Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), I completed my bachelors degree in Economics and Statistics at Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador. I then moved to Lisbon, Portugal, for a Masters of Research and PhD in Economics and Finance at the Nova School of Business and Economics with a focus on urban economics and spatial data science.

I am currently a Lecturer in GIS and Spatial Analysis with the University of Sheffield - Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and was previously a Geographic Data Science Research Fellow with the Consumer Data Research Lab within the University of Liverpool’s Geographic Data Science Lab (2019-2021).

My research focuses on urban data, spatial statistics and in particular leveraging big, novel data sources for studies of urban environmental and economic processes. I’m interested especially in the interplay and spill-overs of urban amenities, the built environment and neighbourhood dynamics. I’m a broad champion of open data/ software, open science, and making use of secondary, geographic, data sources.

Since October 2023, I am the Digital Media and Regional Graphics Editor for Regional Studies, Regional Science, a leading premier open access journal for research of regional studies in geography, economics, planning, and political science.

Interests:

• Urban, environmental and economic data science and modelling
• Open, accessible research and methods
• Big, novel, (spatial) data sources and visualizations

Education:

• PhD in Economics and Finance (2020)
  Nova School of Business and Economics
• MRes in Economics (2015)
  Nova School of Business and Economics
• BSc (Hons) in Economics and Statistics (2012)
  Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Contact:

University of Sheffield
Department of Urban Studies and Planning

j.macdonald@sheffield.ac.uk

Where in the World has Academia Taken Me…

DALL-E Generated Images of My Research Projects