Brief Bio

I am a professor of geography, heading the Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis (GIVA) group at the GIScience Center of the Geography Department at the University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland. Past international honorary appointments have included research fellowships and visiting professorships at Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan; ERSKINE fellowship at the Universiy of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and Associate Fellowship of the UZH|ETH|ZHdK Collegium Helveticum, Zurich, Switzerland. My research and teaching lies at the interface of geographic information science, geographic information visualization/geovisual analytics, human-computer interaction, spatial cognition and perception of the environment, including human mobility. I am driven by the aim to deepen our understanding of real, mental, and virtual worlds to find solutions for pressing societal needs and environmental problems of the mobile digital information society, increasingly living in densely populated urban areas. Various paper and poster awards including competitive international research funding accompany my scholarly activities together with international advisees and interdisciplinary collaborators, as further detailed in the CV below.

I have served the local, national, and international academic community in various roles: I have been a member of the executive board of the UZH Geography Department (head 2014-2016, head teaching 2016-18). I am co-initiator and past co-director of the university-wide UZH Digital Society Initiative (DSI) 2017-2021. Other service included an appointed membership of the Swiss Science Council (SCC) 2015-2023, vice-president of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) 2015-2019, and program committee co-chairing of the international AGILE 2008, GIScience 2010, and COSIT ²⁰¹⁵⁄₂₀₂₂ conferences. I have been in the steering board of the COSIT and GIScience conference series, and am chair elect of the COSIT steering committee (2024). I am an invited member of SigmaXi, the U.S. scientific research honor society, and a nominated member of AcademiaNet, the European online database of excellent women academics. In 2023, I received the Waldo-Tobler GIScience Prize by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Since 2025 I am an elected member of the Academia Europaea.