Ken is an academic cartographer and geographer from the UK where he taught in UK Universities for 20 years. Since 2011 he teaches, talks and writes about cartography, and makes maps to demonstrate map design at Esri. He considers himself a professional ‘cartonerd’, educated with a Bachelors in cartography and a PhD in GIS and health geography, and over 30 years experience designing curricula, and teaching map design and GIS.
He has presented and published an awful lot and is in demand as a panelist and keynote. He blogs (here and at many other sites), tweets (@kennethfield), is past Editor of The Cartographic Journal (2005–2014), and past Chair of the ICA Map Design Commission (2010-2018). He co-founded the Journal of Maps, Mappery, Longitude, and sits on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Cartography, and The Cartographic Journal.
He’s won a few awards for maps, pedagogy, books, and kitchen tile designs. He is author of the best-selling book ‘Cartography.’ and leads the Esri MOOC on cartography which has been taken by over 150,000 students interested in making better maps. His new book ‘Thematic Mapping: 101 ways to visualise empirical data’ is finished and awaiting publication.
He snowboards, plays drums, builds Lego and supports Nottingham Forest.