For Immediate Release
Contact: Anna Marie Kinerney, Marketing/Meetings Manager
301-493-0290 ext.106; akinerney@asprs.org
ASPRS is pleased to announce the winners of five very prestigious scholarship awards that were presented recently to four very deserving students working in the fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing. These scholarships are awarded to top scholars who are making valuable contributions to the industry and show great potential to be the industry leaders in years to come. Ludmila Moskal, one of these outstanding students, is the recipient of two awards this year. She will enjoy the benefits of the William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship Award and the Ta Liang Award Citation William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship.
The William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship Award committee, completed its evaluation of the 22 applicants for this year's award. Ludmila Monika Moskal was their top choice.
Ludmila Monika Moskal, currently a Ph.D. student with the Department of Geography - Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program at the University of Kansas, has been selected to receive the 2002 William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship. Ms. Moskal is being presented this award in recognition of her outstanding academic credentials and her very impressive record of research, publications, and service in applied remote sensing. Ms. Moskal's research should make a significant contribution to our understanding of how advanced geostatistical methods can be utilized to produce more informative and accurate maps of forest cover types and age, succession state, and biophysical parameters. The results of this research should have a very real impact on the successful application of remote sensing for forest management.
The William A. Fischer Scholarship facilitates graduate studies and career goals of a worthy student adjudged to address new and innovative uses of remote sensing data and techniques that relate to the natural, cultural, or agricultural resources of the Earth. It was established in 1984 and is supported by individual and corporate contributions to the International Geographic Information Foundation in memory of William A. Fisher.
It is typical for the Ta Liang Award Committee to receive applications from well-qualified students, and the winner is usually a close call. In spite of a relatively large pool of well-qualified applicants this year, Ludmila Moskal stood out as the clear choice. The committee was impressed with the international nature of her work, the breadth of her research for her Ph.D. and her remarkably extensive publication record.
In addition to being a student member of ASPRS, she is a member and student director of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Remote Sensing Specialty Group, an active member of the Association of Women Geoscientists, and serves as a guest reviewer for the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. Ms. Moskal used her award to fund travel to present a paper on her research and to chair two student sessions at the AAG conference in Los Angeles.
Yong Hu received this award for 2002. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Calgary, Canada, Department of Geomatics Engineering, majoring in remote sensing. His research specialization is photogrammetric analysis and processing of airborne lidar mapping data. He has demonstrated outstanding academic ability, received extremely supportive letters of recommendation from faculty, and has presented and published a significant number of professional papers in digital photogrammetry and remote sensing.
First given in 1986, the Robert E. Altenhofen Memorial Scholarship is intended to encourage and commend college students who display exceptional interest and ability in the theoretical aspects of photogrammetry. The Altenhofen Scholarship, donated by the Late Robert E. Altenhofen and Family, consists of a cash prize of $2,000 and a hand-engrossed certificate.
Sorin Popescu, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Forestry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, is the 2002 recipient of the LH Systems internship. Mr. Popescu will have the opportunity to work in a commercial environment on a project that will leverage research he has already completed. LH Systems is looking forward to his internship and to exposing its engineers to some of the latest academic thinking. In particular, Mr. Popescu's interests in feature extraction from lidar point clouds is directly relevant to some of the company's development ideas.
The LH Systems Award is an eight-week internship for graduate students in photogrammetry. The selected intern works with LH Systems personnel at a selected LH Systems facility. The internship consists of a stipend of $2500 plus an allowance for travel and living expenses for the period of the internship. The internship provides the award winner with an opportunity to carry out a small research project of his/her own choice, or to work on an existing LH Systems project as part of a team.
This internship is presented by ASPRS with funding provided by LH Systems, Inc.
The review committee is pleased to announce that Mark Kachmar has been selected as this year's winner. Mr. Kachmar is a MS student in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta, Canada. His proposal, entitled, "Remote Detection of Live Forest Residuals" was well written and received high marks from the committee. The objective of Mr. Kachmar's study is to utilize Satellite Imagery to detect residual forest patches to strengthen the forest industries' ability to estimate the total volume of standing timber remaining after a forest fire. Secondly, by using a multitemporal approach, the project aims to develop methods to monitor secondary growth in burnt over areas. The relationship of the secondary growth to the residual forest patches will also be evaluated. It is hoped the results of this research will contribute to and strengthen the practices used in long-term sustainable boreal forest management.
The Space Imaging Award for Application of High Resolution Digital Satellite Imagery supports remote sensing education and stimulates the development of applications of Satellite Imagery data through the granting of such data for applied research by undergraduate or graduate students. This award was established by Space Imaging, Inc. in 1991.
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.
NOTE: Digital copies of these awards photos are available upon request.
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(10 April 2002)