September 7, 2006 (PARK RIDGE, IL) – The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) established the GIS Hall of Fame in 2005 to recognize and honor the most esteemed leaders of the geospatial community. To be considered for the GIS Hall of Fame, an individual’s or an organization’s record of contribution to the advancement of the industry demonstrates creative thinking and actions, vision and innovation, inspiring leadership, perseverance, and community mindedness. In addition, nominees must serve as a role model for those who follow. URISA Hall of Fame Laureates are individuals or organizations whose pioneering work has moved the geospatial industry in a better, stronger direction. The first class of inductees included Edgar Horwood, Ian McHarg, Roger Tomlinson, Jack Dangermond, Nancy Tosta, and the Harvard Lab.
Gary Hunter will join this esteemed group during the Opening Ceremony at URISA’s 44th Annual Conference in Vancouver, BC, later this month.
Gary Hunter has led the world in recognizing and managing uncertainty in spatial data. He has helped us understand how to use non-perfect data in making good decisions. Such work is a major component of his 136 publications. Among these are three papers that won URISA’s Horwood Critique Prize for the best proceedings paper. No other person has won this covetted prize more than once, except his co-author on two of these papers. He also has one runner-up paper.
• 1999 New Tools for Handling Spatial Data Quality: Moving from Academic Concepts to Reality.
• 1995 A New Model for Handling Vector Data Uncertainty in Geographic Information Systems (with MF Goodchild).
• 1993 Managing Uncertainty in Spatial Databases: Putting Theory into Practice (with MF Goodchild).
• 1992 (runnerup) Techniques for Assessing the Impace of Processing Erors in Spatial Databases.
Gary has been actively developing interest and expertise in colleagues around the world on spatial data accuracy and related issues. He has helped organize over three dozen international conferences. He has participated in 19 international meetings in a dozen countries, often as the keynote speaker. He has been a visiting scholar to the NCGIA at UC-Santa Barbara and the Center for Geo-Information at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Gary Hunter also has been instrumental in shaping the face of GIS education and guiding the development of future GIS professionals in Australia. His career has spanned more than 30 years, and has been focused in the fields of Surveying and GIS. For almost twenty of those years he has made an impact on the lives of university students. He has done significant work in the use of web, computer-based, and multimedia tools for teaching GIS. He has published papers and won awards for thise work. His interest in education extends beyone college students; he led the development of the GIS in Schools competition.
Gary been active within URISA and AURISA (now part of SSI), and served as the President of AURISA in 1996. His tenure with AURISA he added new publications and workshops that brought new intellectural and financial strength to that organization. He won the Gerald McCalden Prize for best paper at two AURISA conferences,.. Gary has served on the Editorial Boards of several Journals (section editor for theURISA Journal since 2000), and as a Manuscript Reviewer for numerous publications; most recently Gary served as the editor on the two editions of the URISA Journal on Exemplary Systems in Government. Gary has also served as a jury member for the URISA ESIG and URISA Horwood Critique prize panels.
Gary Hunter is Associate Professor and Reader in the Department of Geomatics at the University Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Surveying degree, a Masters of Surveying Science, and a PhD from the University of Melbourne.. He has also acted as a consultant to industry of the implementation and use of GIS technologies in a wide variety of subject areas.. He is currently supervising, and has successfully supervised, over two dozen post-graduate students.
And it what little spare time Gary has left, you can find him playing the guitar, sea kayaking or oil painting.
For more information, contact URISA at 847/824-6300.