Mark Monmonier
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University, renowned for his ingenious mapmaking skills and geographic knowledge.
Education
- BA, Liberal Arts (mathematics), from JHU, 1964
- PhD, Geography, from Pennsylvania State University, 1969
Career Highlights
- Regarded as an innovator, whose contributions include the Monmonier Algorithm, an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics.
- Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, 1984
- Has authored more than 20 books, including the first general textbook on computer-assisted cartography and How to Lie with Maps, which was named one of the “eight essential books for geographers” by Geographical magazine in 2020.
- Was the editor of Volume Six of the History of Cartography, a massive multi-volume project launched in the late 1970s. Received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Geographers in March 2023 “for his profound scholarly influence on the fields of cartography and geographic communication, for his impactful teaching and mentorship, and for his service to the discipline of geography.”
- His fascination with the details of various inventors’ lives was partly inspired by his maternal grandfather, an inventor with several patents for objects like milk bottle closures and seals.
Quoted
They haven’t died—they have just become more specialized,” regarding the widely reported death of printed maps.”
—Financial Times, April 2018Generally speaking, people trust mapmakers to give them the most reliable representation, and there’s not usually an inherent bias. But there can be sloppiness…There are lots of people making maps who use an algorithm to provide them with compact, allegedly accurate categories, but they ignore these [inherently meaningful breaks], and the maps can end up distorted.”
—Bloomberg, September 2019
