Mr Cooper has a long track record of using
Geographic Information Systems in support of
Environmental sciences. He trained as a geologist,
and has been working with data management since 1977
and on spatial data since 1979. He has published over
40 papers on various aspects of environmental
science. His major career accomplishment has been the
management and maintenance of the Antarctic Digital
Database, which provides a unified set of
topographic information for Antarctica. Other
accomplishments include managing the project to
create the South
Georgia GIS.
In addition to Mr Cooper's major skills in GIS, he is also an accomplished trainer. He has developed several well-received courses for a variety of trainees, including scientists wishing to use GIS techniques with their own data, teachers wishing to teach the GIS module in GCSE Geography and Data Managers wishing to use web-mapping to present their data.
Mr Cooper is also a good communicator, both in writing and verbally. He has skills in writing articles at a popular science level, honed by time spent in the office of Nature News Update while a British Association Media Fellow. He is also a practised public speaker, having been a lay preacher in the Church of England for over 20 years.
