Molly Burhans is an internationally recognized cartographer and a visionary leader dedicated to increasing human flourishing through initiatives that integrate technology, science, design, and faith-based values.
Molly Burhans is a pioneer in modern cartography, geographic information systems, religious environmentalism, and scalable land-based climate solutions. As the founder of GoodLands, she has spent nearly a decade mobilizing the Catholic Church to use her lands for conservation and humanitarian efforts.
In 2016, Molly spearheaded the creation of the first unified, digital global map of the Catholic Church, illuminating its worldwide presence and people. Premiered at the Vatican, this landmark project paved the way for her ongoing collaborations with various dicasteries and collaborators supporting the Church’s missions and initiatives.
Molly’s contributions have earned her prestigious accolades, including being named a United Nations Young Champion of the Earth—the UN’s highest environmental honor for young adults— a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a World Economic Forum Pioneer of Change, a Sierra Club EarthCare Laureate, and more.
Molly is a sought-after speaker who has delivered talks and keynote adresses at the United Nations, TEDxBoston, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a variety of educational institutions, symposia, and conferences.
In addition to her work on projects, advocacy, and creative initiatives, Molly is an adjunct professor of Urban Design in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University (New York, NY, USA).
Overview
click the about button below to explore more
Meet Molly
Learn more about Molly’s mission, inspiration, background, and impact in this video.
In the News
Molly Burhans’ media presence, with features reaching over 1.2 billion individual viewers worldwide, is a powerful extension of her activism and advocacy, using her visibility to help broad audiences understand land-based climate solutions and empower and inspire individuals and institutions all over the world to action to make land work for good.
Highlights
Work
Molly Burhans operates at the intersection of technology, design, science, art, geography, policy, and philosophy. Her experience and expertise span a variety of domains, including systems design, developing and implementing advanced spatial data platforms, web-based map and app development, computational design, advising on geographic policy and security, real estate consulting, land-use planning, urban design, science communication, inter-religious dialog, apologetics, spatial science research, and visual arts.
Hyper-Metaphysics: A Spatial Study of Domains embodies my interdisciplinary approach to understanding systems, structures, and relationships. This work reflects my commitment to leveraging interdisciplinary methodologies and creative thinking to address complex, interconnected challenges. It also exemplifies how I use design as both a lens and a tool for navigating and synthesizing diverse domains of knowledge in service of holistic understanding and sustainable solutions.
Click to expand and learn more...
As a pioneer in ecclesiastical cartography and geography, I constantly work at the intersection of multiple domains.
This project is an exploration of the interconnections between key domains of human thought and activity, including religion, governance and management, philosophy, humanities, science, and art and their subdomains.
These domains are mapped onto a 3D octahedron, with “Design” positioned at the center, symbolizing its integrative role in unifying these fields. The octahedron is nested within two tetrahedrons within a hypercube, adding a fourth dimension to capture the dynamic and interrelated nature of these domains as manifolds of human understanding and creativity.
The visualization includes a projected color space that enriches the interpretive possibilities, offering both an aesthetic and analytical lens to understand overlaps and distinctions between disciplines. The project is further animated through a video featuring an orthogonal projection of the petrie polygon of the hypercube with faces in relation to the octahedral vertices, illustrating the complex, multidimensional relationships between these ways of being and engaging with the world.
Speaking
Featured Talks
Can the Catholic Church Solve the Climate Crisis?
TEDxBoston
A Mission to Map
Social Good Summit, 92Y
Vatican Youth Symposium
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Biology meets Big Data
Goldlab Symposium
Welcome Change: A New Culture for a Changing Climate
The New School
Connect
External Media Sources:
[Menu: Hubble Telescope / NASA, Pexels] [Map About / Work section divider: Baltimore Historical Society] [Open Street Map Roads (2024)] [ESRI basemap, Accessed 11-12-2024. National Geographic, Esri, DeLorme, HERE, UNEP-WCMC, USGS, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA, iPC] [ESRI Hillshade, SF Bay Area, Accessed 11-12-2024: ESRI, Airbus, USGS, NGA, NASA, CGIAR, NLS, OS, NMA, Geodatastyrelsen, GSA, GSI and the GIS User Community] [1884 Map of Buffalo. Public domain image of the vintage map from NYPL Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, free to use, no copyright restrictions image]
Molly Burhans is an internationally recognized cartographer and a visionary leader dedicated to increasing human flourishing through initiatives that integrate technology, science, design, and faith-based values.
Molly is a pioneer in modern cartography, geographic information systems, religious environmentalism, and scalable land-based climate solutions. As the founder of GoodLands, she has spent nearly a decade mobilizing the Catholic Church to use her lands for conservation and humanitarian efforts.
In 2016, Molly spearheaded the creation of the first unified, digital global map of the Catholic Church, illuminating its worldwide presence and people. Premiered at the Vatican, this landmark project paved the way for her ongoing collaborations with various dicasteries and collaborators supporting the Church’s missions and initiatives.
Molly’s contributions have earned her prestigious accolades, including being named a United Nations Young Champion of the Earth—the UN’s highest environmental honor for young adults— a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, an Ashoka Fellow, a World Economic Forum Pioneer of Change, a Sierra Club EarthCare Laureate, and more.
Molly is a sought-after speaker who has delivered talks and keynote adresses at the United Nations, TEDxBoston, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a variety of educational institutions, symposia, and conferences.
In addition to her work on projects, advocacy, and creative initiatives, Molly is an adjunct professor of Urban Design in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University (New York, NY, USA).
Overview
Click the About
button below
to explore more
personal introduction
biography
curriculum vitae
career highlights
skills and expertise
interests
The {About Page} provides an overview of Molly and her professional history. For a deeper dive into projects, visit the {Work Page} to navigate portfolios and galleries.
Meet Molly,
Discover the story of Molly Burhans by watching this video created by the United Nations, showcasing her background, groundbreaking work, and vision for a more equitable and sustainable future.
In The News
Molly Burhans’ media presence, with features reaching over 1.2 billion individual viewers worldwide, is a powerful extension of her activism and advocacy, using her visibility to help broad audiences understand land-based climate solutions and empower and inspire individuals and institutions all over the world to action to make land work for good.
Highlights
Work
Molly Burhans works at the intersection of technology, design, science, art, geography, policy, and philosophy, with expertise spanning spatial data systems, urban and computational design, land-use planning, real estate consulting, interfaith dialogue, science communication, and the visual arts.
She is the founder of GoodLands, which leverages Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help large landholders optimize their real estate for conservation, community development, and sustainable growth. Previously, she co-founded Grooperative Inc., a worker-owned vertical farm in Buffalo that continues to supply fresh, organic food year-round to Western New York.
Earlier in her career, Molly researched genetics related to aging and stress as a molecular biology assistant at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She also has two decades of experience as a scientific illustrator, with her work featured in PNAS and Oxford Journals.
Molly is a Visiting Scholar at Canisius University and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Design at Columbia GSAPP.
Hyper-Metaphysics: A Spatial Study of Domains
Digital Media, Molly Burhans, 2024
Hyper-Metaphysics: A Spatial Study of Domains embodies my interdisciplinary approach to understanding systems, structures, and relationships. This work reflects my commitment to leveraging interdisciplinary methodologies and creative thinking to address complex, interconnected challenges. It also exemplifies how I use design as both a lens and a tool for navigating and synthesizing diverse domains of knowledge in service of holistic understanding and sustainable solutions.
Click to expand and learn more...
As a pioneer in ecclesiastical cartography and geography, I constantly work at the intersection of multiple domains.
This project is an exploration of the interconnections between key domains of human thought and activity, including religion, governance and management, philosophy, humanities, science, and art and their subdomains.
These domains are mapped onto a 3D octahedron, with “Design” positioned at the center, symbolizing its integrative role in unifying these fields. The octahedron is nested within two tetrahedrons within a hypercube, adding a fourth dimension to capture the dynamic and interrelated nature of these domains as manifolds of human understanding and creativity.
The visualization includes a projected color space that enriches the interpretive possibilities, offering both an aesthetic and analytical lens to understand overlaps and distinctions between disciplines. The project is further animated through a video featuring an orthogonal projection of the petrie polygon of the hypercube with faces in relation to the octahedral vertices, illustrating the complex, multidimensional relationships between these ways of being and engaging with the world.
Speaking
Featured Talks
Can the Catholic Church Solve the Climate Crisis?
TEDxBoston
A Mission to Map
Social Good Summit, United Nations, 92Y
Intergenerational Leadership: Laudato Si’ and the Sustainable Development Goals
Vatican Youth Symposium, Pontifical Academy of Scinces
Biology to Big Data: “It’s The End of the World as we Know it and I Feel Fine”
The Goldlab Symposium
Connect
External Media Sources:
[Menu: Hubble Telescope / NASA, Pexels] [Map About / Work section divider: Baltimore Historical Society] [Open Street Map Roads (2024)] [ESRI basemap, Accessed 11-12-2024. National Geographic, Esri, DeLorme, HERE, UNEP-WCMC, USGS, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA, iPC] [ESRI Hillshade, SF Bay Area, Accessed 11-12-2024: ESRI, Airbus, USGS, NGA, NASA, CGIAR, NLS, OS, NMA, Geodatastyrelsen, GSA, GSI and the GIS User Community] [1884 Map of Buffalo. Public domain image of the vintage map from NYPL Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, free to use, no copyright restrictions image]