Personal Statement
Francisco Rowe is a Professor in Population Data Science; Lead of the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool; and Co-Chair of the Mobile Phone Data Task Team (MPD-TT) at the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD).He was previously appointed as a Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia (2013-2016) before joining the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Liverpool as a Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography (2016-2018) and Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography (2018-2023). Francisco completed his PhD in Economic Geography at the School of Planning and Environmental Management at the University of Queensland in Australia (2009-2013) under the supervision of Martin Bell, Robert Stimson and Tom Wilson. His PhD focused on the evolving patterns of labour migration and commuting in Chile during its transition from a socialist economic regime to a free-market economy. He completed a MSc in Regional Science (2007-2008) and BA in Business Management with specialisation in Economics (2002-2007) at the Universidad Católica del Norte in Chile. Francisco is featured in the Experts Database of the United Nations Network on Migration and his work on Big Data, machine learning and migration are listed in the Data Innovation Directory of the International Organization for Migration. Francisco was recognised with the Award Nomination of "Outstanding contribution to Research" in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool in 2023 and twice for an "Inspirational Leader" in 2024 and 2025.

Research Overview
Francisco's areas of expertise are: human mobility and migration; climate sustainability; and geographic data science. He is featured in the Experts Database of the United Nations Network on Migration and two of his projects on Big Data, machine learning and migration are listed in the Data Innovation Directory of the International Organization for Migration. He contributes to the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) as a Co-Vice Chair of the Mobile Phone Data Task Team (MPD-TT) and leads the Migration Sub-group. Francisco is a Co-Investigator of the Smart Data Research UK Data Service for Imagery - Imago, and is the Deputy Director of the Social Health Hub which is part of the UK Mental Health Programme. Francisco is also the Chair of Quantitative Methods Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society and Secretary of the Steering Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Population Geography. He has been invited to present his research at the United Nations Population & Development Division in New York and works closely with the Global Migration Data Analysis Centre within International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the UK2070 Commission, UK’s government organisations, including the Ordnance Survey and the ONS Data Campus, and commercial companies, Geolytix. His work contributed to the United Nations Expert group meeting on `sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration', and the ONS Government Statistical Service Advisory Committee. Francisco has published over 100 scientific articles and was editor of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (2021-present). Currently, he is the current managing editor of REGION (2022-present), the journal of the European Regional Science Association (2018-present) and serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Population, Space and Place, Spatial Economic Analysis, and Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy. The international reach of Francisco's research has been recognised by an award for the best paper published in the journal of Geographical Systems (2021) and in Spatial Economic Analysis (2018) and having top articles in the top 10 most read articles in Spatial Economic Analysis (2017-present), Transportation Research Part C (2018-2019) & Population Studies (2018-present).