Andrew Goudie

Andrew Shaw Goudie was born in Cheltenham on 21 August 1945. He was educated at Dean Close School and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he earned a BA with first-class honours and distinction in 1967, followed by an MA and a PhD in 1972. His early academic formation set the course for a career in physical geography focused on dryland landscapes and environmental change.

Goudie joined the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford in 1970. He became a Fellow of Hertford College in 1976, Professor of Geography in 1984, and Head of the School of Geography from 1984 to 1994, later serving a second term as Head of School. From 1995 to 1997 he was president of the Oxford Development Programme and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Development. In 2003 he became Master of St Cross College, serving until 2011. He also directed the University of Oxford China Centre (2011-2013) and was President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa from 2011 to 2016. He was a former Delegate of Oxford University Press and held offices in the Royal Geographical Society, including honorary secretary (1980-1988) and vice-president.

A distinguished physical geographer, Goudie's main research interests included desert geomorphology, dust storms, weathering, climatic change in the tropics, and human impacts on the environment. He wrote widely on the Cotswolds and Dorset, especially the Isle of Portland. He authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited over forty books, among them multiedition works such as The Human Impact on the Natural Environment, and published more than two hundred papers. He was president of the Geographical Association, of Section E of the British Association, and of the International Association of Geomorphologists (2005-2009). He met his wife, Professor Heather Viles, through the Hertford College MCR. They made their home in Dorset and had two daughters. His personal interests included collecting old books and gramophone records.

Andrew Goudie died on 8 October 2026 at Dorset County Hospital after a short period of illness. He was 81. The School of Geography and the Environment, Hertford College, and St Cross College published memorial notices. Funeral arrangements were to be announced. He was survived by his wife Heather and their daughters.

Colleagues remembered Goudie as both a scholarly leader and a mentor. Professor David S.G. Thomas said he was interested above all in the development of others and of the discipline, from schools to the highest levels of research, and called him the trunk of a very large geographical tree. Hertford College credited him with making geography one of the college's great academic strengths. His medals, presidencies, and textbooks secured his place in late twentieth and early twenty-first century geomorphology, and his influence continues through the many students and colleagues whose careers he shaped.