Short Biographical Sketch

Shawn Hutchinson, Professor of Geography and Director of Kansas State University’s Geographic Information Systems Spatial Analysis Laboratory and founding Co-Director of the Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics, studies issues related to grassland and military training land sustainability, surface water resources, and agricultural biosecurity with an increasing emphasis on real- and near-real time environmental monitoring.

He received his bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University in 1990. He earned his master’s degree in 1997 and doctorate in 2000, both in geography, from Kansas State University. He is also a certified Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP). His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals more than 60 times and he has been an investigator on extramurally-funded research grants totaling more than $18 million from agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

In addition to teaching and research, Hutchinson developed K-State’s bachelor’s degree program in Geographic Information Science & Technology as well as the university’s successful undergraduate and graduate GIS certificate programs. He also serves as the current director of the Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Secondary Major and was part of the multidisciplinary team which developed the bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science at Kansas State University.

Dr. Hutchinson also actively supports his discipline’s primary professional society, the American Asssociation of Geographers (AAG). In 2013-2014, he served as chair of the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division of the AAG and was the region representative to the AAG Council from 2014-2017 when he chaired the committee of regional councilors from 2016-2017. Hutchinson is also a current K-State delegate to the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, a non-profit organization that creates and supports communities of practice for GIScience research, education, and policy endeavors in higher education.

Following his undergraduate training, Hutchinson served as a combat engineer officer in the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division from 1990-1995 where he was awarded the Army Achievement, Army Commendation, and Meritorious Service medals.