John P. Snyder
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Born on April 12, 1926 and educated as a chemist, John Parr Snyder rose to prominence through his work on map projections for the USGS. He had a lifetime interest in map projections as a hobby, but found the calculations tedious without the benefit of expensive calculators or computers. At a cartography conference in 1976, he learned of the need for a map projection that would suit the special needs of satellite imagery. He had recently been able to purchase a pocket calculator of his own and set to work creating what became known as the space-oblique mercator projection, which he provided to the USGS at no charge.
He was subsequently offered a job within the USGS, where his work apparently led him to the eventual publication of the definitive technical guide to map projections entitled Map Projections: A Working Manual among other works. He also authored Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections which details the historical development of hundreds of map projections. Snyder developed at least one other projection, called GS50, which uses a complex polynomial to project the 50 U.S. states with minimal distortion.
John Snyder died April 28, 1997.
[edit] External links
- http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/mp/snyder.html - further biographical information
- http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/pp/pp1395 - Information and electronic version of Map Projections: A Working Manual
- http://www.3dsoftware.com/Cartography/USGS/MapProjections/Misc/GS50/ - about the GS50 projection
