Tim Wallace is a modern-day cartographer. In other words, he spends his days creating maps. To prepare for that career, Wallace earned a PhD in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While earning his degree, Wallace worked at The New York Times, where he created thousands of maps on a wide variety of topics. These included the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Houston in 2017; the territory controlled by terrorist group ISIS; and the results of elections. He recently started a new job as geographer and visual journalist at Descartes Labs, a company that collects data from different sources to help people and businesses better understand the planet.
COULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO AT DESCARTES LABS?
We apply artificial intelligence techniques to identify and monitor things on the ground to get a better sense of what the future holds. For example, we might map tree canopy in a city against things like power lines or bugs or diseases that kill trees in order to help that city manage their trees and parks better.
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WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN MAPPING?
Nearly every professional cartographer will tell you “I’ve always loved maps!” or “I was the kid with the accordion-folded map collection in the back of the station wagon.” And, frankly, it’s probably true for all of them, including me.
I always loved maps, and I was also quite good at spatial stuff growing up. My year-long grade in Geometry in high school, for example was 99 percent. (I did not do as well in English.)
This story is from the May - June 2019 edition of Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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This story is from the May - June 2019 edition of Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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