Award recognizes remote sensing contributions

A leading developer of geographic information software is recognizing Mississippi State's role in establishing remote sensing technology in the state.

The Environmental Systems Research Institute selected the university from more than 200,000 international users for its 1999 Special Achievement in Geographic Information Services Award. The company presented the honor at its recent user conference.

Based in Redlands, Calif., ESRI produces GIS software, mapping components and spatial database management tools.

"I believe Mississippi State's work will be inspirational in leading the world into the next millennium," said company president Jack Dangermond in making the presentation.

Dangermond also praised the university's leadership in organizing what has become one of the most comprehensive statewide site licenses for ESRI software and in establishing an organizational model for several GIS-related user groups. Additionally cited were major MSU contributions to the first large-scale effort to catalyze the commercial remote sensing industry.

Once limited to government space programs, GIS software now is finding ever-expanding commercial applications in agricultural planning, natural resource and infrastructure management and local government planning, among other areas.

The state's cooperative license agreement is funded by the Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative on behalf of the state Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning. A joint project of the state, its research universities and NASA, MSCI makes GIS software available to all eight state universities and 15 community colleges.

Mississippi State sociology professor Frank Howell serves jointly as coordinator of the university's MSCI effort and administrator of the IHL's statewide software licensing program.

Recently, Howell also became chair of a steering committee for the new Mississippi Spatial Technology User Consortium, an umbrella organization of users of remote sensing and related software technologies.

"The ESRI award is a signal event recognizing the hard work over the past year by Dr. Howell and the rest of the Mississippi State site," said MSCI executive director Alan Falconer.

Howell, who holds master's and doctoral degrees from Mississippi State, is a research scientist in social and economic development at the university's Social Science Research Center.