Specialization Area: 

Geographic Information Science and Technology

Biography:

William J. (Bill) Drummond is an associate professor in the College of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia), and directs the Georgia Tech Master of Science degree in Geographic Information Science and Technology.

He graduated from Duke University summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in history. He then earned a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a biblical studies Master of Theology degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. After serving for two years as minister of a North Carolina Presbyterian church, he earned a PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

He has taught at Georgia Tech since 1987. Over the last several years his courses have included climate change planning, land conservation, sustainable urban development, socioeconomic GIS, programming for GIS, and PhD quantitative research methods.

His current research includes work on population forecasting with advanced time-series models, the relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas emissions, and new methods of estimating building-level and neighborhood-level greenhouse gas emissions.

In his spare time he enjoys running, church activities, and, of course, ACC basketball.

Teaching Interest:

I teach primarily methods and geographic information systems classes, including Socioeconomic GIS, Climate Change Analytics, and a PhD-level statistics class. On occasion I teach Land Conservation, Introduction to Climate Change Planning, and Sustainable Urban Development.

Research Interest:

My primary research interest is in climate change mitigation. I work on climate-related projects funded by the U.S Department of Energy, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the state of Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.

List of Recent Scholarly Work:

My recent scholarly products have been tools and analyses related to climate change.  I am the lead developer for the Drawdown Georgia GHG Emissions Trackers (https://drawdownga.org/tracker), which estimate local GHG emissions at the county and municipal level across the state of Georgia.  I provided technical analyses for the state of Georgia's first climate action plan (https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-03/georgia_psverp.pdf) and the Atlanta Regional Commission's Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (not yet publicly available).

Degrees with Year of Award:

Ph.D., December 1989.  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Doctor of Philosophy, Department of City and Regional Planning.  Advisor: Edward J. Kaiser
    
Th.M., May 1980.  Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia.  Master of Theology.
    
M.Div., May 1979.  Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts.  Master of Divinity, summa cum laude.
    
A.B., May 1975.  Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.  Bachelor of Arts (History), summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.