Human Biology is the official publication of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics (AAAG). It publishes multidisciplinary articles on human biology and evolution with an anthropological focus.  It has proved as a very successful forum for interdisciplinary work on the fields of human population genetics, evolutionary and genetic demography, quantitative genetics, evolutionary biology, ancient DNA studies, biological anthropological and cultural diversity inferred from linguistic variability, ethnological diversity, archaeological evidence, etc.).

Pablo’s work on the geography of names and ethnicity has attracted the attention of population geneticists in various countries and following invitations to present at several interdisciplinary conferences in this area he has now been invited to join the editorial board of Human Biology (2010-2014). His work on the geography and ethnicity of people’s names has focussed on challenging established myths about human group identity and the consequences of contemporary migration flows for population structure over space, in particular developing applications in ethnic inequalities in health and residential segregation in several countries.

http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/editorialboard.html

The February 2011 issue of National Geographic (page 22-23) includes a double spread with this innovative map of the US most common surnames by State

An on-line version of the map and article is available at:

http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2011/01/whats-in-a-surname.html

“What’s in a Surname? A new view of the United States based on the distribution of common last names shows centuries of history and echoes some of America’s great immigration sagas. To compile this data, geographers at University College London used phone directories to find the predominant surnames in each state. Software then identified the probable provenances of the 181 names that emerged.

Many of these names came from Great Britain, reflecting the long head start the British had over many other settlers. The low diversity of names in parts of the British Isles also had an impact. Williams, for example, was a common name among Welsh immigrants—and is still among the top names in many American states.

But that’s not the only factor. Slaves often took their owners’ names, so about one in five Americans now named Smith are African American. In addition, many newcomers’ names were anglicized to ease assimilation. The map’s scale matters too. “If we did a map of New York like this,” says project member James Cheshire, “the diversity would be phenomenal”—a testament to that city’s role as a once-and-present gateway to America. —A. R. Williams”

The data derive from a UCL research project titled “Worldnames”. More information and worldwide coverage of surnames at:

This seminar evaluated evidence on immigrant spatial concentration in Europe and its alleged effects on social integration, focusing on issues of measurement in the UK, Netherlands, France and Spain.

Pablo Mateos talked about his work on names and ethnicity as an alternative method to study residential segregation in various countries. The rest of the speakers were highly established Geographers working on segregation: Prof. Ceri Peach (Oxford), Prof. Ron Johnston (Univ. of Bristol), and Prof. Sako Musterd (Univ. of Amstedarm)

More information: http://www.geopolitique.net/index/francais/news/181

The conference title was “The Essence of the Urban”, and it attempted to discuss questions about scholarly questions emanating from the changing form and role of cities  and about the analytical focus of the Urban Studies discipline.  Central questions discussed were What is the role of the “urban” in today’s society and how should urban scholars approach this core concept in their academic endeavors?

To explore these questions, this conference was structured into three plenary sessions that chart an evolution from the theoretical underpinnings of the urban, to a greater understanding of ‘how’ we can study cities, and finally to practical applications in a pluriform society.

Neil Brenner (New York University) / James Sidaway (Univ. of Amsterdam)- Theory
Pablo Mateos (University College London) – Methodolgoy
Maarten Hajer (University of Amsterdam) – Policy

Pablo’s talk was titled “Digital cities and volunteered geographies: Innovative methods in urban studies” (download presentation)

More information about the conference:

Selected media features 2006-2008

2008  ‘Website maps surnames worldwide” BBC News, 30 Aug http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7588968.stm

2008   “Putting you on the map: the website that pinpoints where your name is in the world’ The Independent 30 Aug http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/putting-you-on-the-map-the-website-that-pinpoints-where-your-name-is-in-the-world-913312.html

2008 ‘Global surname website launched’ Channel 4 News, 30 Aug

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/global+surname+website+launched/2438237

2008  ‘Mapping London’s immigration’ BBC News, 27 March http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7315460.stm

2007  ‘The 50 most common British surnames, by postal town‘ The Observer 18 Apr.  http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Observer/documents/2007/04/18/observer_surnames.pdf

2007  ‘Britain’s moving story’ The New Statesman, 15 January http://www.newstatesman.com/life-and-society/2007/01/cornish-names-british-family

2007   ‘Website focus on surnames’, Practical Family History magazine, February (110) p. 64-65

2006   ‘The Global Geography of Surnames”, Geographical: The magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, November, v. 78 (11) p. 12

2006   ‘The name game: How to trace your surname across the globe’, The Times, 31 August, front cover and p.5 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article623423.ece

2006   ‘Riddle of the most travelled Britons’, The Independent, 31 August, p.10

2006   ‘How British names conquered the world’, Daily Telegraph, 31 August, p. 4

2006   ‘Most adventurous surnames mapped’ BBC News on-line, 31 August.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5301032.stm

2006   ‘End of the innuendo’, The Guardian, news blog, 31 August.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/08/31/end_of_the_innuendo.html

2006   ‘Name check reveals a new pecking order’, The Sunday Times, 4 June, p.8

2005   ‘Team find sickly postcodes’, report in Camden New Journal, 17 July, p. 17.

2005   ‘This sceptered aisle: Tesco is successful chiefly because it understands Britain. But it is also changing the place’, The Economist, 4 August, p. 23

Press Coverage in August-September 2008, after the launch of WorldNames website:

http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/

BBC Online – [link]
BBC Radio 4 – [link] and [link]
The Independent [link]
Channel4 news – [link]
Telegraph – [link]
The Scotsman – [link]
The Press Association [link]
New Zealand Herald – [link]
SG.HU (Hungary)- [link]
ZDNet.de (Germany)- [link]
Telekom Presse (Austria) – [link]
Presstext (Germany)[link]
Globo (Brazil) – [link]
Yahoo News Hong Kong (Hong Kong) – [link]
Saigon Giai Phong Online (Vietnam) – [link]
News.com.au (Australia) [link]
Mbl.is (Iceland) [link]
Computerwoche.de (Germany) [link]
WebUser – [link]
Worthing Herald – [link]
Portugal Diario – [link]
The Dominion Post – [link]

Press Coverage in 2006, after the launch of GB Surname Profiler website:

http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/

Pablo Mateos participates in a successful CASA-led £2.9 million bid to EPSRC involving seven UCL departments and ten academics.

ENFOLD is a multidisplinary five year modelling project funded by EPSRC (£2.9 million FEC) spanning across seven UCL departments. It will develop new forms of complexity science which address the most difficult of human problems: those that involve global change where there is no organised constituency and whose agencies are largely regarded as being ineffective. ENFOLD will argue that global systems tend to be treated in isolation from one another and that the unexpected dynamics that characterises their behaviour is due to their coupling and integration that is all too often ignored. To demonstrate these dynamics and to develop appropriate policy responses, it will study four related global systems: trade, migration, security and development aid. It will develop integrated and coupled models whose dynamics can be described in the not so conventional language of complexity theory: chaos, turbulence, bifurcations, catastrophes, and phase transition. The programme will apply spatial interaction models to trade and migration, reaction diffusion to conflicts and terrorism, and network models to international trade, migration and crime. These models will be extended to incorporate the generation of qualitative new events such as the emergence of new entities e.g. countries, coupling them together in diverse ways. We will ultimately develop a generic framework for a coupled global dynamics that spans many spatial and temporal scales and pertains to different systems whose behaviours can be simulated both quantitatively and qualitatively. Various models will be developed which incorporate all these ideas into a global intelligence system to inform global policy makers about future events. Several UK government departments as well as global businesses are partners in this project.

The project is led by Sir Alan Wilson at CASA. Dr. Pablo Mateos is one of the co-investigators and will lead the migration strand of the project, based at the Migration Research Unit. Professor John Salt will be an adviser to the project.

• Professor Sir Alan Wilson FBA, FRS (CASA), PI
• Professor Mike Batty CBE, FBA, FRS (CASA)
• Professor Frank Smith FRS (Mathematics)
• Professor Stephen Bishop (Mathematics)
• Dr Francesca Medda (Transport Studies)
• Dr Pablo Mateos (Geography)
• Dr Alex Braithwaite (Political Science)
• Dr Alastair Turner (Political Science)
• Dr Shane Johnson (Jill Dando Institute)
• Dr Sean Hanna (Bartlett School)

More details

A research collaboration in urban and population geography has recently being set up between Dr. Pablo Mateos (UCL) and Dr. Adrian Guillermo Aguilar, at the Mexico National University (UNAM), one of the the most prestigious university in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world. The aim is to develop further studies of study socioeconomic segregation in Latin American cities.

Following earlier contacts, Pablo visited UNAM’s Institute of Geography in Mexico City for a week in April 2009, where he gave a seminar on ‘Spatial Analysis, Geodemographics and Residential Segregation’, showcasing various UCL research projects and introducing the collaboration with UNAM. He also initiated the research project by analysing Census data for Mexico City at very small area level. His visit was partly funded by UNAM’s international collaboration funds.

Adrian Guillermo will visit UCL for a month in May 2009, where he will be working with Pablo Mateos, various members of CASA, Dr Ann Varley and other human geographers in the department. He will give a departmental seminar on his work in Mexico City and the research project with UCL. His visit is funded by a Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT) Fellowship. (See: http://www.spatial-literacy.org/)

This collaboration will establish opportunities for the dissemination of UCL and UNAM’s research in urban and population geography, including publications. Medium-term funding will also be sought to carry out a broader three year research project.

The Population Geography Research Group (PGRG) of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers), has launched a new website – designed and hosted by UCL, at www.popgeog.org

The site features the main activities of PGRG (including conferences and workshops), and information relevant to researchers and practitioners in population geography, including new developments, conference reports, jobs, funding opportunities, journal content alerts, and forthcoming meetings. It follows a ‘blog post’ method which is more dynamic, and easier to update and read, than a traditional static website. As well as a conventional hierarchical menu, the content can be accessed through a keyword “tag cloud”, displaying tag frequencies, or a search menu for specific terms. An RSS feed is also available to automatically notify users of new posts, or feed this information to other websites.

The aim of the new PGRG website is to become the main repository of key information for population geographers in the UK and beyond. Please disseminate this URL as widely as possible among academics, students, and practitioners. Material for posting on the website should be sent to Pablo Mateos (p.mateos@ucl.ac.uk), Communications Officer, PGRG

Dr Pablo Mateos gave a seminar on October 7th, at the Bolivar Hall of the Venezuelan Consulate, organised by the Alianza Iberoamericana. He presented a first attempt to measure the size and geographical distribution of the Latin or Iberian-American community in the UK  (i.e. those with ancestry in Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and Portuguese speaking Africa), using conventional as well alternative statistical sources. Dr Cathy McIlwaine, Reader in Geography at Queen Mary UL, also presented evidence for the size of the Latin American community and its social characteristics, based on a large scale survey.

There is little research on Latin Americans or Iberian-Americans living in London or the UK. Most looks at specific national communities within the Ibero-American diaspora, repeatedly noting its low visibility in national and local politics, and the dearth of knowledge about alleged structural disadvantage and discrimination. One of the first steps towards increasing visibility is to establish reliable figures about the scale and distribution of the communities and the demographic characteristics of the places where they live.

Pablo’s talk presented statistics derived from official sources: The Census of Population, Labour Force Survey, Home Office Border Agency statistics, International Passenger Survey, and National Insurance Number Applications.

He has also mapped the geographical distribution in London of people with Spanish or Portuguese origin names, as registered in the electoral roll. The areas of higher concentration coincide with those found in several studies based on the languages that London pupils speak at home.

Download Pablo’s presentation at: http://popgeog.org/files/2009/11/P_Mateos_Bolivar-Hall_IberoAmericans-in-UK.pdf

Cathy McIlwaine: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/staff/mcilwainec.html