DONALD T. LAUER ELECTED AS ASPRS VICE PRESIDENT;
BOLAND AND MADDEN ELECTED AS ASSISTANT DIVISION DIRECTORS

ASPRS: The Imaging and Geospatial Information Society announced that Donald T. Lauer, PhD has been elected to serve as the next ASPRS Vice President for a one-year term beginning April 26, 2001.  Terrence J. Keating, PhD will assume the position of President-elect; George F. Hepner, PhD becomes President; and Alan Mikuni moves into the position of Past-president.  This year’s vice presidential candidates were selected from the Society’s government sector members, as they are every three years, rotating with candidates selected from the private and academic sector members.

Also elected to two-year terms beginning April 26th were John Boland as assistant director for the Primary Data Acquisition Division, and Marguerite Madden, PhD as assistant director for the Geographic Information Services Division. Madden is an associate research scientist and associate director for Environmental Studies at the Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science, Department of Geography, University of Georgia.  Boland is a project line manger for the Eastman Kodak Company.

In his platform statement, Lauer said, “ASPRS has experienced significant change as the demand for geospatial information has increased and as technology has evolved and advanced.  Today, more so than at anytime in the past, we must be prepared and able to mold our organization to fit a rapidly changing world.  There are several areas important to the Society’s future where I would like to lend my expertise and administrative experience.”

Lauer’s goal as ASPRS vice president is to assist the Society and promote the following priorities.

• Sustain the programmatic and financial health of the Society. We must aggressively pursue the “new vision” established by the 1998 ASPRS Board of Directors; grow our membership by reaching out to other disciplines that are becoming dependent on our technologies; expand services to our members through publications, conferences, workshops, technical tours and web-based information services; and, ensure long-term financial security by meeting the goals of the Building Fund Drive.
• Expand the ASPRS Partners in Education Program.  The fact that K-14 students show mediocre performance in math and science is a dilemma for the nation. Our Partners in Education Program is focused directly on this issue.  We must find new ways to engage our sustaining members, as well as all of our individual members, to provide data grants, education packets, and web-based mapping or image interpretation exercises that send a message to our youth that science and technology can be interesting, exciting and fun.
• Foster partnership and collaborative efforts.  To maximize the scientific, societal and commercial benefits of the imaging and geospatial technologies, we must encourage the formation of partnerships among all parts of our organization.  Nearly every program and project that I oversee at the EROS Data Center has participating and cost-sharing partners.  I am convinced that we can advance the mission and goals of ASPRS by promoting partnerships among our members.
• Affect national policies.  The U.S. is a leader in the mapping sciences, especially with remote sensing, GIS and GPS technologies.  However, we live in a complicated world.  The technical aspects of decision making can overwhelm government leaders who formulate and establish regulations, laws and national polices.  Lobbying is not part of our charter; however, it is incumbent on the Society to provide a clear and timely voice on issues that affect our members.

Lauer has been at the USGS’s EROS Data Center since 1974.  He led the remote sensing training program in his early years at EROS and then headed the science program until 1992.  In December 1992, he was named Center Chief.

Prior to joining the USGS, he was a research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley where he specialized in developing and applying image analysis techniques for inventorying and monitoring Earth resources.  In 1968, he was an instructor in the Geography Department, University of California – Davis, where he taught Basic Principles of Photo Interpretation and Photogrammetry, and in 1969 he worked on vegetation and terrain analysis at Lockheed Electronics, Co.

Lauer joined the Society as a graduate student in 1966.  He presented his first paper at the 1968 ASPRS (then APS) Annual Convention.  That paper was titled “Multispectral Sensing of Forest Vegetation” and was published in PE&RS (then PE) in April 1969. Lauer has subsequently authored or co-authored more than 100 technical reports and papers.  In 1987, he received the ASPRS President’s Award for Practical Papers (2nd prize) for his paper “Applications of Landsat Data and the Data Base Approach.”  He has served the Society as a contributing author to the Manual of Remote Sensing (1st and 2nd editions) and, for eight years, as correspondent to the ISPRS Commission VII: Interpretation of Data.  He has been given three ASPRS President’s Citations for meritorious service—for making education training films and organizing specialty conferences for the Society. Lauer chaired the Steering Committee for the 1999 Pecora 14/Land Satellite Information III Symposium and is performing that same role for the 2002 Symposium.

Lauer received a BS in forestry and MS in forestry and remote sensing from the University of California, Berkeley. His PhD in geography and remote sensing is from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He also received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from South Dakota State University.  He has received the Department of the Interior’s Meritorious and Distinguished Service Awards and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive.

Lauer and his wife, Carol, reside in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and have two sons, Mike and Matt.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 7,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.

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A photograph of Donald Lauer is available and can be supplied over the Internet upon request. To request a copy of Donald Lauer’s photograph, or for more information about the 2001 officers, please log on to the ASPRS website at http://www.asprs.org.

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(28 March 2001)