Mark Monmonier

Mark Stephen Monmonier (born February 2, 1943 He specializes in geography, geographic information systems, toponymy, and the history of cartography.

Early life

Monmonier was born in Baltimore, Maryland to parents John Carroll Monmonier and Martha Monmonier. His father worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and his mother worked as an elementary school teacher, teaching 5th grade.

Education and field

Monmonier first attended Johns Hopkins University to pursue a bachelor's in engineering, focusing on geophysical mechanics, under a Maryland State Engineering Scholarship. Due to bureaucratic issues and frustration with pay cuts and parking, he left SUNY in 1973. He is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He published several books aimed at the general population on the topics of cartography and geography, as well as several more traditional textbooks. Monmonier's emphasis on publishing books is noted by geographer Russell S. Kirby as standing out from contemporary academics. Despite being digestable by non-professionals, How to lie with maps is described as one of the essential texts for cartographers, and "the closest thing to a religious text we have in cartography."

Other of his books are aimed at more advanced audiences, or designed to serve as traditional textbooks. Computer-Assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects was the first commercial textbook on using computers in the cartographic process. In Technological Transition in Cartography, he provided analysis of the technological changes that occurred in cartography from the 19th to the late 20th century. This book was targeted at cartography students, but was not designed to serve as a stand-alone comprehensive cartography textbook.

Most of Monmonier's work is published by the University of Chicago Press. Geographer Russell S. Kirby stated in a review that his books have "shaped the way we think about maps, their uses, and their abuses, as well as their meanings in the world of business, international politics, and our everyday life." His textbook Computer-assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects was the first textbook on computer cartography, and his 1965 publication The Production of Shaded Maps on the Digital Computer in The Professional Geographer was published six years after Waldo Tobler's 1959 Automation and Cartography, viewed as the first academic publication on using computers in the cartographic process. Several of his publications relate to choropleth maps, including class breaks, intervals, and color choice, as well as recommendations to avoid ink spread. By combining patent records with other information, such as census records, Monmonier published biographic information about several map inventors, notably John Byron Plato, about whom Monmonier published a book.

Monmonier Algorithm

The "Monmonier Algorithm", an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics, is based on an article titled "Maximum-Difference Barriers: An Alternative Numerical Regionalization Method." The 2004 Human Biology journal used Monmonier's 1973 algorithm to identify genetic barriers and visualize the spatial patterns of them, noting that this method works where correlation analyses fails. In 2004, the American Association of Geographers awarded him the Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography. In 2008, he received the German Cartographic Society's Mercator Medal. In 2016, he was inducted into the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association's GIS Hall of fame. In 2023, the American Association of Geographers awarded Monmonier the AAG Lifetime Achievement Honors, for making "outstanding contributions to geographic research, most notably in the fields of cartography and geographic communication" as well as an "extensive record of distinctive leadership at national and international levels".

Personal life

Monmonier married Margaret Janet (Kollner) Monmonier in 1965 after meeting her in 1964, and remained married until her death in November 9, 2022. Mark and Margaret adopted their daughter, Jo Kerry, in 1968.

Monmonier is a Catholic, and had his first communion in 1949.