Ormeling, Ferdinand Jan – TRANS

Ormeling, Ferdinand Jan, born 1942 in Utrecht, Netherlands. Read Human Geography at Groningen University (1961–1969) where he took the drs degree (“MSc”) in April 1969, majoring in Human Geography with Cartography and Arabic as secondary subjects. In 1983 he took his PhD degree in Utrecht University with the thesis “Minority toponyms on maps, the rendering of minority language toponyms on topographic maps of Western Europe”

He worked as atlas editor (1961–1968) and as student-assistant in charge of the map library at Groningen University (1965-1969) before he was appointed in 1969 as lecturer at the Interfaculty of Geography and Prehistory at Utrecht University, the present Faculty of Geosciences. In 1985 he was nominated to the cartography chair.

From 1985 to 1995 and from 1997–2003 he has been chief of the editorial board of the Netherlands Cartographic Journal. From 1975-1997 he has been on the board of the Netherlands Cartographic Society, from 1995-1997 as its president. He has been a member of the editorial boards of the Netherlands National Atlas and the New Historical Atlas of the Netherlands. In the International Cartographic Association (ICA) he has been a member of the Commission on National and Regional Atlases since 1985. He was elected chair of the ICA Standing Commission on Education and Training in 1987, and was re-elected twice since. In 1999 he was elected Secretary-General of the International Cartographic Association, and was re-elected in 2003.

He chairs the commission on Geographical Names of the “Nederlandse Taalunie” (Belgian-Dutch language union) for the standardization of exonyms and he represents the Netherlands in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. Here he currently holds the office of convenor of the Working Group on Training Courses in Toponymy (and in that capacity organises toponymy courses worldwide) and was elected UNGEGN vice-chair for the 2007–2012 term.

His research interests also include data quality visualisation and atlas production. His teaching task at Utrecht University still include courses in the organisation and practical aspects of cartographic production and map editing, apart from introductory cartography courses to geography freshmen. In 2009 he was awarded the Carl Mannerfelt medal by the ICA.

Email: f.ormeling@geo.uu.nl