Richard Saul Wurman (born March 26, 1935) is an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

. Wurman has written, designed, and published 90 books and created the TED conferences, the EG Conference, and

TEDMED TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference. Background , TEDMED staff operates from Stamfor ...

Education and honors

Wurman received both his B.Arch. and M.Arch. degrees from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, completing his graduate degree with honors in 1959.Richard Saul Wurman
. ''AIGA: the professional association for design''. aiga.org. Retrieved 2016-11-03.

Career

Wurman chaired the IDCA Conference in 1972, the First Federal Design assembly in 1973, and the annual

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

(AIA) conference in 1976. He created and chaired several conferences, including the TED conferences from 1984 through 2003, TEDMED from 1995 through 2010, and the WWW conference. He works with

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

and RadicalMedia on comparative cartographic initiatives for mapping urban settings, which is planned to culminate in the creation of a network of live urban observatories around the world. Wurman supports SENS Research Foundation, a nonprofit biotechnology organization that seeks to repair the damages of aging and extend healthy lifespan.

Publications

Wurman has written, designed, and published nearly a hundred books on varying topics, including ''Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn'' (1963) and ''What Will Be Has Always Been'' (1986), a collection of words by

Louis Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whil ...

. Wurman's map-oriented and

infographic Infographics (a clipped compound of "information" and "graphics") are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes (2004). ''Public Relations Wr ...

guidebooks include the Access travel series (starting with ''Access/LA'' in 1980), several books on healthcare, ''Understanding USA'' (1999). ''Information Anxiety'' (1989) and its second edition (2000). His books about

information architecture Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...

and

information design Information design is the practice of presenting information in a way that fosters an efficient and effective understanding of the information. The term has come to be used for a specific area of graphic design related to displaying information ...

include ''Information Architects'' (1996) and ''UnderstandingUnderstanding'' (2017).

Awards

He was awarded the Arthur Spayed Brooks Gold Medal, several honorary doctorates, a Graham fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, numerous federal

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

grants, and has served as a distinguished professor at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

. He is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facil ...

, an Annual Gold Medal from

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

, a Gold Medal from

AIGA The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. The ...

, and Boston Science Museum's 50th Annual Bradford Washburn Award in 2014. He is also an

fellow and member of the Art Directors Club of New York hall of fame.

Personal life

Wurman lives in Golden Beach, Florida with his wife, novelist Gloria Nagy. They have four children and six grandchildren. He is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

References

External links

*
Richard Saul Wurman
at TED
40th TED Birthday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wurman, Richard Saul 1935 births AIGA medalists American graphic designers 20th-century American Jews American nonprofit businesspeople Businesspeople from Pennsylvania Businesspeople from Rhode Island California State Polytechnic University, Pomona faculty American impresarios Information architects Living people National Design Award winners Artists from Newport, Rhode Island Architects from Philadelphia TED (conference) University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni 21st-century American Jews