List of Famous Geographers

Claudius Ptolemy (Koinē Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus) lived from c. AD 100 to c. 170. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and astrologer. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, within the Roman Empire. Several historians suggest his Latin name implies he was a Roman citizen. Ptolemy cited Greek philosophers and used Babylonian observations and lunar theory. The 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes identified his birthplace as the Greek city Ptolemais Herm.

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Persian: Muḥammad Khwārizmī محمد بن موسى خوارزمی‎; c. 780 – c. 850), Arabized as al-Khwarizmi with al- and formerly Latinized as Algorithmi, was a Persian scholar who produced works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography. Around 820 AD he was appointed as the astronomer and head of the library of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.Al-Khwarizmi's popularizing treatise on algebra (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, c. 813–833 CE) presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. One of his principal achievements

Hipparchus of Nicaea (; Greek: Ἵππαρχος, Hipparkhos; c. 190 – c. 120 BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry but is most famous for his incidental discovery of precession of the equinoxes.Hipparchus was born in Nicaea, Bithynia (now İznik, Turkey), and probably died on the island of Rhodes, Greece. He is known to have been a working astronomer at least from 162 to 127 BC. Hipparchus is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer and, by some, the greatest overall astronomer of antiquity. He was the first whose quantitati

Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин; December 9, 1842 – February 8, 1921) was a Russian activist, revolutionary, scientist, geographer and philosopher who advocated anarcho-communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, he attended a military school and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later. He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where he was imprisoned for almost four years) and in England. He

Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as Perito Moreno (perito means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as one of the most influential figures in the Argentine incorporation of large parts of Patagonia and its subsequent development.

Barry Chapman Bishop (January 13, 1932 – September 24, 1994) was an American mountaineer, scientist, photographer and scholar. With teammates Jim Whittaker, Lute Jerstad, Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein, he was a member of the first American team to summit Mount Everest on May 22, 1963. He worked for the National Geographic Society for most of his life, beginning as a picture editor in 1959 and serving as a photographer, writer, and scientist with the society until his retirement in 1994. He was killed in an automobile accident near Pocatello, Idaho later that year.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; Russian: Михаи́л (Михáйло) Васи́льевич Ломоно́сов, IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ləmɐˈnosəf] (listen); November 19 [O.S. November 8] 1711 – April 15 [O.S. April 4] 1765) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reactions. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet and influenc

Ibn Battuta (; Arabic: محمد ابن بطوطة‎; fully ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh l-Lawātī ṭ-Ṭanǧī ibn Baṭūṭah; Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة) (February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369) was a Muslim Berber Moroccan scholar, and explorer who widely travelled the medieval world. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the Islamic world and many non-Muslim lands, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and China. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities

Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to publish his own ideas in On the Origin of Species. Like Darwin, Wallace did extensive fieldwork; first in the Amazon River basin, and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the faunal divide now termed the Wallace Line, which separates

John Paul Goode, a geographer and cartographer, was one of the key geographers in American Geography’s Incipient Period from 1900 to 1940. Goode was born in Stewartville, Minnesota on November 21, 1862. Goode received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota 1889 and his doctorate in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1903. Later on in 1903, he was offered a position as a professor in the Geography Department at the University of Chicago.

Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO, (19 February 1865 – 26 November 1952) was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer, and illustrator of his own works. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur, and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin. In his book Från pol till pol (From Pole to Pole), Hedin describes a journey through Asia and Europe between the late 1880s and the early

Edwin P. James (27 August 1797 – 28 October 1861), a 19th-century American botanist, geologist, and medical practitioner, was an important figure in the early exploration of the American West. James was also known for his time spent creating relationships with Native Americans in the United States, and also aiding African Americans to escape slavery. James is primarily remembered for his participation in the expedition of 1819-1820 led by Major Stephen Harriman Long, into still largely unknown territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. James served during the expedition's more productive se

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller (German: Müller) lived from 30 June 1825 to 10 October 1896. He was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and botanist. In 1853, Governor Charles La Trobe appointed him government botanist for the colony of Victoria. Mueller later directed the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria and named many Australian plants.

Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian writer who was known for writing "Seven Years in Tibet," and "Seven Years in Tibet."

William Morris Davis (February 12, 1850 – February 5, 1934) was an American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist, and meteorologist, often called the "father of American geography". He was born into a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Edward M. Davis and Maria Mott Davis (a daughter of the women's advocate Lucretia Mott). Davis studied geology and geography at Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School and then joined the Harvard sponsored geographic exploration party to the Colorado territory, led by the inaugural Sturgis-Hooper professor of geology, Josiah Dwight Whit

Lolo Soetoro (EYD: Lolo Sutoro; Javanese: [ˈlɒlɒ suːˈtɒrɒː]; 2 January 1935 – 2 March 1987), also known as Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo or Mangundikardjo, of Indonesia was the stepfather of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.

David W. Harvey (born 31 October 1935) is a British-born Marxist economic geographer and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his PhD in geography from the University of Cambridge in 1961. Harvey has authored many books and essays that have been prominent in the development of modern geography as a discipline. He is a proponent of the idea of the right to the city. In 2007, Harvey was listed as the 18th most-cited author of books in the humanities and social sciences in that year, as established by c

Charles Rabot (26 June 1856 in Nevers − 1 February 1944 in Martigné-Ferchaud) was a French geographer, glaciologist, traveler, journalist, lecturer, translator, and explorer. He was also the first person to climb Kebnekaise, the tallest mountain in Sweden, which he accomplished in 1883.He led his first expedition to Spitsbergen in 1882 on the ship Petit Paris. Ten years later, he embarked on a voyage on the ship La Mancha, for a mapping mission, redrawing the map of the glacier Svartisen. He crossed Spitsbergen west to east and surveyed Prins Karls Forland. He was also a passionate ethnographe

David Russell Harris, FSA, FBA (14 December 1930 – 25 December 2013) was a British geographer, anthropologist, archaeologist and academic, well known for his detailed work on the origins of agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals. He was a director of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, and retained a position as Professor Emeritus of the Human Environment at the Institute.

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; Greek: Ἐρατοσθένης ὁ Κυρηναῖος, romanized: Eratosthénis o Kyrinaíos, IPA: [eratostʰénɛːs]; c. 276 BC – c. 195/194 BC) was a Greek polymath (mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist). He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria. He invented the discipline of geography, including the terminology used today.He is best known for being the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth, which he did by comparing angles of the mid-day Sun at two places a known North-South distance apart. His calculatio

Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, anthropologist, historian, and author best known for his popular science books The Third Chimpanzee (1991); Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); Collapse (2005); and The World Until Yesterday (2012). Originally trained in physiology, Diamond is known for drawing from a variety of fields, including anthropology, ecology, geography, and evolutionary biology. He is a professor of geography at UCLA.In 2005, Diamond was ranked ninth on a poll by Prospect and Foreign Policy of the world's top 100 public inte

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (, also US: , UK: , German: [ʔalɛkˈsandɐ fɔn ˈhʊmbɔlt] (listen); 14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a Prussian polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography. Humboldt's advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and m

Sir (Laurence) Dudley Stamp, CBE, DSc, D. Litt, LLD, Ekon D, DSc Nat ((1898-03-09)9 March 1898 – (1966-08-08)8 August 1966), was professor of geography at Rangoon and London, and one of the internationally best known British geographers of the 20th century. Educated at King's College London, he specialised in the study of geology and geography and taught at the universities of Rangoon (1923–26) and London (1926–45). From 1936 to 1944 he directed the compilation and publication of the report of the Land Utilisation Survey of Britain. He worked on many official enquiries into the use of land and

Louis Éconches Feuillée (sometimes spelled Feuillet) (1660, Mane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence – 18 April 1732) was a French member of the Order of the Minims, explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist.

Baron Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen FRSFor HFRSE BGS (5 May 1833 – 6 October 1905), better known in English as Baron von Richthofen, was a German traveller, geographer, and scientist. He is noted for coining the terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen" = "Silk Road(s)" or "Silk Route(s)" in 1877. He also standardized the practices of chorography and chorology. He was an uncle of the World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, best known as the "Red Baron".

Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (July 24, 1786 – September 11, 1843), also known as Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, was a French geographer, astronomer, and mathematician known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin during the 1830s. Nicollet led three expeditions in the region between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, primarily in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Before emigrating to the United States, Nicollet was a professor of mathematics at Collège Louis-le-Grand, and a professor and astronomer at the Paris Observatory with Pierre-Simon Laplace. Political and academic changes in France

Matthias Bel or Matthias Bél (German: Matthias Bel; Hungarian: Bél Mátyás; Slovak: Matej Bel; Latin: Matthias Belius; March 22–24(?), 1684 – August 29, 1749) was a Lutheran pastor and polymath from the Kingdom of Hungary. Bel was active in the fields of pedagogy, philosophy, philology, history, and theoretical theology; he was the founder of Hungarian geographic science and a pioneer of descriptive ethnography and economy. A leading figure in pietism. He is also known as the Great Ornament of Hungary (Magnum decus Hungariae).

Aziz Nacib Ab'Sáber (Portuguese pronunciation: [aˈziz naˈsib abˈsabeɾ]; October 24, 1924 – March 16, 2012) was an environmentalist and one of Brazil's most respected scientists, honored with the highest awards of Brazilian science in geography, geology, ecology and archaeology. Graduated in geography, he was a president and honorary president of the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science), Emeritus Professor of the University of São Paulo and member of the highest rank - Order Grão-Cruz in Earth Sciences - of the Academy of Science. A

Jovan Cvijić (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Цвијић, pronounced [jɔ̌ʋan tsʋǐːjitɕ]; 12 October 1865 – 16 January 1927) was a Serbian geographer and ethnologist, president of the Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences and rector of the University of Belgrade. Cvijić is considered the founder of geography in Serbia. He began his scientific career as a geographer and geologist, and continued his activity as a human geographer and sociologist.

Michael Frank Goodchild (born February 24, 1944) is a British-American geographer. He is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After nineteen years at the University of Western Ontario, including three years as chair, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1988, as part of the establishment of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, which he directed for over 20 years. In 2008, he founded the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies.

Edward William Brayley FRS (1801 – 1 February 1870) was an English geographer, librarian, and science author.

Michael J. Watts (born 1951 in England) is Emeritus "Class of 1963" Professor of Geography and Development Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He retired in 2016. He is a leading critical intellectual figure of the academic left, described as "a fiercely original mind, and a brilliant theorist".His first book, Silent Violence:Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria (1983, 2013), is considered a pioneering work in political ecology. Other published works include Reworking Modernity: Capitalisms and Symbolic Discontent (1992, with Allan Pred), Liberation Ecologies (199

Gottfried Heinsius (April, 1709 – May 21, 1769) was a German mathematician, geographer and astronomer.He was born near Naumburg and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1733 from the University of Leipzig with a dissertation on De viribus motricibus. Later he became professor of mathematics at the same institution. Professor Heinsius may have been the first to publish an announcement about the return of Halley's comet in 1759. From 1736–43 he taught in St. Petersburg with Leonhard Euler and was a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He died in Leipzig. The crater Heinsius on the Moon is named a

Manuel María Uribe Angel (4 September 1822 – 16 June 1904) was a Colombian physician, geographer, and politician. He earned the title "father of medicine of Antioquia" for advancing medical practice in Colombia and the Antioquia Department. Outside of medicine, he published studies and works on the geography and history of Colombia. Uribe Angel also served as President of the Sovereign State of Antioquia and as a Senator of Colombia.

Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; Latin: Dreses; 1100–1165), was an Arab Muslim geographer, cartographer, and Egyptologist. He lived in Palermo, Sicily, while serving at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta, belonging to the Almoravids.

Friedrich Benjamin Graf von Lütke (Russian: Фёдор Петро́вич Ли́тке, Fyodor Petrovich Litke; 1797–1882) was a Baltic German navigator, geographer, and Arctic explorer. He became a count in 1866 and an admiral in 1855. Lütke served as a corresponding member (1829), Honorable Member (1855), and President (1864) of the Russian Academy of Science in St. Petersburg. He was also an Honorable Member of many other Russian and foreign scientific establishments.

Carlos Minc Baumfeld was born on July 12, 1951. He is a Brazilian geographer, professor, environmentalist, politician, and Minister of Environment in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's second term as president of Brazil.

Manuel Antonio Mesones Muro (1862–1930) was born in Ferreñafe, Lambayeque Region, Peru. He pioneered the exploration of north-eastern Peru. Mesones Muro was a scientist with many talents, including natural historian, geographer, historian, geologist, archeologist, and linguist.

Marinus of Tyre (Greek: Μαρῖνος ὁ Τύριος; c. AD 70–130) was a Greek or Hellenized, possibly Phoenician, geographer, cartographer, and mathematician. He founded mathematical geography and provided the basis for Claudius Ptolemy's Geography.

Sir George Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (1888–1958) was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer, and photographer. He received the Military Cross for commanding American soldiers who lost officers during the Battle of the Hindenburg Line. Wilkins became the only official Australian photographer to receive a combat medal from any war. He failed to cross under the North Pole in a submarine attempt but proved submarines could operate beneath the polar ice.

Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (February 9, 1865 – January 10, 1949) was a German geographer, geophysicist, and polar scientist. He was born in Königsberg under the Province of Prussia. Between 1882 and 1887, Drygalski studied mathematics and natural science at the University of Königsberg, Bonn, Berlin, and Leipzig. He earned a doctorate thesis on ice shields in Nordic areas. From 1888 to 1891, he served as an assistant at the Geodetic Institute and the Central Office of International Geodetics in Berlin. Drygalski led two expeditions between 1891 and 1893.

Henry Gannett (August 24, 1846 – November 5, 1914) was an American geographer. He is described as the "Father of the Quadrangle," which forms the basis for topographical maps in the United States.

Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779 – September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he helped found modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he held the first chair in geography at the University of Berlin.

Sir John Scott Keltie (March 29, 1840 – January 12, 1927) was a Scottish geographer, best known for his work with the Royal Geographical Society.

John Schenebly Kyser (September 8, 1900 – July 14, 1975) was an American historian and geographer. He served as the president of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, from 1954 to 1966.

Vardan Areveltsi (Armenian: Վարդան Արևելցի; Vardan the Easterner, circa 1198–1271 AD) was a thirteenth-century Armenian historian, geographer, philosopher, and translator. He established numerous schools and monasteries and left a rich contribution to Armenian literature. He is known for writing Havakumn Patmutsyun (Historical Compilation), one of the first attempts by an Armenian historian to write a history of the world.

Voin Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Воин Андреевич Римский-Корсаков; 1822–1871) was a Russian navigator, hydrographer, and geographer. He was the elder brother of composer and conductor Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Rimsky-Korsakov was born in 1822 into a family of Russian nobility. He graduated from the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg. He served as a navy officer and commander of the schooner Vostok under Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin.

Kâtip Çelebi (كاتب جلبي, "Gentleman Scribe") (*1017 AH / 1609 AD in Istanbul, d. 1068 AH / 1657 AD) was Muṣṭafa ibn 'Abd Allāh, a celebrated Ottoman-Turkish polymath and leading literary author of the 17th-century Ottoman Empire. He compiled bibliographic, geographic, and historical encyclopaedias. He wrote many treatises and essays.

Jonathan James Kedrowski is an author, speaker, ski-mountaineer, and geographer. He gained fame for his mountaineering accomplishments and ski descents. In 2011, he became the first person to summit, camp, and spend the night on top of all Colorado's 55 Fourteener's. In May 2012, Kedrowski climbed Mount Everest while surviving the worst tragedy on Everest since 1996.

Robert W. Kates (January 31, 1929 – April 21, 2018) was an American geographer and independent scholar in Trenton, Maine, and University Professor (Emeritus) at Brown University.