Prof Mark Birkin

Deputy Director

Mark Birkin is Deputy Director of the Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service.  Mark has primary responsibilities for partnerships and training, overseeing the training strategy for the service and working closely alongside the Director in the strategic development of partnership activity. 

Portrait of Professor Mark Birkin in front of trees - male in blue suit, with glasses, smiles at the camera.
Portrait of Professor Mark Birkin in front of trees - male in blue suit, with glasses, smiles at the camera.

Prof Mark Birkin

Deputy Director

Mark Birkin is Deputy Director of the Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service.  Mark has primary responsibilities for partnerships and training, overseeing the training strategy for the service and working closely alongside the Director in the strategic development of partnership activity. 

Mark is Professor of Spatial Analysis and Policy at the University of Leeds, with widespread interests in geographical modelling, individual-based simulation, and evidence-driven approaches to decision-making and policy formulation.  He is Principal Investigator for the Consumer Data Research Centre, which was established at Leeds in 2014, and Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Analytics and Society.

From September 2018 until March 2025 he was Director of the Urban Analytics Programme at the Alan Turing Institute, with a mandate to drive forward innovations in data science and AI within a geospatial context.  He has had advisory roles for the Department for Transport, Geospatial Commission, Connected Places Catapult, FCDO and the Cabinet Office.  Earlier in his career Mark was seconded as a company director at GMAP Limited, providing strategic advice to organisations such as Asda, Ford, WH Smith, Exxon, GSK and HBoS.  He was the inaugural Director of Leeds Institute for Data Analytics until December 2022.

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