Haggett, Peter, 1933-2025

Peter Haggett was one of the most influential geographers in the last half of the 20th century, almost single-handedly rewriting human geography through its substance and methods. He was associated with the revolution in quantitative geography that emerged from various paradigm shifts in the subject beginning in North America in the late 1950s. He built particularly on location theory, but ensured that these changes were strongly integrated with the mainstream of Geography through his synthesis of methods and models with the physical, economic and human themes that defined its scope. His work on locational analysis defined his role as Professor at the University of Bristol, where he began to explore diffusion and related applications of mathematical modelling to human and animal disease. In this way, he introduced space-time analysis to both the spread and control of infections. He was central to the development of human geography in many universities worldwide, and he played a very significant role in the administration of Geography and higher education more generally in the UK, specifically acting as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol 1984–5.

Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 23