astronomy

Jack Dangermond

Jack Dangermond is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jack Dangermond rather than just read about it. In short: Paul Jacob Dangermond (born July 23, 1945) bka Jack Dangermond is an American billionaire businessman and environmental scientist. He is the co-founder and president of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a privately held geographic information systems (GIS) software company that he started with his wife Laura in 1969.

Key takeaways

Jack Dangermond belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jack Dangermond to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jack Dangermond from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul Jacob Dangermond (born July 23, 1945) bka Jack Dangermond is an American billionaire businessman and environmental scientist. He is the co-founder and president of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a privately held geographic information systems (GIS) software company that he started with his wife Laura in 1969. As of April 2026, his net worth was estimated at US$13.4 billion. Dangermond, Esri's president, works at its headquarters in Redlands, California. He founded the company to perform land-use analysis; however, its focus evolved into GIS-software development, highlighted by the release of ARC/INFO in the early 1980s. The development and marketing of ARC/INFO positioned Esri with the dominant market share among GIS-software developers. Esri's flagship product, ArcGIS, traces its heritage to Dangermond's initial efforts in developing ARC/INFO. Dangermond is the founder of GIS Day: an annual, worldwide event taking place since 1999 to celebrate accomplishments and to promote the use of GIS and its technology.

Early life and education Dangermond was born and raised in Redlands to Dutch immigrants: Peter Dangermond Sr. and Alice Meines. His parents owned a plant nursery in the town. Dangermond attended Redlands High School, and graduated in 1963. Dangermond completed his undergraduate degree in landscape architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He then earned a Master in Urban Planning from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1969. His early work in the school's Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis (LCGSA) led directly to the development of Esri's ARC/INFO GIS software. He has been awarded 13 honorary doctoral degrees.

Career

In May 1970, Dangermond collaborated with Kingsbury Elementary School, located in Redlands, on a landscape design involving planting a total of 300 trees for its school grounds. In 2000, Dangermond was selected to be a fellow for University of California, Riverside's A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Philanthropy In 2005, Dangermond helped Duane Marble establish the American Association of Geographers Marble Fund for Geographic Science. The fund aims to advance GIScience education by providing awards to undergraduate and graduate student research. Awards include the "Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award," "William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography," and the "Marble Fund Award for Innovative Master's Research in Quantitative Geography." In December 2017, Jack and Laura Dangermond donated $165 million to establish the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve on the Pacific coast, the largest ever gift to The Nature Conservancy. Jack and Laura Dangermond have signed The Giving Pledge. In January 2020, they donated $3 million to the Museum of Redlands fund.

Honors

Dangermond has received many awards, including:

Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau Horwood Distinguished Service Award of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association in 1988 John Wesley Powell Award of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1996 Anderson Medal of the Association of American Geographers in 1998 Cullum Geographical Medal of the American Geographical Society in 1999 EduCause Medal of EduCause Honorary doctorate from the University of West-Hungary in 2003 Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal of the International Cartographic Association in 2007 Honorary doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 2008 Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 2010. Alexander Graham Bell Medal of the National Geographic Society in 2010, together with Roger Tomlinson. Fellow of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science in 2012 Recipient of the Entrepreneurial Vision Award (Champions of the Earth) in 2013. Audubon Medal of the National Audubon Society in 2015

See also Geographic information science – Scientific discipline Michael Frank Goodchild – British-American geographer National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis Technical geography – Study of spatial information Qualitative geography – Subfield of geographic methods Quantitative geography – Subfield of geographic methods University Consortium for Geographic Information Science

References

External links

Jack Dangermond, Esri President – Biographical information on Esri's Web site

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jack Dangermond

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jack Dangermond claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jack Dangermond before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jack Dangermond ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jack Dangermond

In research: Jack Dangermond appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jack Dangermond in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jack Dangermond is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 21st-century American philanthropists, American billionaires, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jack Dangermond outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jack Dangermond in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jack Dangermond means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jack Dangermond out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jack Dangermond in simple terms?

Why does Jack Dangermond matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jack Dangermond?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jack Dangermond.