IT Convenor

Michael Hutchinson graduated with a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Sydney in 1977. He developed his interests in spatial and temporal analysis of environmental data, particularly spatial modelling of climate and topography, during his time at CSIRO Division of Land Use Research and Division of Mathematics and Statistics from 1978 to 1987. He came to the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the ANU in 1987. He was appointed Deputy Director of CRES in 2003, served as Acting Director during 2004-2005 and was appointed Interim Director in 2006 and again in 2008 as the Interim Director of the Fenner School.

Professional Activities

He continues to develop and apply computer-based techniques for spatial and temporal analysis of environmental data and is actively involved in a wide range of applications. This includes the development of digital elevation models with applications to catchment hydrology; the development of terrain dependent spatial climate interpolation methods with applications to assessment of biodiversity and water resources; the development of space-time, stochastic daily weather models for calibration of climate change. He is responsible, with John and Janet Stein, for the development and upgrade of the 9 second digital elevation model of Australia

Academic Highlights

His techniques for the analysis and modelling of climate and terrain, as implemented in the packages ANUDEM, ANUSPLIN and ANUCLIM, are recognised and employed worldwide. His Australia-wide terrain and climate models have underpinned much of the natural resource and environmental analysis carried out by Australian Universities and Government Institutions over the last 20 years. He was awarded the Alexander Medal by the Australian Institute of Engineers in 1993, the Biennial Medal for General Systems Modelling by the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia 1995 and a Merit Award for creativity, exceptional achievement and collaboration by the Department of Natural Resources of Canada in 2001.

Selected Publications

Hutchinson, M.F. 2008. Adding the Z-dimension. In: J.P. Wilson and A.S. Fotheringham (eds), Handbook of Geographic Information Science, Blackwell, pp 144-168.

Dovers, S.J., Hutchinson, M.F., Lindenmayer, D.L., Manning, A., Mills, F., Perkins, P., Sharples, J. and White, I. 2008. Uncertainty, complexity and the environment. In: Bammer, G. and Smithson, M. (eds), Uncertainty and Risk: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. Earthscan, London, pp 245-260.

McKenney, D.W., Pedlar, J.H., Papadopol, P. and Hutchinson, M.F. 2006. The development of 1901-2000 historical monthly climate models for Canada and the United States. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 138: 69-81.

Hutchinson, M.F., McIntyre, S., Hobbs, R.J., Stein, J.L., Garnett, S. and Kinloch, J. 2005. Integrating a global agro-climatic classification with bioregional boundaries in Australia. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14(3): 197-211.