Claus RINNER

Claus Rinner is a Professor of Geography & Environmental Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). He leads the RECOVER19 initiative as a nominated principal investigator, analyzing pandemic response policies. His research spans Geographic Information Science (GIS), pandemic ethics, and spatial analysis with a focus on participatory GIS (PGIS/VGI), multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA), and open data governance. He is a co-founder of Canadian Academics for Covid Ethics and authored the 'Coronoia' book series critiquing pandemic policies.

Research interests include geovisualization, spatial decision support systems, and the societal impacts of pandemic measures. His work bridges GIS methodologies with critical analyses of public health policies and authoritarian governance trends during the pandemic. Notable projects include developing heat vulnerability assessment tools and web-based geospatial platforms for community planning.

Publications focus on pandemic policy critique, GIS applications in environmental monitoring, and the ethical dimensions of vaccine mandates. He maintains an active Substack blog (ClausR2020) documenting pandemic observations and co-founded The Toronto Moon (inactive) for scholarly discourse. Former roles include membership in The Ideas Institute Board of Scholars and founding roles in the Canadian Centre for Learning.