ASPRS 2013 Fellows Named

George Y. Lee and Charles Mondello have been named the 2013 ASPRS Fellow Award winners.  The ASPRS designation of Fellow is conferred on active Society members who have performed exceptional service in advancing the science and use of the mapping sciences (photogrammetry remote sensing surveying geographic information systems and related disciplines). 

The designation of Fellow is awarded for professional excellence and for service to the Society. Candidates are nominated by other active members recommended to the Fellows Committee and elected by the ASPRS Board of Directors. Up to 0.3 percent of the Society’s active members may be elected as Fellows in any one year.  The nominees must have made outstanding contributions in a recognized Society specialization whether in practice research development administration or education in the mapping sciences. Members of the Fellows Committee and the Executive Committee are ineligible for nomination.  The awards will be given next March at the ASPRS 2013 Annual Conference in Baltimore Maryland.

Clifford W. Greve and Vincent V. Salomonson Selected as ASPRS Honorary Members

Clifford W. Greve and Vincent V. Salomonson have been selected as the next Honorary Members of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).  Their nominations were recently approved by the ASPRS Board of Directors. This is the highest award bestowed by ASPRS and there can be only 25 living Honorary Members of the Society at any given time.  

Initiated in 1937 this life-time award is given for professional excellence in recognition of individuals who have rendered distinguished service to ASPRS and/or who have attained distinction in advancing the science and use of the geospatial information sciences.  Greve and Salomonson will receive their awards at the ASPRS 2012 Annual Conference in Baltimore Maryland.

MAPPS/ASPRS to hold 2012 Joint Specialty Conference on Emerging Mapping and Geospatial Technologies

Online registration is now open for the joint MAPPS/ASPRS 2012 Specialty Conference to be held October 29 through November 1 2012 in Tampa Florida.  This year’s conference theme “Ground to Cloud (R)Evolution – Emerging Technologies Supporting Geospatial Application,” will focus on the “(R)Evolution” of this dynamic technology through geospatial applications such as lidar (airborne ground based Flash and Waveform) Visualization and Modeling Data fusion/integration 3D GIS and the integration of GIS and BIM technologies. We will also touch on many aspects of digital elevation mapping with a special emphasis on the use of cloud based computing and the implications of using Software as a Service (SaaS) Platforms as a Service (PaasS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on the geospatial enterprise.

ASPRS ANNOUNCES 2012 AWARD WINNERS

Dean W. Merchant Winner of Photogrammetric Award

The Photogrammetric Award (Fairchild) was awarded to Dean W. Merchant PhD PE. at the 2012 Annual ASPRS Conference in Sacramento in March.  This award the essence of which is practicability is designed to stimulate the development of the art of aerial photogrammetry 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 aerial photogrammetry; any outstanding method developed for the general use of aerial photographs and/or imagery; outstanding research for study along aerial photogrammetric lines and outstanding effort for the general advancement of the art of photogrammetry.  Lockheed Martin donates funding for the award which consists of a silver presentation plaque.

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Stewart Walker Elected as ASPRS Vice President; Matthew Dunbar Robert Thomas Stuart Blundell Christopher Parrish and Michael Zoltek Elected as Assistant Division Directors

walker_2The results of the 2012 election have been tallied by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Tellers Committee and they reported that Stewart Walker Director – Product Initiatives for the Geospatial eXploitation Products business area of BAE Systems in San Diego California won the election to become ASPRS Vice President for 2012.  With the installation of officers at the ASPRS Annual Conference in March Roberta (Bobbi) Lenczowski moves into the position of President; Stephen D. DeGloria becomes President-Elect and Gary Florence becomes Past President.

ASPRS Approves Resolution on U.S. Imaging Program

By a unanimous vote of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Board of Directors the Society has issued a third resolution calling for immediate support and funding for the continuation of the Nation’s moderate resolution imaging program.  Due to a technical failure in the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument on-board the Landsat 7 spacecraft in May 2003 and the recent decline of the Landsat 5 spacecraft the continued collection of useful moderate-resolution multispectral remote sensing data is now jeopardized. 

2012 ASPRS FELLOW AWARD WINNERS

Kari J. Craun and Herbert W. Stoughton have been named the 2012 ASPRS Fellow Award winners.  The ASPRS designation of Fellow is conferred on active Society members who have performed excep¬tional service in advancing the science and use of the mapping sciences (photogrammetry remote sensing surveying geographic information systems and related disciplines).  The designation of Fellow is awarded for pro¬fessional excellence and for service to the Society. Candidates are nominated by other active members recommended to the Fellows Committee and elected by the ASPRS Board of Directors. Up to 0.3 percent of the Society’s active members may be elected as Fellows in any one year.  The nominees must have made outstanding contributions in a recognized Society specialization whether in practice research development administration or education in the mapping sciences. Members of the Fellows Committee and the Executive Committee are ineligible for nomination.  This year’s awards will be given in March at the ASPRS 2012 Annual Conference in Sacramento California.

ASPRS Announces Dr. Franz Leberl as the Winner of the 2012 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) announced today that Dr. Franz Leberl will be the first recipient of the newly created ASPRS Outstanding Technical Achievement Award (OTAA).   Leberl founder of Vexcel Corporation in Boulder (Colorado 1985) and Vexcel Imaging GmbH (Austria 1993 manufacturer of the UltraCam Digital Large Format Aerial Camera) was selected in recognition of his contribution to the development of the UltraCam large format digital aerial camera.

ASPRS Survey Finds Hiring in the Geospatial Industry Continues

Despite an 8.6% unemployment rate in the U.S. it has been determined that at least 57% of the Sustaining Member organizations of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) are currently hiring for jobs within the geospatial industry.

ASPRS recently conducted a survey of 129 ASPRS Sustaining Member career websites and determined that in the month of November at least 73 ASPRS Sustaining Member companies/agencies had job postings on their websites that consisted of positions ranging from entry-level jobs to high-level executive positions.

LAS 1.4 Draft Specification Released by ASPRS

The LAS Working Group (LWG) of the ASPRS Lidar Division is pleased to submit the draft proposal for version 1.4 of the LAS specification for comment. An annotated version of the LAS 1.4 proposal showing changes from the LAS 1.3 specification is also available.

Individuals are invited to review the draft specification and submit comments to LAS@asprs.org. The review cycle lasts for 60 calendar days and will expire October 22 2011. During the cycle the LWG will consider all input received and incorporate changes that impact the intent of the revision.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

ASPRS SERVERS WILL BE OFFLINE FOR MAINTANANCE The ASPRS servers will be temporarily offline for maintenance for 24-36 hours beginning at 3:30 pm Eastern Time on Friday October 21st.  This …

Draft Guidelines for the Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Products Released for Comment

ASPRS has released draft “Guidelines for Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Mapping Products”. The material is considered DRAFT FOR REVIEW and is being published at this time to encourage wide dissemination and comment.

A draft copy of the “Guidelines for Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Products” is available online at https://www.asprs.org/a/society/divisions/ppd/products/CGPG_public_review_draft_1.doc and appears in the June 2011 issue of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS).  Interested parties are encouraged to submit comments by email to guidelines@asprs.org no later than January 15 2012. The current plan is to review all comments and finalize the document for ASPRS Board approval at its March 23 2012 meeting.

ASPRS Encourages Adoption of the National Land Imaging Program

ASPRS is working actively to support establishment of the National Land Imaging Program (NLIP) a long-range operational moderate resolution imaging program.  For the past several years ASPRS has strongly supported the NLIP strategy through continuing communication with the Administration and Congress and fully endorses its immediate implementation.

It is important that all ASPRS members speak up on this issue.  Therefore we are encouraging you as a member of ASPRS to contact your congressional representatives in order to inform and educate them on the need to assure the continuous long-term operation of the Nation’s moderate resolution land remote sensing satellites. 

Draft Guidelines for the Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Products Released for Second Round of Comments

ASPRS has released a second draft of the “Guidelines for Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Mapping Products.” The material is updated from the April 2011 version.  The document is considered DRAFT FOR REVIEW and is being published at this time to encourage wide dissemination and comment.

A draft copy of the “Guidelines for Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Products” is available online at: https://www.asprs.org/a/society/divisions/ppd/products/CGPG_public_review_draft_2.doc.  Interested parties are encouraged to submit comments by email to Product_Guidelines@asprs.org no later than February 20 2012. The current plan is to review all comments and finalize the document for ASPRS Board approval at its March 23 2012 meeting.

ASPRS Board Approves Formation of Lidar Division

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Board of Directors approved the formation of a Lidar Division at its Board meeting in Milwaukee Wisconsin on Thursday May 5. Lewis Graham CEO of GeoCue Group was appointed Interim Division Director until a national election for this position is held in late 2011. The new division would subsume the current ASPRS Airborne and Mobile Lidar subcommittees (retaining them as subcommittees within the Lidar Division) and have a top level link on the ASPRS web site.

ASPRS Launches Revised Website

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) launched a new version of its website last week during the 2011 Annual Conference in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The site has been completely overhauled and now uses an Open Source Content Management System (CMS) along with an iMIS membership database to serve materials on the site. The new site was streamlined to cut down on repetition and tested to ensure that popular information was well labeled and easy to find.

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DeGloria Elected as ASPRS Vice President

DeGloriaThe results of the 2011 election have been tallied by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Tellers Committee and they reported that Stephen D. DeGloria a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca New York won the election to become ASPRS Vice President for 2011.With the installation of officers at the ASPRS Annual Conference in May Gary Florence moves into the position of President; Roberta (Bobbi) Lenczowski becomes President-Elect and Carolyn Merry becomes Past President.