Robin Lovelace is a Professor of Transport Data Science at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) and Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) at the University of Leeds. A Geographer and Environmental Scientist by training, he has become one of the most influential figures in geocomputation and sustainable transport modeling.
Robin's research and teaching focus on geographic and computational methods for sustainable transport policies. His PhD on the Energy Costs of Commuting sparked an interest in modeling large transport systems at high resolution, which has defined his career through three post-doctoral positions before becoming Associate Professor in 2020, and achieving full Professorship recently.
He is the lead author of "Geocomputation with R" (with Jakub Nowosad and Jannes Muenchow), published by Chapman & Hall/CRC—widely considered the definitive open-source textbook on spatial analysis using R. The book is freely available online at geocompr.robinlovelace.net and teaches how to analyze, visualize, and model geographic data using open-source software. He has also authored "Spatial Microsimulation with R," "Efficient R Programming," and contributed to "Geocomputation with Python" (2025).
Robin is the lead developer of the Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT), described by the UK Department for Transport as "a brilliant example of using Big Data to better plan infrastructure investment." The PCT is used to inform strategic cycle network plans across the UK. He has developed numerous R packages including stplanr (sustainable transport planning) and stats19 (road safety data).
His research spans analysis of shifts to sustainable transport modes, development of open-source software for transport planning, and modeling decarbonization pathways for transport systems. Robin leads the Transport Data Science module at Leeds, available to Masters students taking Data Science, Data Analytics, and Urban Analytics courses. He is Principal Investigator of the SaferActive project and lead developer of tools including the Network Planning Tool for Scotland. His work exemplifies his belief that evidence-based, reproducible research can drive real-world policy for sustainability.
