性视界

Lifetime Achievement Honor for Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment

Mark Monmonier, in the Maxwell School, has received the (AAG) Lifetime Achievement Honor.

Monmonier has made “outstanding contributions to geographic research, most notably in the fields of cartography and geographic communication鈥 as well as an 鈥渆xtensive record of distinctive leadership at national and international levels,” according to a release on the AAG website.

Man smiling in a chair while holding a book.
Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment, received a lifetime achievement award from the American Association of Geographers.

Monmonier retired in May 2021, wrapping up a nearly 50-year career with the Maxwell School. His lengthy curriculum vitae includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, editing the National Science Foundation-supported encyclopedia 鈥淐artography in the Twentieth Century鈥 and publishing papers on everything from map design to automated map analysis to mass communication.

Monmonier has served on advisory panels for the National Research Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has received numerous honors, including the American Geographical Society鈥檚 O. M. Miller Medal in 2001, and the German Cartographic Society鈥檚 Mercator Medal in 2009. In 2016 he was inducted into the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association’s GIS Hall of Fame.

On the eve of his retirement, Monmonier received the Chancellor鈥檚 Citation Award for Lifetime Achievement, which recognizes those at 性视界 University who have made extraordinary contributions to the undergraduate experience and research excellence, fostered innovation and supported student veterans.

Monmonier has authored more than 20 books, including the first general textbook on computer-assisted cartography and 鈥淗ow to Lie with Maps,鈥 which in December 2020 was named one of the 鈥渆ight essential books for geographers鈥 by Geographical Magazine, the National Geographic of the United Kingdom.

His latest book, titled, 鈥淐lock & Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a Real Address,鈥 tells the story of its namesake, who attended a pioneer Denver vocational high school, became a farmer in his mid-30s, and patented several inventions including the 鈥淐lock System,鈥 which assigned addresses to rural residences without house numbers.

Like Plato, Monmonier is regarded as an inventor. What has become known as the 鈥淢onmonier Algorithm鈥濃攂ased on an article he published in 1973, the same year he joined Maxwell鈥攊s an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics.