PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
August 2015
621
ASPRS
NEWS
ASPRS ANNOUNCES 2015 AWARD WINNERS
G
eorge
V
osselman
W
inner of
P
hotogrammetric
(F
airchild
) A
ward
The 2015 Photogrammetric (Fairchild) Award was awarded to
Prof. Dr. George Vosselman at the 2015 Annual ASPRS Con-
ference in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday, May 6th. Vosselman
was awarded the Photogrammetric (Fairchild) Award in recog-
nition of his major contributions to the science and art of pho-
togrammetry. Since 1986, his work has been entirely based on
digital photogrammetry and includes an early adoption of ar-
tificial intelligence concepts and the Bayes Statistics for image
matching, novel concepts in image understanding and analysis
for mapping, significant achievements in LiDAR point cloud
processing with image integration, both for the generation of
very high resolution digital terrain models and for object ex-
traction and scene understanding. Vosselman was one of the
early adopters of computer vision methods in photogrammetry
and today works in the forefront of combining knowledge from
both fields to advance imaging science and technology.
This award, the essence of which is practicability, is de-
signed to stimulate the development of the art of aerial pho-
togrammetry in the United States. The selection committee
makes its choice based on an outstanding invention or design
involving any type of equipment that applies to the art of aeri-
al photogrammetry; any outstanding method developed for the
general use of aerial photographs and/or imagery; outstanding
research for study along aerial photogrammetric lines and out-
standing effort for the general advancement of the art of photo-
grammetry. Lockheed Martin donates funding for the award,
which consists of a silver presentation plaque.
J.B. S
harma
W
inner of
L
eidos
/ E
stes
M
emorial
T
eaching
A
ward
This year’s recipient of the Leidos/ Estes Memorial Teaching
Award is J.B. Sharma. Sharma is a faculty member at the Uni-
versity of North Georgia (UNG), and is the Assistant Head of
the Department of Physics.
Sharma received his MSc
and PhD from the University
of Georgia and his BS from
Jacksonville State Universi-
ty. Sharma is also a part of
the UNG Institute for Envi-
ronmental Spatial Analysis
(IESA). He was awarded
the Georgia Professor of the
Year in 1999 by the Carne-
gie Foundation and an Ex-
cellence in Teaching Award
by the University System of
Georgia, also in 1999. He is
the UNG Eminent Scholar
for Teaching and Learning since 2009. Sharma has a special
interest in both physics and remote sensing education. He is
involved in novel curriculum development in introductory col-
lege physics courses based on active learning that is enhanced
and personalized with instructional technology. He is active
in applied remote sensing research, in particular in high spa-
tial resolution remote sensing with data from multiple sen-
sors and Geographic Object Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA)
techniques. He has a special interest in geo-spatial problems
that bridge the physical and social domains, undergraduate
research and K-12 Physics/Remote Sensing outreach.
The Leidos (formerly SAIC) Estes Memorial Teaching Award
was inaugurated in 2003 and is named in honor of Professor
John E. (“Jack”) Estes, teacher, mentor, scientist, and friend of
the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
This award is designed to recognize individual achievement
in the promotion of remote sensing and GIS technology, and
applications through educational efforts. Award recipients are
chosen based on documented excellence in education, teaching,
mentoring and, training. Sharma received the award in May at
the IGTF 2015 - ASPRS Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida.
A
dditional awards made during
the
ASPRS 81
st
A
nnual
C
onference were
:
O
utstanding
P
aper
A
wards
Boeing Award for Best Paper in Image Analysis and In-
terpretation
Winner: George Ch. Miliaresis for “Daily Temperature Oscil-
lation Enhancement of Multitemporal LST Imagery.”
PE&RS
,
80 (5), 423-428.
John I. Davidson President’s Award for Practical Papers
1st Place: Daniel M. Howard and Bruce K. Wylie for “Annual
Crop Type Classification of the US Great Plains for 2000 to
2011,”
PE&RS
, 80 (6), 537-549.
ERDAS Award for Best Scientific Paper in Remote
Sensing
1st Place: Michael Marshall and Prasad Thenkabail for “Bio-
mass Modeling of Four Leading World Crops Using Hyperspec-
tral Narrowbands in Support of HyspIRI Mission.”
PE&RS
, 80
(8), 757-772.
ESRI Award for Best Scientific Paper in GIS
1st Place: Zachary P. Sugg, Tobias Finke, David C. Goodrich,
M. Susan Moran, and Stephen R. Yool for “Mapping Impervi-
ous Surfaces Using Object-oriented Classification in a Semiar-
id Urban Region,”
PE&RS
, 80 (4), 343-352.
ASPRS Foundation Award
