Cooper Thomas

Maps, photos, & miscellaneous musings

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  • About
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CV
hello@cooper-thomas.com

Hello, I am Cooper: geographer, cartographer, explorer, and introvert. I mostly make maps, but I also like taking photos of interesting buildings, riding my motorcycle when the weather is nice, and doing other things with my hands. I currently work as a Product Engineer on Esri's Story Maps team in Washington, DC.

Education
Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
09/2010 – 06/2014
BA in Geography (magna cum laude)

Specialized coursework in cartography; GIS; object-oriented programming; 3D modeling; animation; statistics.

Experience
Esri (Washington, DC)
01/2016 – present
Story Maps Product Engineer

Produce bespoke Story Maps for partner organizations; contribute to the design and development of the Story Maps platform.

World Resources Institute (Washington, DC)
08/2015 – 12/2015
Cartographic Design Intern

Researched and designed static and interactive maps for public and internal distribution; designed and developed responsive websites.

U.S. Fulbright Commission
09/2014 – 08/2015
Fulbright Research Fellow, Kyrgyzstan

Researched, designed, and produced a multimedia narrative microsite exploring post-Soviet urban development in Kyrgyzstan.

01/2014 – present
Freelance Cartographer

Research and design static reference and thematic maps for various commercial and not-for-profit clients.

Neukom Digital Arts Leadership and Innovation Lab (Hanover, NH)
01/2014 – 06/2014
UI/UX Designer

Conducted user research; designed static wireframes and high-fidelity mockups for websites and mobile applications.

Tiltfactor Lab (Hanover, NH)
09/2013 – 06/2014
Digital Content Production Assistant

Prduced visual assets for games and promotional materials; conducted quality assurance tests on iOS and Android apps; assisted with user experience design; oversaw on-site game research studies.

Hopkins Center for the Arts (Hanover, NH)
06/2012 – 06/2014
House Manager

Acted as liaison between front-of-house staff and backstage production teams; attended to patrons; evaluated performance of house ushers. Promoted from Head Usher in June 2012.

Boston Cyclists Union (Boston, MA)
06/2013 – 09/2013
GIS Intern

Designed and managed complex geodatabases; conducted geospatial and statistical analyses of bicycle incident data; produced static and interactive maps.

Second Story Interactive Studios (Portland, OR)
12/2012 – 03/2013
Content Production Intern

Researched and designed static narrative maps; conducted quality assurance on multimedia museum installations; drafted and edited project proposals; assisted with user experience design.

Awards and Recognition
• Guido Rahr Memorial Award in Cartography (2014) • Neukom Institute Research Fellowship (2013) • Jeff Wulfson Memorial Award for Radio Excellence (2013) • Adam Brown Memorial Award in Geography (runner-up, 2013) • Presenter, “Creative Cartography,” Museum Computer Network Conference (2013) • FOSS4G Best Static Map Award (runner-up, 2013) • Featured cartographer, wired.com (2013) • Moe Frankel 1934 Scholarship recipient (2012, 2013) • Dartmouth Academic Honors (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Tools I Like to Use
GIS and Cartography
  • ArcGIS
  • QGIS
  • MapBox Studio
  • Illustrator
  • MAPublisher
  • GDAL/OGR
  • GeoJSON.io
Interactives/Web
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Javscript
  • jQuery
  • Mapbox.js
  • highcharts.js
  • Processing
Photography and Design
  • Lightroom
  • Photoshop
  • InDesign
  • Balsamiq

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One thought on “About / CV”

  • Zoran Barbaric · March 5, 2018 at 8:59 am ·

    Very impressive! I admire your approach.