Robert Spence (engineer)

Robert (Bob) Spence (born 11 July 1933) is a British engineer and Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Investigator at the Imperial College London, known for his work in the field of information visualization.

Born in Hull, England, Spence received his BSc in engineer in 1954 from the University of London, his Diploma of Imperial College from Imperial College, London in 1955, and in 1959 his PhD in engineering from the University of London. In 1983 he obtained a DSc in engineering from the University of London, and in 1997 a higher doctorate from the Royal College of Art.

Spence has spent his academic career at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Imperial College London, where he had started in 1958 as research assistant. In 1962 he became lecturer, in 1968 reader, and in 1984 Professor of Information Engineering. Since 2000 he is Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Investigator. He has been visiting professor at the University of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia; at the Nanjing Institute of Technology, China; at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand since 2002; and since 2003 at the Business School, University of Manchester. Since 2007 is also Honorary Professor at the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Spence was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 1976; Fellow of the City & Guilds of London Institute in 1989; and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1990. In 1995 he was awarded Officier dans l’Ordre du Palme Academique, and in 1999 he received the Golden Jubilee Award from the IEEE Circuits & Systems Society.

• Penfield, Paul, Robert Spence, and Simon Duinker. Tellegen's theorem and electrical networks. Vol. 58. MIT Press (MA), 1970.
• Spence, Robert, and Randeep Singh Soin. Tolerance design of electronic circuits. Vol. 16. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1988.
• Spence, Robert, and A. Press. "Information visualization." (2000).

Articles, a selection:

• Spence, Robert, and Mark Apperley. "Data base navigation: an office environment for the professional." Behaviour & Information Technology 1.1 (1982): 43-54.
• Tweedie, L., Spence, R., Dawkes, H., & Su, H. (1996, April). "Externalising abstract mathematical models." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 406-ff). ACM.
• Spence, Robert. "A framework for navigation." International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 51.5 (1999): 919-945.