Barbara P. Buttenfield is Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She is Director of the Meridian Lab, a small research facility focusing on visualization and modeling of geographic information and technology. She is also a Research Faculty Affiliate with USGS Center for Excellence in GIScience, and led the Data Harmonization project for the CU Grand Challenge “Earth Lab” initiative. She publishes research on cartographic generalization, multi-scale geospatial database design and data integration, and visualization of data and uncertainty in environmental models. She has also written articles on spatial refinement of census demography, spatial data infrastructures, adoption of geospatial technologies, and digital libraries. She is a Past President of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS), a Fellow of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) and a Fellow of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS). In 2001, she was named GIS Educator of the Year by UCGIS, in the inaugural year of the award. She served six years on the National Research Council’s Mapping Science Committee, and serves now on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee. Outside of work, she and her husband grow vegetables and fruit in their backyard, enjoy cooking spicy ethnic food, fly fish around Colorado, and play lots of rock & roll and bluegrass music with friends.