Rate My Professor Peter Whigham

Professor Peter A. Whigham is a Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of Otago, serving as Director of the Spatial Information Research Centre (SIRC). He holds a BSc (Hons) from the Australian National University and a PhD from the University of New South Wales. Whigham's career in computational modelling commenced in the early 1990s at CSIRO in Australia, where his work on ecological systems led to the development of a grammar-based evolutionary algorithm for genetic programming, a model now extensively used in the field. At the University of Otago, he actively pursues research in spatial modelling, theoretical population genetics, and evolutionary computation models, particularly genetic programming. His interests include machine learning techniques for modelling spatio-temporal patterns and spatial systems for ecological behaviour, public health, and theoretical population genetics. He teaches courses on spatial modelling and analysis, intelligent information systems, and applied ecology. Whigham has supervised 22 PhD students to completion and is the recipient of teaching awards and supervisor awards.

Whigham's key publications include 'Grammatically-based Genetic Programming' (1995), 'Grammar-based Genetic Programming: A Survey' (2010), 'Modelling Rainfall-Runoff using Genetic Programming' (2001), 'Quantifying and Addressing Uncertainty in the Measurement of Interdisciplinarity' (2023), 'Using Decomposed Error for Reproducing Implicit Understanding of Algorithms' (2024), and 'How Relevant is Collaboration in Interdisciplinary Research? Bibliometric Evidence from an Institution’s Publications' (2025). His research demonstrates significant impact through high citation counts and applications across disciplines. As a multidisciplinary researcher, he collaborates with academics from surveying, design studies, economics, finance, public health, medicine, botany, zoology, geography, anatomy and structural biology, and physical education. Current projects involve satellite methods for methane detection, price elasticity in economics, and sleep patterns in adolescents. In September 2024, he delivered his Inaugural Professorial Lecture titled 'The Language of Models'.