Working with Map Projections: A Guide to their Selection

About Fritz KesslerSarah Battersby

Fritz Kessler PhD is a senior research associate and an associate professor at Penn State University. His primary responsibilities are teaching in the resident and online world campus environments. Some of the courses he has taught include map projections datums and coordinate systems cartography surveying GIS spatial statistics and research methods. Dr. Kessler's research interests include map projections geographic visualization and cognitive cartography. His recent publications include a co-authored book Thematic Cartography and GeoVisualization; an article Volunteered Geographic Information: A Bicycling Enthusiast Perspective in Cartography and Geographic Information Science; two co-authored papers Analysis of Thematic Maps Published in Two Geographical Journals in the Twentieth Century in Annals of the Association of American Geographers and Cues for Interpreting Distortion in Map Projections in Journal of Geography; a co-authored book chapter Thematic Mapping in The History of Cartography Project Volume 6: Cartography in the Twentieth Century; a chapter contribution Symbolizing America to Mapping American: Exploring the Continent; and an authored entry Projections in the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Dr. Kessler earned a PhD in geography in 1999 at the University of Kansas an MS at Penn State and a BS at Ohio University. He is a member of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Map Projections vice president of the North American Cartographic and Information Society and a board member of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. He was a former editor in chief of Cartographic Perspectives.Sarah E. Battersby PhD is a senior research scientist at Tableau Software. Her primary area of focus is cartography with an emphasis on cognition. Her work emphasizes how we can help people visualize and use spatial information more effectively. Her research has covered a variety of areas including perception in dynamic map displays geospatial technologies and spatial thinking abilities and the impact of the map projection on spatial cognition. Sarah earned a PhD in geography in 2006 at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is a member of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Map Projections and a past president (2015-2016) of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society a society composed of educators researchers and practitioners involved in the design creation use and dissemination of geographic information. Dr. Battersby is also a member of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee a Federal Advisory Committee sponsored by the Department of the Interior under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.