simulation Software for Taiwan (£10,727) (University of Manchester/ EUAsiaGrid, January – March 2009). (Principal applicant)
• Generative Simulation for the Spatial and Social Sciences (GENeSIS), £1.478,000, ESRC (National Centre for e-Social Science), October 2008-September 2011 (Co-applicant and Joint Director
• Big Feet?  Reducing the carbon footprint associated with primary aggregate mineral consumption in SE England (£26,325) (BGS-University Collaboration Scheme, Octoober 2007 -September 2010). (Principal applicant)
• e-infrastructure for the Social Sciences (£544,463) (ESRC, January 2007-December 2010) (Co-applicant)
• Spatially Embedded Complex Systems Engineering (SECSE), £1.400,000, EPSRC (Novel Computation Initiative), September 2005 – April 2009 (Co-applicant)
• Multi-dimensional Methods for Real Lives Research (£811,123) (ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, September 2005 – August 2008) (Co-applicant)
• Modelling and Simulation for e-Social Science (Moses) (£610,208)  (ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science, July 2005 – June 2008) (Principal applicant)
• Hydra II: Grid-based Spatial Planning Services (£87,257) (ESRC October 2003 – September 2004) (Principal applicant)
• Health Care Planning with Data Driven Resource Allocation (HYDRA) (£57,015) (ESRC/DTI, September 2002 – December 2002). (Principal applicant)
• ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science – Access Grid Node Application (£30,000) (ESRC, from March 2005). (Principal applicant)
• Geographical analysis and modelling of populations (£30,000) (ESRC RES-474-25-0007, £30,000; 1st February 2003 – 31st January, 2005.  (Co-applicant).
• Collaboration on e-Social Science Developments/ University of California at San Diego, (£2,150) (ESRC – SSRC Visiting Fellowship Scheme, June 2005).

• CATCH! Citizens at the City's Heart
• Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC)
• Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC)
• MISTRAL
• TALISMAN: Geospatial Data Analysis and Simulation

Qualifications

• 1986 PhD, School of Geography, University of Leeds
• 1981 BA (Hons), School of Geography, University of Leeds

Professional memberships

• Regional Science Association
• IBG

Research groups and institutes

• Institute for Spatial Data Science

Current postgraduate researchers

• Shivani Sickotra