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 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.

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.

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.

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.