Robert Wardwell

Robert received a B.S. in Geology from Old Dominion University in 1997 and later graduated with an M.S. in Geology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from ODU in 2000. His interests and research included coastal geology and the use of GIS to analyze and map coastal landform change and geomorphology. Robert joined the USGS in 2001 as a contractor hired to help with an early GIS Web mapping application maintained by the USGS Energy Resources Program in Reston VA. During this time Robert became interested in information systems and programming which led him to his future role as a developer and data manager for the National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB). Since 2002, Robert has been focused on improving the accessibility of geologic and topographic map data to the public through the development of databases, information and image processing workflows, software, and web applications. The NGMDB currently manages millions of geologic and topographic map related downloads that are freely available to the public. NGMDB Web applications are accessed monthly by over 200,000 unique users who collectively visit the sites approximately 1/2 million times per month.