Jer Thorp

Background

About Jer Thorp

Jer Thorp is an artist, author and teacher living in New York City. Jer was the New York Times' first Data Artist in Residence, is a National Geographic Explorer, and in 2017 and 2018 served as the Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. He is perhaps best known for designing the algorithm to place the nearly names on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. Jer is one of the world's foremost data artists, and is a leading voice for the ethical use of big data. ​Jer’s debut book 'Living in Data’ was published by MCDxFSG in the spring of 2020, and translated into three languages. Called a "spot-on debut' by Publishers Weekly, and 'an essential text' by Hyperallergic, the Living in Data can be found in good bookstores everywhere. Jer's next book 'We Were Out Counting Birds' will be published in 2024. Jer’s data-inspired artwork has been shown around the world, including in New York’s Times Square, at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, at the Ars Electronica Center in Austria, and at the National Seoul Museum in Korea. His work has also appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Scientific American, Audubon Magazine, and The Harvard Business Review. Jer’s talks have been watched by more than a half-million people. He is a frequent speaker at high profile events such as PopTech, and The Aspen Ideas Festival. He has spoken about his work and ideas at a myriad of companies and institutions, including MIT’s Media Lab, The American Museum of Natural History, MoMA, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena. Jer is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and an alumnus of the World Economic Foundation’s Global Agenda Council on Design and Innovation. He is an adjunct Professor in New York University’s renowned Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), and is the Co-Founder of FieldKit, an open-source toolset for environmental sensing.