Remembering Yi-Fu Tuan: The most influential scholar you've never heard of

Yi-Fu Tuan at work in his office at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1998. (Jeff Miller)

Yi-Fu Tuan, who died in Madison, Wis. on Aug. 10, 2022, was known as the most influential academic you never knew. Referred to as the father of humanistic geography, his most influential works dealt with the concepts of space, place and sense of place.

As we enter Geography Awareness Week, it’s important to recognize Tuan’s lasting impact on the field of geography.