Tony Hernandez is the Director and Eaton Chair in Retailing at the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity (CSCA) and Professor within the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ryerson University. He was awarded an M.Sc. in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at Leicester University and a Ph.D in Retail Geography and Management at the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), UK. Before embarking on his Ph.D he worked in government planning in the UK. His doctoral research focused on the impact of GIS within major retail organizations. After his doctorate, he was employed as a Research Fellow at MMU, working in the Locational Planning and Management Group within the Department of Retailing and Marketing.

Dr. Hernandez has presented and published numerous articles and papers on location decision making and analysis. His current research interests include location analytics, retail planning and location strategy, spatial analysis, data visualization and decision support. He has undertaken research with and supported research activities within a large number of major retail organizations in Canada, the US and Europe, specializing in retail location decision making research.

He is a member emeritus of the North American Research Taskforce of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the former Co-Chair and member of the ICSC Canadian Retail Research Group. In 2012 the ICSC acknowledged his contribution to industry with the ICSC’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Research Community.

Ron Buliung studied at McMaster University between 1990-2004. He received his honour B.A. in 1993, his M.A. in 1997, and his Ph.D in 2004.

He is a professor in the University of Toronto Mississauga's Department of Geography and Programs in Environment. He is a member of the international editorial board of the Journal of Transport Geography, the capstone journal of his discipline. His research has been funded by NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR, Metrolinx, and the NEPTIS foundation.

Although Neptis has conducted comparative urban region projects, its focus has been the Greater Toronto Region. It was established in the late 1990s. The foundation began with a comprehensive review of aspects of the region, the six-volume “Portrait of a Region”, and has proceeded through series of growth issue papers, historic studies and commentaries.

The Toronto-Related Region Futures Studies examined several growth and development scenarios for the Toronto region, including the consequences of developing under the business-as-usual conditions of dispersed growth patterns over the next 30 years. This study, in particular, was part of a call to action for the Ontario Government to re-engage in regional planning issues.

Mapping and spatial analysis to communicate regional planning issues has been an important part of the Neptis research program. As a result we have partnered with the GIS and Cartography Office in the Department of Geography at University of Toronto to support many research projects.

More recently Neptis was invited to partner with a network of academic researchers, called Geothink.ca, to study and improve the use of Geospatial Web 2.0 tools for communication and engagement. Ryerson University is a local partner on this 5-year SHHRC-funded partnership grant to collaborate on the Neptis Geoweb, a dynamic, online map-based visualization of the past, present and future land use and transportation patterns within the Greater Toronto Region.

In 2013, Neptis collaborated with Ed Levy to produce a webbook on the history of rapid transit in Toronto.

Neptis is also part of a group of funders who have supported the production of a Community Energy Guide in collaboration with researchers from the University of British Columbia.