I’m Rob Harrap, a geology professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Professional Overview

My original background was in field geology, with an emphasis on granite-greenstone relationships in the Canadian Shield. I also did some mapping in the Canadian Cordillera in the Monashee Complex west of Revelstoke, B.C. My largest mapping project was 4 years working on the Round Lake Batholith southwest of Kirkland Lake, partially funded by the Ontario Geological Survey.

While working in the mountains (in 1986) I began thinking about what computers meant to geologists, and I prototyped a notebook-like computer (in my imagination) that would meet the needs of mappers. When the summer was over I got involved in some related projects, including being one of the early users of the FieldLog GIS-like program at the OGS and GSC (I also wrote the manual for it), experiments with CAD, and eventually experiments with GIS. I then got interested in applying ideas from rule-based systems to mapping, and did some work on legend languages, ontologies, and the like.

Starting in the early 1990’s I began a side-career educating about and overseeing the use of GIS in mineral exploration companies. By the late 1990’s I was tired of living out of a suitcase and this wound down. I also spent several years managing the Western Superior Lithoprobe Project, which taught me a lot about teamwork, data management, and how hard it is to get people to share their work.

I began teaching at Queen’s in 2000 as an adjunct, and soon was heavily involved in teaching in the GIS Laboratory (an independent group at the time). By 2012 I was a ‘tenured’ (continuing) adjunct and my workload was enough that I was too busy!

Between about 2004 and 2013 I was very heavily involved in the GEOIDE NCE project funded by NSERC, which focussed on the applications of GIS. I was a member of the Research Management Committee, had several funded projects, and was involved in their summer school program.

About the same time I was challenged by my kids that their game tools (for Warcraft map editing) were as good or better than my GIS tools for the kind of work I was doing. They were right. Since then I’ve been heavily involved in the use of game engines for a wide range of applications ranging from AR/VR development through rockfall simulation through realistic micro-world creation.

I supervise students who work on uncertainty in geology, GIS tool development, game design, geoengineering simulation tools, and related areas. Since I am an adjunct I principally co-supervise students.

Personal Life

I play guitar and piano so-so. I’m interested in studio recording methods. I play around a lot with Eurorack synthesizers, especially with the Monome Grid.

I take a lot of photographs.

I study highland broadsword fighting (HEMA). Yes, sword fighting. I also studied Niten Ichi Ryu (Japanese sword technique) for a while.

I am not a dog person. I am a cat person.

I’ve been heavily involved in Reddit since there were about 5 of us. It has changed a lot. Not sure I have.