Mei-Ling Hsu

Mei-Ling Hsu, retired Professor of Geography, University of Minnesota, passed away in late May of 2009. Born in 1932, Hsu received her B.A. from Taiwan Normal University (1954), M.A. from Southern Illinois University (1956), and M.A. (1959) and PhD (1966) from the University of Wisconsin. Hsu was a highly-respected scholar in the areas of cartographic symbolization, Chinese cartography, and map projections, with additional specialties in population geography and East Asian studies. Her publications include (with Arthur H. Robinson), The Fidelity of Isopleth Maps: an Experimental Study (University of Minnesota Press, 1970); a detailed map with extensive notes on population growth and urbanization, “Taiwan Population Distribution, 1965,” Map Supplement No. 11 in the Annals of the AAG, 59: 3 (1969); and cartographic design for a number of influential college texts. Hsu joined the University of Minnesota’s Department of Geography in 1965, where she later served as Chair from 1994 to 1997. She was also the first Director of the university’s China Center and was instrumental in building the cartography and GIS programs in the Department of Geography.

Mei-Ling Hsu (Necrology). 2009. AAG Newsletter 44(8):21.