Rate My Professor Jan-Henrik Haunert

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan-Henrik Haunert is Professor of Geoinformation at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, where he has served since August 2016 and heads the Geoinformation working group. He studied geodesy and geoinformatics at the University of Hanover from October 1998 to December 2003, earning his Dipl.-Ing. with honours, including a semester abroad at the Helsinki University of Technology. Haunert received his doctorate with honours in geodesy and geoinformatics in September 2008 and his habilitation in computer science in July 2013.

Previously, he was Professor of Geoinformatics at the University of Osnabrück from September 2013 to July 2016, Academic Counsellor at the Chair of Computer Science at the University of Würzburg from September 2009 to August 2013, and research assistant at the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics at the University of Hanover from January 2004 to August 2009. His research centers on automatic analysis and visualization of spatial information through mathematical models and efficient algorithms drawing from combinatorial optimization, computational geometry, and graph theory to derive maps or models from large spatial datasets that capture large-scale patterns and relationships. He leads initiatives such as the DFG Research Group FOR 5361 AlgoForGe since 2022, NFDI FAIR Data Infrastructure for Agrosystems in 2021, DFG Priority Program 1894 on Volunteered Geographic Information from 2019 to 2023, and serves as associate member coordinating data management in the DFG Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob since 2017. Prominent publications include "Area collapse and road centerlines based on straight skeletons" (GeoInformatica, 2008), "Drawing road networks with focus regions" (IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2011), "Area aggregation in map generalisation by mixed-integer programming" (International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 2010), "A cutting-plane method for contiguity-constrained spatial aggregation" (Journal of Spatial Information Science, 2017), and "Geospatial information research: state of the art, case studies and future perspectives" (PFG–Journal of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Science, 2022). Haunert was awarded the Otto von Gruber Award by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing in 2012 and the Förderpreis der Victor Rizkallah-Stiftung in 2009. He acts as Associate Editor for PFG – Journal of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Science in the Geoinformation field, Speaker of the Scientific Advisory Board for Research Data at the University of Bonn, Speaker of the Geoinformatics Section of the German Geodetic Commission, member of the German Geodetic Commission, and member of the steering committee of the GeoIT Round Table NRW.