Allan Falconer, Peggy J. Harwood, Frank L. Scarpace and Bernard "Barney" Schur have been named the 2008 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 April at the ASPRS 2008 Annual Conference in Portland Oregon.
ALLAN FALCONER
Allan Falconer received his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees from the University of Durham in England. In May 2007, he completed 40 years as a professional geographer. He taught geography at six universities on three continents. Falconer served in industry, as an employee of Spectral Data Corporation (1978/84) under contract to USAID as Program Manager for the Regional Remote Sensing Facility in Nairobi, Kenya while with the EROS Data Center. He served as Head of the Department of Geography and Earth Resources and as Director of the RS/GIS Laboratories at Utah State University (1991-97). In November 1997, was appointed Executive Director of the Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative (MSCI). In August 2004 he was appointed to his current position of Professor and Chair of The Department of Geography at George Mason University.
Falconer worked on the early days of the ERTS A & B (Landsat) simulation program using aircraft and satellite data to study the hydrology of the Lake Ontario Basin. He used Landsat data for image mapping in Ontario and worked with quick-look data to map Eco-regions and monitor Arctic pipeline routes. He participated in a multi-disciplinary study of the harp seal using Landsat data to track the movement of ice in the St. Lawrence estuary. During this time, he was at the University of Guelph in Canada and served on the Canadian Advisory Committee on Remote Sensing and chaired its Geography Working Group. In Australia, he used Landsat data for many purposes including the mapping of functional Ecological units, defining habitat regions and analyzing agricultural production. In Nairobi, Kenya, under his supervision, more than 1,000 Eastern and Southern African scientists participated in training courses. Additionally this program created image maps of Swaziland and Lesotho and portions of Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. Image maps were used to provide the first surveys of land cover and forest reserves since independence in a number of East African countries.
At Utah State Falconer worked with USGS and ESRI on the GAP Analysis Project that had considerable influence on policy and adoption of COTS standards in these agencies; a huge benefit to all ASPRS industry and academic members. During the MSCI years, Falconer developed an industry cluster of 42 companies spending more than $70 million annually in the local economy of Southern Mississippi. The MSCI Education Program developed instructional modules for use in the schools (Grades 7-9) and a Geospatial Science module for graduation credit as an elective in Grades 10-12. The Technical and Community Colleges developed courses and Associates Degrees in Geospatial sciences. At George Mason he has grown the program to 76 majors and the graduate program has more than 100 active students.
As an active member of ASPRS for over 30 years, Falconer regularly participates in ASPRS conferences. He served as Director of the Remote Sensing Applications Division (1996-1998) and as a member of the Board of Directors (1996-98). He was elected to the Executive Committee and Chair of the Division Directors’ Committee and was twice nominated as a candidate for Vice-President of the Society by the nominating Committee. From 1998 to 2003 he served as the Chairman of the Education and Professional Development Committee. Falconer is the recipient of many awards, including the ASPRS Meritorious Service Award (1996, 1998).
PEGGY J. HARWOOD
Peggy Harwood currently serves as Planner for the Urban & Community Forestry Staff of the USDA Forest Service. Harwood earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Geological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and 1972 and a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University. She is also a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), National Defense University at Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C.
Harwood was associate director at the Council of State Planning Agencies (affiliated with the National Governors Association) responsible for compiling information and developing policy related to state GISs. At the Texas General Land Office in Austin, Texas, Harwood was a geologist, environmental planning program manager, and a principal investigator for a successful, two-year NASA-State of Texas investigation using Landsat data and applications inventorying and monitoring Texas coastal resources. While still in graduate school, she worked as a photogeologist for the Bureau of Economic Geology, completing the Texas Geologic Atlas Project, Texas Coastal Atlas, and completing the first land use and hurricane flood hazard maps of the upper coast.
She joined the Forest Service in 1989 as Geometronics Program Manager and has since held various program manager positions related to spatial planning in the National Forest System. Other federal positions included coordinating community-based planning for the BLM, and coordinating interagency activities for weather and land satellite programs in NOAA. She chaired an interagency working group to define roles and develop charters for lead agencies that would coordinate federal standards for such geospatial data as soils, vegetation, and transportation during transition to the FGDC. Harwood coordinated development of NOAA's first regulatory program for licensing U.S. private operators of remote sensing space systems. She was also executive officer for a Federal Advisory Committee and Assistant Secretary-level policy group established to advise the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA officials regarding transfer of Landsat & weather satellites to the private sector.
In addition, she has become active in various sustainable development initiatives, including development and delivery of a Green Infrastructure Training Program for the USDA. She has organized and given presentations at numerous workshops and technical sessions on green infrastructure at local and national conferences. She is also the co-leader for USDA's participation in the My Community, Our Earth partnership with the National Geographic Society, Association of American Geographers, ESRI and the UN Environmental Programme promoting geographic learning and problem solving among secondary school and university students worldwide.
Harwood joined ASPRS in 1976 and has served on the Board for the Texas-Louisiana and Potomac Regions. She was also President of the Potomac Region in 1991 as well as the Region's National Director for two terms serving on the ASPRS Board including five years on the Society’s Executive Committee. She also served as Director of the GIS Division. She has also been a member of the IGIF Board of Trustees, and was active in the Awards, Strategic Planning, Electronic Communications, and Division Directors' Committees.
FRANK L. SCARPACE
Frank Scarpace received his PhD in the field of physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is retired from the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Scarpace has been teaching and conducting research in the fields of remote sensing, image processing, and digital photogrammetry since 1972. He taught all of the advanced courses in remote sensing, image processing, algorithm development, and digital photogrammetry within the mapping science field at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as workshops for ASPRS. He has been an ASPRS member since 1991.
With more than 130 published articles and papers, Scarpace is also the author of numerous software programs involving image processing and digital photogrammetry. A number of his current research grants involve using softcopy photogrammetry to produce digital orthophotographs and high resolution (6 inch) DEMs, developing digital photogrammetric techniques to measure shoreline erosion, and applying digital photogrammetry to problems of concern within industrial applications. The National Digital Orthomapping Program is a result of his research work. Other current research includes use of neural networks and fuzzy logic for image classification, the use of wavelet transforms for image compression, developing methods of geometrically correcting multispectral scanners, and improved multilevel matching for softcopy photogrammetric applications.
BERNARD "BARNEY" SCHUR
Bernard "Barney" Schur has been with AERO-METRIC, INC. since its inception in 1969. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the AERO-METRIC companies which include AeroMap, Anchorage, Alaska, Walker and Associates, Seattle, Washington; Aero-Metric, Fort Collins, Colorado; Mark Hurd, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and, Air Survey, Dulles, Virginia. His experience includes the organization and management of major domestic and foreign survey and mapping projects. His business association includes governmental contracting agencies, utility companies and the private engineering community.
Schur has more than 40 years of photogrammetric experience in private industry. He began his career in photogrammetry in 1959 at Chicago Aerial Survey (CAS) as a field surveyor and then as a cartographic draftsman. He served in the U.S. Army from 1963 - 65 after which, he returned to his position at Chicago Aerial Survey and took on the responsibility for managing the cartographic drafting department. Near the end of 1969, Aero-Metric Inc. was incorporated and Schur became one of the original start-up employees of a new company. Within a few years, he became a principal in the company and also the marketing manager. He was elevated to corporate president and director in 1998.
He has served ASPRS as sub-committee chair of the photogrammetry review panel of the Evaluation for Certification Committee, for which he received ASPRS Merit Awards in 1994 and 1998. In 1995, he received the ASPRS Meritorious Service Award and in 2003 the Outstanding Service Award. He is the Past President, Vice President and Director of the former Wisconsin Chapter ASPRS. He also served as a Director for the Management Association Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS). He served briefly on the Board of Trustees for the ASPRS Foundation, and is a Certified Photogrammetrist and a Registered Land Surveyor (Photogrammetry) in North and South Carolina.
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.