ASPRS Announces 2012 Award Winners

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.

One of the pioneers in incorporating GPS with photogrammetric cameras, Merchant was awarded the Photogrammetric (Fairchild) Award for his activity in the in-situ calibration of GPS-assisted photogrammetric systems as well as other excellent and far reaching achievements. Merchant has been Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University since 1988.

Additional awards made during the ASPRS 78th Annual Conference and administered by the ASPRS Foundation were:

Robert N. Colwell Memorial Fellowship
Winner: Meghan Graham MacLean, PhD candidate in Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science-Remote Sensing/GIS at the University of New Hampshire

Boeing Award for Best Paper in Image Analysis and Interpretation
Winners: Joe Fortier, John Rogan, Curtis E. Woodcock, and Daniel Miller Runfola for “Utilizing Temporally Invariant Calibration Sites to Classify Multiple Dates and Types of Satellite Imagery,” PE&RS, 77 (2), 181–189.

John I. Davidson President’s Award for Practical Papers
First Place Winners: Kass Green, Mark Tukman, and Mark Finkbeiner, for “Comparison of DMC, UltraCam, and ADS40 Imagery for Benthic Habitat and Propeller Scar Mapping.” PE&RS, 77 (6), 589-599.

ERDAS Award for Best Scientific Paper in Remote Sensing
First Place Winners: Jungho Im, Zhenyu Lu, and John R. Jensen for “A Genetic Algorithm Approach to Moving Threshold Optimization for Binary Change Detection,” PE&RS, 77 (2), 167–180.

ESRI Award for Best Scientific Paper in GIS
First Place Winners: Fayek A. Farag, Christopher M.U. Neale, Roger K. Kjelgren, and Joanna Endter-Wada for "Quantifying Urban Landscape Water Conservation Potential Using High Resolution Remote Sensing and GIS," PE&RS, 77 (11), 1113-1122.

Talbert Abrams Award
Grand Award Winners: Christopher E. Parrish, Inseong Jeong, Robert D. Nowak, and R. Brent Smith for "Empirical Comparison of Full-Waveform Lidar Algorithms: Range Extraction and Discrimination Performance," PE&RS, 77 (8), 825-838.

William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Baojun Zheng, PhD student in the Department of Geography at the Virginia Tech University

Robert E. Altenhofen Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Ivan D. Detchev, doctoral candidate at the University of Calgary, Canada, Department of Geomatics Engineering

Ta Liang Memorial Award
Winner: Matthew Fagan, a PhD student in Environmental Biology at Columbia University, New York

Abraham Anson Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Bradley Scott Henning, South Dakota State University (SDSU), Brookings, South Dakota

John O. Behrens Institute for Land Information Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Tiffany Tatum, California State University, Fresno

Kenneth J. Osborn Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Andreas Torsvik, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Geomatics Engineering from the California State University at Fresno

GeoEye Award
Winner: Katie Ann Corcoran, PhD student in Biological Anthropology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville

Z/I Imaging Award
Winner: Jacky Chow, pursuing his PhD in Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada

International Educational Literature Award (IELA)
Winner: Mzuzu University, Department of Land Management, Mzuzu, Malawi

Francis H. Moffitt Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Ana Paula Baungarten Kersting, a PhD student in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada

Paul R. Wolf Memorial Scholarship
Winner: Allan Ng, a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering-Geotechnical Engineering at the University of California-Los Angeles

BAE Systems Award
Winner: Nima Pahlevan, PhD Candidate, Rochester Institute of Technology for “Integrating Landsat-7 Imagery with Physics-based Models for Quantitative Mapping of Coastal Waters near River Discharges”

Ford Barlett Membership Award
Recipients: Steven P. Lennartz

Outstanding Workshop Instructor Award
Winner: Qassim Abdullah

Conference Management Awards
Recipients: Conference Co-Directors, Alan Mikuni and George Hepner and Conference Technical Program Co-Directors Maggi Kelly and Ryan Jensen

Presidential Citations
Recipients: Lewis Graham, Bobbi Lenczowski, Ekaterina Fitos, Devin Bourland, Thomas Holm, Brian Murphy, Kim Tilley, Carolyn Merry, Matthew Austin, Russell Congalton, Jeanie Congalton, Rae Kelley, Dave Kreighbaum, Jerry Lenczowski, Naresh Pai, James Plasker, Heather Staverman

Complete information on all of the above awards can be found at http://digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/publication/?i=103484&p=9.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 6,000 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.

Founded in 1979, The ASPRS Foundation, Inc. is an independent 501 (c) 3 organization established to provide grants, scholarships, loans and other forms of aid to individuals or organizations pursuing knowledge of imaging and geospatial information science and technology, and their applications across the scientific, governmental, and commercial sectors. The Foundation is the primary funding source for all non-sponsored awards and scholarships recognized by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.