Peter Haggett

As a geographer, my particular interest has been in mapping how shocks are transmitted through spatial systems. My earliest work was on diffusion waves in the spatial economy, extending the pioneering work of the Lund geographer, Torsten H?gerstrand, through modelling multiple or recurring waves rather than single events. Emphasis was on adapting deterministic and probalistic wave models to include spatial or regional elements so as to allow place-specific projections (using both conventional and multidimensional mapping methods). From 1970 this work was focussed on analysis of epidemiological data, tracking the wave behaviour of contagious diseases passing through spatially-distributed human populations. In this context, extensive use have been made of worldwide records of island epidemics since 1850 with special emphasis on the unique historical disease records of Iceland in the North Atlantic and the Fijian island group in the South Pacific. Results have been reported in a series of research monographs and in map format in three major epidemiological atlases. The specific research has provided a broad platform for more extensive studies in which the role of locational analysis and regional science have been explored as part of a wider geographical synthesis.