Johannes Gabriel Granö

Granö studied in Helsinki University, starting 1900 in botany but changing his major subject to geography. His minor subjects were biology and geology. Granö took notes of the environment and his first scientific publication, published 1905 in "Fennia" was about the Finnish colonies in Siberia. Granö received stipends from the Fenno-Ugrian Society and carried out three exploration trips to northern Mongolia, the Altai Mountains, and the Sayan Mountains in 1906, 1907, and 1909. His research focused gradually on the effects of the ice age in the morphology of the mountains. Granö became a professor at the University of Tartu in 1919. He founded the department and organised teaching in Estonian. In 1923 he was invited back to Helsinki University to be a professor and the editor of Atlas of Finland. He was soon asked to move to Turku where they had founded a Finnish university. There he even had time for his own research. He was chancellor of the University of Turku from 1945 to 1955. Granö developed the concept of "pure geography" as the unique subject of geographical research. He created a working methodology to define and classify landscapes, not only based on geomorphology but also taking into account bodies of water, vegetation and human impact. Granö published a lot of his works in German, and thus he was in his lifetime best known in German-speaking areas. Only during First World War he published something in French. In the 1990s however, his main work Pure Geography was translated in English. This was because his ideas on human perception a starting point of geographical research introduced in Pure Geography were known to have influenced the emergence of humanistic geography and behavioral geography in the 1960s and 1970s. Photographs taken by Granö in connection with his fieldwork in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, among colonies of Finnish settlers in Siberia, on the steppes of Western Siberia and in Mongolia, particularly with the purpose of studying the inhabitants of these areas, have been donated to the Finnish Literature Society and a selection of them was featured in an exhibition in Helsinki City Art Museum in 2002.

Johannes Gabriel Granö studied at University of Helsinki. The recorded working language is Finnish, Estonian and Russian. The field of work recorded is geography. Places of work recorded in the authority are Helsinki, Tartu and Turku. Employment is recorded with University of Tartu, University of Helsinki and University of Turku. Positions recorded include rector. Distinctions recorded are Order of the White Star, 3rd Class.

• Name — Johannes Gabriel Granö • Born — 14 March 1882 • Birthplace — Lapua, Finland • Died — 23 February 1956 • Place of death — Helsinki, Finland • Field — Geography • Education — University of Helsinki • Workplaces — University of Tartu University of Helsinki University of Turku • Known for — Pure Geography

Johannes Gabriel Granö is recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded as geographer, university teacher, geologist, photographer and explorer.