The seventh annual Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards, held at the gala dinner during spatial@gov 2010 conference in Canberra, celebrated the pinnacle of success for the spatial industry.
The awards are hosted jointly by the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute and the Spatial Industries Business Association. These awards continue to provide an opportunity for the industry to focus on the excellence of individuals and organisations throughout the region.
Awards to individuals
For awards to organisations please see separate article.
Spatial Professional of the Year: James Curnow
Throughout his career, Jim Curnow has worked energetically and enthusiastically for the profession and is held in high esteem by his peers throughout Australia. He continues to be a leader within the surveying profession by flying the surveying flag within allied professional groups.
Young Spatial Professional of the Year: Chris McAlister
Since 2004, Chris has been involved with SSI/SSSI. She is the current chair of the SSSI Queensland Young Professionals, and her previous roles have included University coordinator and Secretariat. Chris is also a member of the Queensland Regional Committee and the Queensland representative to the National Executive Council. She ably represented Australia as a Young Ambassador for FIG. Chris is a highly valued member of each of these committees.
Spatial Student Award – Undergraduate: Alice Baker
Alice won this award for her study to investigate the potential of the HyLogger core scanner for characterisation of soil profiles using spectral methods.
Spatial Student Award – Postgraduate: Dorothy Turner
Dorothy’s winning project provided an objective continental perspective of fire regimes across Australia’s arid and semi-arid regions for the period 1998-2004.
SIBA Chairman’s Award: Jack de Lange
Jack is the driving force behind SIBA’s commitment to gathering and disseminating industry statistics and he is the brains behind the highly valued SIBA Tender Alert service. Jack’s peers appreciate him as a person, a professional and a friend. SIBA is proud to call Jack an integral part of its team and is honoured that Jack has chosen to put his energy and talent into building SIBA and the spatial sector.
SSSI President’s Award: Paul Harcombe and Mark Gordon, joint winners
Paul Harcombe was the conference convenor for FIG2010 and established the Young Ambassadors program to promote it. Paul is to be congratulated on delivering a world-class conference, the largest seen by FIG to date.
Mark Gordon was the administration director for the FIG conference. His efforts ensured a smooth-running and professional conference, including directing the Young Ambassadors and student helpers.
Professional Eminence & Excellence in Spatial Sciences Award: Stuart Nixon
Stuart is the inventor of the ECW image format. Thanks to Stuart and his company NearMap, all users can now reliably monitor changes to the built environment in all five major Australian cities and suburbs on a monthly basis from their office with a high degree of confidence.
Excellence in Education and Professional Development: Shane Simmons
Shane has had a long career in the University of Southern Queensland, achieving the greatest number of enrolments in surveying programs of all Australian universities. Shane is currently the program coordinator and senior lecturer for the Surveying and Spatial Science Discipline of the Faculty of Engineering at USQ.
Service to the Spatial Community Award: Douglas White
Doug White, over a career spanning more than 40 years, has exemplified the notion of professionalism and service to the spatial community. He has consistently taken on the jobs that needed to be done as opposed to those that might bring him personal recognition and rewards. Doug has earned the award of Service to the Spatial Community many times over.
