Haggett, Peter

Person

Haggett, Peter

1933-

Peter Haggett is a British geographer and academic, holding geographical research and teaching posts at universities around the world for sixty years. He is currently Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow in Urban and Regional Geography at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol.
Peter Haggett was born in Pawlett, Somerset on 24th January 1933 and he was educated at Dr Morgan's Grammar School in Bridgwater. He read geography at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, graduating with a double-first in 1954. He started teaching at University College London (1955-57) and then at Cambridge University where he was University Demonstrator in Geography (1957-62); University Lecturer in Geography (1962-66); Director of Studies for Magdalene, Pembroke, and Trinity College (1957-66) and a tutor and Fellow at Fitzwilliam College (1963-66). He then took up a teaching position at the University of Bristol in 1966 and has remained based there for the rest of his career.
A gold medallist of both the Royal Geographical Society and the American Geographical Society, he has also been awarded the Anders Retzius medal (Sweden), the Vautrid Lud prize (France) and the Lauréat d’Honneur (International Geographical Union). He holds seven honorary degrees in Law and in Science from universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1994 he became an honorary Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and in 1993 he was awarded the CBE for services to geography.
Peter Haggett has researched and written on three main scientific areas. First, on the nature of geography as a discipline and its contribution to human understanding of the earth. Secondly, on quantitative methods in human geography and locational analysis. The third area has been on applying geographical ideas, especially diffusion waves, to understanding the changing geography of infectious diseases. This has been the focus of his sustained research over the last quarter-century.
He has served as a visiting scientist at both the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, and the World Health Organisation, Geneva. He has written and edited over 20 books, covering all three of his areas of expertise. With three Cambridge colleagues, he has also established two journals reviewing developments in the field: Progress in physical geography and Progress in human geography.
In addition to his geographic interests, Professor Haggett has acted as Vice Chancellor of Bristol University. He also served as Vice President of the British Academy and as a member of the National Radiological Protection Board. For seven years he chaired the Wellcome Trust’s History of Medicine panel. He was one of the two geographers amongst the founding members of the European Academy, and he is currently the only European geographer to hold honorary foreign membership of both the American Academy of Arts and Science and the US National Academy of Sciences.
Now retired, but continuing his research actively, he lives in a small Somerset village with his wife, Brenda. They have four children and six grand-children in Australia and England.

Website of the University of Bristol, School of Geographical Sciences: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/geography/people/peter-haggett/about.html