ASPRS is pleased to announce the winners of several prestigious awards that were presented recently at its 2005 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland to four very deserving students and others working in the fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing.  These awards are given to top scholars who are making valuable contributions to the industry and who show great potential to be the industry leaders in years to come. Awards are funded by the individual companies or by contributions made through the ASPRS Foundation, Inc.

William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship Award
The William A. Fischer Memorial Scholarship Award committee chose Matthew David Dunbar as this year’s winner.  Dunbar is currently a PhD student in the Department of Geography at the University of Kansas.  This award was presented in recognition of his significant academic credentials and his very impressive record of research and publications in remote sensing and geovisulization.
The William A. Fischer Scholarship facilitates graduate studies and career goals of a worthy student adjudged to address new and innovative uses of remote sensing data and techniques that relate to the natural, cultural, or agricultural resources of the Earth.  It was established in 1984 and is supported by individual and corporate contributions in memory of William A. Fisher.  This scholarship consists of a $2,000 cash prize and a hand-engrossed certificate.
 
2005 Ta Liang Memorial Award
This year’s Ta Liang Memorial Award Committee received many applications from well-qualified students.  In spite of a relatively large pool of well-qualified applicants this year, Matthew David Dunbar stood out as the clear choice.  Dunbar’s research activity has to do with 3-D visualization of remote sensing data with an emphasis on mapping precision and data analysis.  The processes which he developed as a master’s student are innovative and striking in their value.  He will use this award to defray travel expenses to the International Conference of Ecology in Montreal where he is an invited speaker.
The Ta Liang Memorial Award was established in 1989 to facilitate research related travel by outstanding graduate students in remote sensing. This award consists of a $500 cash prize and a hand-engrossed certificate.

Robert E. Altenhofen Memorial Scholarship Award
Eva Paska received the 2005 Robert E. Altenhofen Memorial Scholarship Award. She is a doctoral candidate at the Ohio State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science with a study of photogrammetry and remote sensing.  She has a strong background in photogrammetry and geodesy. Paska has an extensive list of conference publications. She is planning to continue studies in the field.
First given in 1986, the Robert E. Altenhofen Memorial Scholarship is intended to encourage and commend college students who display exceptional interest and ability in the theoretical aspects of photogrammetry.  The Altenhofen Scholarship, donated by the late Robert E. Altenhofen and Family, consists of a cash prize of $2,000 and a hand-engrossed certificate.

Space Imaging Award for Application of High Resolution Digital Satellite Imagery
Candace Newman was selected as this year’s winner of the Space Imaging Award for Application of High Resolution Digital Satellite Imagery Award.  Newman is a PhD student specializing in remote sensing at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.  Her research is directed at an IKONOS image acquired in 2001 to complete a study of changes in biological subsurface substrates, focusing on coral and seagrass, in Bunaken National Park, Indonesia.
This award supports remote sensing education and stimulates the development of applications of satellite imagery data through the granting of such data for applied research by undergraduate or graduate students.  This award was established by Space Imaging, Inc. in 1991.

Leica GeoSystems Internship
Nora Csanyi is the 2005 Leica GeoSystems Internship award winner.  She is a doctoral candidate at Ohio State University, Center for Mapping with a study in photogrammetry and remote sensing.  She has a strong background in theoretical and mathematical photogrammetry and an excellent grade-point average from Ohio State as well as the University of Budapest.
The Leica GeoSystems Internship is eight-weeks in duration for graduate students in photogrammetry.  The awardee works with Leica GeoSystems personnel at a selected facility and receives a $2,500 stipend plus an allowance for travel and living expenses for the period of the internship.

BAE Systems Award
Nora Csanyi, the lead author for the paper, “Improvement of Lidar Data Accuracy Using Lidar Specific Ground Targets,” received the BAE Systems Award at the 2005 Annual ASPRS Conference in Baltimore.  This is the first time the award, created by BAE Systems, was given.  Csanyi is with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science Center for Mapping, The Ohio State University. 
Csanyi’s paper dealt with engineering scale mapping of highway corridors that frequently require extremely high accuracy.  Lidar technology offers an excellent tool to accomplish this task; lidar systems are complex multi-sensory systems, incorporating GPS and INS navigation sensors, and the laser-scanning device. The high complexity of the system, however, results potential error sources that can degrade the accuracy of the acquired Lidar data. One way to achieve the high accuracy required by engineering scale mapping is using well-identifiable lidar-specific ground control targets. This paper is a continuation of a former paper titled “On the Use of Lidar Specific Ground Targets” presented at the ASPRS Conference in Denver, 2004, where design of the optimal lidar targets, including shape, size, and signal response was discussed and some initial, limited experiences were presented. Since then, additional tests were performed to further investigate the potential of using control targets for lidar data refinement. This paper provides a detailed performance analysis, investigating the achievable lidar data accuracy improvement using lidar-specific ground control targets.
The BAE Systems award was created to reward top quality research and publication by young students (under age 35 as of the application deadline) at the master’s or doctoral level and to encourage researchers to use the ASPRS annual conference as a vehicle to publish and present their findings.  The recipient’s paper will be published in Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing (PE&RS), the official journal of ASPRS.  This award is presented by the ASPRS Foundation with funding provided by BAE Systems. The award consists of a hand-engrossed certificate and a grant of $2,000.

Kenneth J. Osborn Memorial Scholarship
Rachel Ruppel was named as the first recipient of the Kenneth J. Osborn Memorial Scholarship during the ASPRS 2005 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, March 7-11.
Ruppel is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.  She is specializing in environmental mapping and information and in wetlands ecosystems.  Her references indicated extremely strong support for her candidacy and her paper was strong, indicating exceptional potential for an undergraduate. 
Ruppel plans to graduate in June 2005 and pursue a graduate degree after several years of work experience in the environmental field. 
The Kenneth J. Osborn Memorial Scholarship was established in 2004. The purpose of the scholarship is to encourage and commend college students who display exceptional interest, desire, ability, and aptitude to enter the profession of surveying, mapping, photogrammetry, or geospatial information and technology.  In addition, the Scholarship recognizes students who excel at an aspect of the profession that Osborn demonstrated so very well, that of communications and collaboration.
This annual scholarship consists of a plaque and a check in the amount of $500 and a one year student membership (new or renewal) in ASPRS.   The Scholarship is made to an undergraduate student currently enrolled or intending to enroll in a college or university in the United States, who is pursuing a program of study in preparation for entering the profession in the general area of surveying, mapping, photogrammetry, or geospatial information and technology. 
 
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.