David Martin is Professor of Geography at the University of Southampton. His research interests include all aspects of the geographical representation of population and have included establishment of methods for automated zone design used for publication of small area statistics from the 2001 and 2011 censuses in England and Wales, methods for the gridded modelling of population data, spatio-temporal modelling of small area populations and linkage of administrative population data sources. He is a co-director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) National Centre for Research Methods, UK Data Service and Administrative Data Research Centre for England and was Coordinator of the ESRC Census Programme from 2002–2012.

Samantha Cockings is Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Southampton. Her research interests are focused around the geographical representation of population, including automated zone design, spatio-temporal population modelling and analysis of population health. She developed the methods employed by the Office for National Statistics to produce Output Areas and Workplace Zones for the 2011 Census and is part of the team which develops and provides advice on using AZTool, an automated zone design software tool employed by researchers from various academic and non-academic sectors worldwide. She teaches geographical information systems, health geography and general geographical representation concepts and practices to a broad range of undergraduate, postgraduate and applied audiences.

Samuel Leung is Senior Teaching Fellow in Civil Engineering and Surveying at the University of Portsmouth. His research interests are geomatics and spatial analysis and he has been involved in the development of online geographical referencing resources for social scientists and Pop247 spatio-temporal population modelling methods. Previous to his current position, he has worked as an instructional designer on the Population Analysis for Policies and Programmes project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and immediately before that as a Research Fellow on a range of e-learning and geography research programmes funded by JISC and ESRC at the University of Southampton.