Steve Isaac • May 8, 2019

50 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts for Spatial Data Science

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Last year’s 50 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts was one of our most popular blog posts. That list focused on people from all over the Location Intelligence industry, from journalists, to industry leaders, visualizers to data scientists.

We’re back with another group of people to add to your Twitter feed. This list focuses more specifically on accounts to follow for Spatial Data Science. While not everyone here is a data scientist or works exclusively with location data, each touches on and tweets about the subject, at least tangentially.

Following this group of 50 will help you keep your thumb on the pulse of the latest technological advances and research, inform you about events and opportunities, and of course, fill your twitter feed with cool maps, visualizations, and data science projects.

We’ve broken this 50 into a few categories:

Subscribe to the full list here!

As stated along with our previous list, this list is by no means exhaustive, rather it is a diverse sample of particularly active accounts that we love! In fact, most of the people and organizations listed below are fervent retweeters, and by following this list or the members of it, you will find not only their expertise and work, but also be quickly exposed to the wider community. Additionally, while all of the below accounts are categorized, many of them transcend and blur these categorizations every day. For example many of our below academics are data scientists and vice-versa.

Data Science Experts

Dani Arribas-Bel - @darribas - Dani is a data scientist, PySAL developer, professor at the University of Liverpool, and chair of the Quantitative Methods Research Group

Four iterations in, my course on Geographic Data Science (taught every fall @livunigeog since 2015!) has a paper of its own at the @JOSE_TheOJ. Tested on about 300 students & improved every release. All materials are linked on the website 🚀💻🎈🎉 https://t.co/hLjoSGsxuI pic.twitter.com/GFE4wtNWmF — Dani Arribas-Bel (@darribas) April 29, 2019

Edzer Pebesma - @edzerpebesma - Edzer is a fixture of spatial data science twitter as well as a professor at the Institute for Geoinformatics at the University of Münster. Don't miss his work at r-spatial.org

Emily Robinson - @robinson_es - A data scientist with @DataCamp, Emily often shares about events and community opportunities as well as the latest data science best practices.

Data scientist career tip from @quaesita:



"Before you take a job, ask your employer if they have data. If not, you'll need to become a data engineer.



Then ask if they make decisions with that data. If they don't, your analyses/models won't be used." pic.twitter.com/QFE4ump9Gt — Emily Robinson (@robinson_es) March 14, 2019

Hadley Wickham - @hadleywickham - While his work isn't specifically spatial-focused, Hadley is one of the godfathers of data science twitter. Known for his work developing R packages, this New Zealander boasts more than 80,000 followers.

Zev Ross - @zevross - Zev is a data scientist from Ithaca, NY who uses his twitter feed and his blog to share his work and resources for those looking to integrate spatial into their data science workflows.

Tim Salabim - @TimSalabim3 - Tim regularly shares tips, snippets of code, and information on spatial data science packages.

Jakub Nowosad- @jakub_Nowosad - An expert on Geocomputation and Spatial Data Mining, Jakub, a professor at UAM Poznań shares his work and that of others on his twitter feed.

Andrew Cutts - @map_andrew - This Python developer is an Earth observation expert and posts often on data science, satellite imaging, and the intersection of the two.

Andy Eschbacher - >@MrEPhysics - Follow CARTO's Senior Data Scientist for info on bringing spatial analysis into data science workflows with CARTOframes and more!

It's great seeing two people I know make the latest Census Bureau email on tools for developers 💥 @levijohnwolf @kyle_e_walker pic.twitter.com/nUhkbNCQL5 — Andy Eschbacher (@MrEPhysics) April 12, 2019

Michael Sumner - @mdsumner - This Australian's diverse, and frequently laugh inducing twitter feed, also constantly includes tidbits from the spatial data science twitterverse

Will Geary - @wgeary - Formerly of the now-defunct Mapzen, and now at bus schedule optimizer @CitySwifter, Will posts at the intersection of geospatial and urban transit.

Geospatial News, Events, and Experts

Geospatial Stuff - @GeospatialStuff - Follow this feed for news and stories from around geomatics, drones, GIS, Location Intelligence, open data, and more!

Michele Tobias - @MicheleTobias - Michele has a PhD in Geography, is the GIS Data Curator at UC Davis, and regularly contributes to #gischat on Twitter.

Topi Tjukanov - @tjukanov - Topi's twitter feed is a constant stream of beautiful visualizations, but he won't leave you wanting when it comes to sharing the technical underpinnings of his work.

Exploring open data from @vaylafi. Where does heavy traffic (=trucks) move in Finland? Thicker line --> more heavy traffic. pic.twitter.com/XSfOEl1YSl — Topi Tjukanov (@tjukanov) April 24, 2019

VerySpatial - @VerySpatial - Hosts Sue, Jesse, and Frank take to their VerySpatial podcast to share their conversations around all things Geospatial.

Spatial Intersection - @rab7599 - Following this twitter account will prove a steady stream of cool maps and visualizations, highlights from data science twitter, and tips for the aspiring spatial data scientist.

Robert Barr - @DrBobBarr - Dr. Barr's feed is uniquely filled to the brim with job opportunities for individuals with expertise in spatial data science and related skills.

Monde Geospatial - @MondeGeospatial - The Twitter account for Monde-geospatial.com, they share presentations, papers, and posts on Spatial analysis with Python, QGis, and more!

Greg Fiske - @g_fiske - Greg is consistently sharing imagery and insights from his work at the Woods Hole Research Center, and beyond with his twitter followers.

Our Arctic shipping map makes a cameo appearance in the business section of @nytimes today | @PanArctic | https://t.co/39XWY0iAZE pic.twitter.com/8NVsTGEfJY — Greg Fiske (@g_fiske) April 14, 2019

James Fee - @jamesmfee - James is the VP of Professional Services at Spatial Networks and often shares news from around the mapping and geospatial communities.

Jubal Harpster - @jharpster - Jubal is a self-proclaimed GeoNerd and currently works as the Director of Geospatial platforms at Accenture.

Bring CARTO into your Data Science workflows! Learn how to integrate spatial models in our upcoming webinar!

Open Source Advocates and Resources

David Garcia - @mapmakerdavid - David's feed is full of beautiful cartography, cartographic insights, and details of work being done at OpenStreetMap.

Nathan Woodrow - @madmanwoo - Nathan is a core developer for QGIS and regularly shares his work on the latest plugins.

So the latest version of my QGIS hats plugin has had 1199 downloads. I think we need to push that closer to 2000. You know you want it. #qgis



Also I need your hats and splash screens https://t.co/gvMm3aS2Rm Readme needs work, but just add new images, make a PR and done! — Nathan Woodrow (@madmanwoo) May 2, 2019

Howard Butler - @howardbutler - An open source developer and Lidar expert, Howard consistently tweets out his insights and helpful tutorials.

Felix Kunde - @FlxKu - Felix is a Database engineer and a teacher of PostGIS. His feed provides a deep dive into technical discussions and best-practices.

GeoPandas - @geopandas - The standard for working with geospatial data in Python, follow their twitter feed for the latest updates and releases.

Chris Whong - @chris_whong - Until (VERY) recently, Whong was the Director of NYC Planning Labs. Check out his thoughts on urbanism, planning, and data.

Whong's Law: Every government agency, everywhere is working on a "new system"; It will solve *all* of their data problems and will be ready to use in 18-24 months. — Chris Whong (@chris_whong) March 22, 2018

PostGIS - @postgis - THE open source spatial database serves as the backend database for a significant number of geospatial products. Their feed shares updates, new features, and tips & tricks.

Paul Ramsey - @pwramsey - Paul, a former member of our team here at CARTO, was one of the chief architects behind PostGIS.

Experts from Academia

Michael Batty - @jmichaelbatty - The Chairman of UCL's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Michael is constantly sharing resources, events, and the latest scholarship in the field of Urban Analytics.

Alex Singleton - @alexsingleton - Alex is a Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool. Check out his keynote from CARTO's recent Spatial Data Science Conference.

After a very long time in gestation @darribas and I finally have our Geographic Data Science paper out in @GeogAnalysis. We set out our mission which we hope will be realised through @geodatascience happy reading: https://t.co/luklb7B7JZ pic.twitter.com/JtGycOOJhn — Alex Singleton (@alexsingleton) April 5, 2019

Angela Li - @CivicAngela - Angela works closely with Luc Anselin, one of the pioneers of spatial data science, at the Center for Spatial Data Science at UChicago. She is also a Founder of R-Ladies Chicago.

Steven Romalewski - @SR_spatial - Steven is the Director of the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research in NYC.

Alison Heppenstall - @ajheppenstall - An ESRC-Alan Turing Institute Fellow, Alison serves as a professor in Geocomputation at the University of Leeds, and focuses her research on AI and Machine Learning.

Looking forward to finding out what I should be researching the next 10 years! Great book @jmichaelbatty pic.twitter.com/OH0lzm01be — Alison Heppenstall (@ajheppenstall) January 31, 2019

Serge Rey - @sergerey - Serge is the founding director of the Center for Geospatial Sciences and a Professor of Public Policy at UC Riverside.

Kyle Walker - @kyle_e_walker - Kyle is an Associate Professor of Geography and serves as the Director of the Center for Urban Studies at Texas Christian University.

Robin Lovelace - @robinlovelace - Robin is an Environmental geographer and Transport researcher at the University of Leeds' Institute for Transport Studies.

Ken Steif - @KenSteif - Splitting his time between consulting and academia, Ken serves as Director of Penn's Master of Urban Spatial Analytics program and is a founder of Urban Spatial.

Adam Dennett - @adam_dennett - Adam is the Director of University College London's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. He shares a lot of their work on his twitter account.

Ana Basiri - @AnahidBasiri - Ana Is a Lecturer in Spatial Data Science at University College London, and uses her Twitter feed to share some of the latest research and applications of SDS for modern cities and more.

Song Gao - @gissong - Song is a professor of Geospatial Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and share his work, bringing spatial analysis to multidisciplinary projects.

Marynia Kolak - @MaryniaKolak - A lecturer at UChicago with a PhD in Geography, Marynia's feed is filled with great visualizations and examples of spatial data science in action.

Asking if anyone had heard about John Snow (the 19th century doc) in your Intro Geography/Spatial Analysis Class ==> Discussing the Iron Born as a "real island" phenomenon in the context of spatial weights and WhiteWalkers... #GIStribe #spatial #datascience pic.twitter.com/xv6Y2CXoLP — marynia (@MaryniaKolak) April 22, 2019

Levi John Wolf- @levijohnwolf - Levi is a lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography at Bristol University's Geography program and UChicago's Center for Spatial Data Science.

Finn Lindgren - @FinnLindgren - With a focus on spatial statistics, Finn is the Chair of Statistics at the University of Edinburgh.

Keep updated on the latest in spatial data science, Location Intelligence and more!! Subscribe to the CARTO 5, our weekly news roundup!

Academic Programs

UCL CASA - @CASAUCL - University College London's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis shares resources and their recent work.

Spatial@UChicago - @GeoDaCenter - One of the most prominent institutions in this growing field, the Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago is a leader in advancing spatial data science knowledge and techniques.

Updated GeoDa workbook chapter by Luc Anselin: Cluster Analysis (1)

Dimension Reduction Methodshttps://t.co/87y3jQ4c8P — Spatial@UChicago (@GeoDaCenter) March 9, 2019

GeoDataScience - @geodatascience - The official Twitter feed for the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool.

Spatial Research - @c4sr_columbia - Serving as hub for urban research, data science, architecture, and more, Columbia's Center for Spatial Research shares events, research and news.

NC State Geospatial - @NCSUgeospatial - "Everything is spatial and location matters" reads the bio for the Center for Geospatial Analytics, an interdisciplinary teaching and research center at NC State University.

PennMUSA - @PennMUSA - The Masters program in Urban Spatial Analytics at Penn explores how data and analytics can promote more inclusive, efficient, productive, place making.

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