Hexagon Announces Carl Pulfrich Award 2013 Goes to Prof. Dr. Nicholas Coops and Prof. Dr. Norbert Haala

by | Sep 11, 2013

Heerbrugg, Switzerland/Stuttgart, Germany, Sept. 9, 2013”Hexagon, the parent company of Leica Geosystems and Z/I Imaging, is very pleased to announce that the Carl Pulfrich Award 2013 has been awarded to Prof. Dr. Nicholas C. Coops, Vancouver, and Prof. Dr. Norbert Haala, Stuttgart. Professor Coops has made outstanding contributions to solve  mapping problem in biodiversity, especially in using remote sensing technologies for vegetation growth and canopy characterization. Professor Haala has made huge impacts to further develop photogrammetric restitutions, in particular in the areas of 3D City Modelling, Dense Image Matching and the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). The  Carl Pulfrich  Award  is  a  prestigious  award  for  recognizing  cutting-edge  innovations and developments in geodesy, photogrammetry and the Earth sciences.

The academic Earth imaging community was encouraged to submit nominations for the biennial award. Nominees were considered on the basis of experience, activities in field of photogrammetry and remote sensing, and contributions to the advancement of all aspects of the earth imaging field. Applied work involving hardware systems, software solutions, or innovative service activities were considered as well.

The ten internationally renowned members of the award committee 2013 had to select the winner of the Carl Pulfrich Award 2013 from seven incoming nominations. All jurors came to the conclusions to honour two awardees for this year's award: Prof. Dr. Nicholas C. Coops, Vancouver, and Prof. Dr. Norbert Haala, Stuttgart.

Prof. Dr. Nicholas C. Coops: Outstanding Contributions to Biodiversity Mapping
Prof. Dr. Nicholas C. Coops is Professor for Remote Sensing at the Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing, since 2004. His contributions are worldwide acknowledged and cited. Also his continuous commitment to his PhD students is exemplary. After being informed about this award he said: I am very honored. I have known of this award for many years and have heard to the work of Dr. Pulfrich. It is great honour to be awarded with this award.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Haala: Developments in the Areas of 3D City Modeling and Dense Image Matching
Prof. Dr. Norbert Haala is Associate professor at the Institute for Photogrammetry, University of Stuttgart, since 2009. His scientific work in the area of 3D photogrammetric restitution is worldwide acknowledged, since many years. He is a popular supervisor of Bachelor's and Master's theses at his university. When he got notice to become awarded, he replied: I am very pleased that the jury has selected me as an awardee for the Carl Pulfrich Award. This is even more motivation to contribute hopefully good work in future.

Appreciation of the Performances by the Jury
The Chairman of the Jury 2013, Prof. Dr. Dieter Fritsch, complements: The scientific contributions of Professor Coops in the areas of Remote Sensing and LiDAR to map vegetation growth and canopies in forests are remarkable. He delivers an outstanding contribution for biodiversity monitoring. Professor  Haala did excellent work in the areas of 3D City Modeling and has made detailed studies in Dense Image Matching. Most recently, he showed successfully that RPAS image blocks can be used for photogrammetric restitution.

The eulogy will be given by Prof. Dr. Dieter Fritsch, internationally renowned scientist in the fields of photogrammetry, remote sensing and geoinformatics, Director of the Institute for Photogrammetry, University of Stuttgart and Organizer of The Photogrammetric Week Series; the award as a certificate and a transfer of US$ 3.7500 each is given to the laureates by Dr. Jürgen Dold, President Hexagon Geosystems.

The Carl Pulfrich Award Ceremony 2013 will take place during the 54th Photogrammetric Week on Wednesday, Sept. 11th, 2013, University of Stuttgart.

For more detailed information on the 2013 Carl Pulfrich Award visit http://www.leica-geosystems.com/carlpulfrichaward

Detailed information and the programme of the 54th Photogrammetric Week 2013 at: http://www.ifp.uni-stuttgart.de/phowo/index.en.html .

About the Carl Pulfrich Award
The biennial award and donation is intended to honor the memory of Dr. Carl Pulfrich, a member of the scientific staff at Carl Zeiss from 1890 to 1927, during which time he directed the design of the first stereo photogrammetric and surveying instruments from Zeiss.

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