[2] Rhind held academic posts at Edinburgh, the Royal College of Art and Durham, before becoming a professor of geography at the University of London in 1982.
He subsequently became Director General of Ordnance Survey, overseeing the completion of the digitisation of the last of its paper maps.
He was the first geographer elected to the Royal Society for nearly 50 years and is almost unique in also being a Fellow of the British Academy.
[3] Rhind has held many other posts including chairing the Statistics Commission[4] and the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Socio-economic Committee,[4] and membership of the court of directors for the Bank of England.
[5] In the 2001 New Year Honours, he received a CBE for services to Geographical and Social Sciences.