We are excited to announce that Jay Bowen will be joining the team in the Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio as our new Geographic Information System Specialist on January 21st. 

Jay comes to us from his most recent role as a Senior Analyst with Quantum Spatial, Inc. in Lexington, Kentucky. From a young age Jay was fascinated by maps and map-making. He followed those interests into the graduate study of geography and GIS, where he applied his knowledge to issues in the social sciences. His enrollment in the University of Kentucky’s New Maps Plus program gave him the opportunity to learn and apply programming languages in a collaborative online environment as he created interactive web maps with open-source software.

Jay was attracted to this position for its emphasis on using map-making and GIS in academic collaboration, testing theses, and exploring research questions. He’s excited to bring these technologies to the University of Iowa Libraries and its continued support for creativity, research, and learning. Jay’s undergraduate education in the humanities and graduate training in human geography, GIS, and digital mapping, will no doubt be a boon to researchers across all academic disciplines as they apply geospatial analysis in their projects.

Jay looks forward to all the University of Iowa and Iowa City have to offer.