About Me
Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), I completed my bachelors degree in Economics and Statistics at Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador. I then moved to Lisbon, Portugal, for a Masters of Research and PhD in Economics and Finance at the Nova School of Business and Economics with a focus on urban economics and spatial data science.
I am currently a Lecturer in GIS and Spatial Analysis with the University of Sheffield - School of Geography and Planning, and was previously a Geographic Data Science Research Fellow with the Consumer Data Research Lab within the University of Liverpool’s Geographic Data Science Lab (2019-2021).
My research focuses on urban data, spatial statistics and in particular leveraging big, novel data sources for studies of urban environmental and economic processes. I’m interested especially in the interplay and spill-overs of urban amenities, the built environment and neighbourhood dynamics. I’m a broad champion of open data/ software, open science, and making use of secondary, geographic, data sources.
I am currently the Director of Advanced Data Analytics for the White Rose Doctoral Training Programme. From 2023-2026, I was the Digital Media and Regional Graphics Editor for Regional Studies, Regional Science, a leading premier open access journal for research of regional studies in geography, economics, planning, and political science.
Interests:
- Urban, environmental and economic data science and modelling
- Open, accessible research and methods
- Big, novel, (spatial) data sources and visualizations
Education:
- PhD in Economics and Finance (2020)
Nova School of Business and Economics - MRes in Economics (2015)
Nova School of Business and Economics - BSc (Hons) in Economics and Statistics (2012)
Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador - PG Certificate in Teaching for Learning in Higher Education (2024)
University of Sheffield
Contact:
University of Sheffield
School of Geography and Planning
j.macdonald@sheffield.ac.uk