Robert A. (Bob) MacMillan began his career as a soil surveyor at the Alberta Research Council (Canada) in 1976, and led the Soil Inventory Section from 1984-1987 when he took leave to pursue a Ph.D. At ARC Bob was responsible for introducing the use of GIS, geostatistics, DBMS, and automated analysis of DEMs for soil surveys in Alberta. Working in Tanzania from 1982–84 on secondment to CIDA, Bob produced soil surveys, developed and implemented farm scale conservation plans for extensive wheat farms and carried out grid soil surveys for research farm plots.

Beginning in 1994, Bob conceived of, wrote and applied a set of programs (LandMapR) for applying fuzzy logic to terrain and other data to automatically classify and map landforms, ecosites, soil units and hydrological spatial entities (streams and ponds). Bob personally applied these programs to millions of ha of landscapes in Canada, and assisted others to apply them to millions more in Canada, the UK, Brazil, USA, Germany, Australia, Indonesia and Ireland. Many individuals practising automated predictive mapping in Canada were first introduced to the discipline through Bob, via the LandMapR programs.

As Science Coordinator for the GlobalSoilMap project from 2009-2011, Bob helped to articulate the vision for the project and led initial activities aimed at achieving this, including authoring technical specifications, promoting the project, recruiting participants and cooperators and liaising with representatives of national and international soil agencies.

Bob retired from active commercial work in 2012 but he has continued to assist others to articulate and achieve their personal goals as a mentor and volunteer supporter, Bob’s current passion is to support the next generation of innovators in soil information. Since 2018 Bob has contributed his expertise and guidance to the management boards of OpenGeoHub and AfSIS Ltd.

Appointments:

  • 2018–present: Chair OpenGeoHub Foundation, Board member AfSIS Ltd.
  • 1994–present: Principal LandMapper Environmental Solutions Inc., Canada.
  • 2009–2011: Science Coordinator for GlobalSoilMap, ISRIC, Netherlands.
  • 1976–1994: Senior Research Officer for Alberta Research Council.

Education:

  • PhD ‘94 in Geography (GIS and Environmental Modelling), U. Edinburgh.
  • Master of Science (MSc) ‘82 in Soil Sciences, U. Alberta.
  • Bachelor’s (BSc) ‘75 in Geology/Earth Science, Carleton U.

Previous projects and initiatives:

  • Promoter, advisor and editor for papers/reports for ISRIC
  • Member of the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) for the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS).
  • Member of the Board for AfSIS Ltd.