Professor Shawn Laffan

My broad research area is in spatial data analysis using GIS and geocomputational tools to understand and address geographic problems and issues.  My current research focus is on biodiversity and terrain analysis.

Spatial data analysis can be applied across the biophysical-social spectrum, and recent applications include investigating the spatio-temporal spread of disease in animal populations, the spatial variation in genetic and taxonomic diversity at continental scales, identifying potential language groupings from historical word lists, environmental correlation analysis and predictions, the effect of error on spatial analyses, the spatial variation of weed infestations, and non-geometric models of spatial sampling for use in geostatistical modelling.