[OSGeo-Announce] Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software - Call for Nominations

[Jorge Sanz]

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to open nominations for 
the 2024 Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software.

The Sol Katz Award for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial 
(FOSS4G) will be given to individuals who have demonstrated leadership 
in the FOSS4G community. Recipients of the award will have contributed 
significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals in 
the geospatial realm.

Solomon 'Sol' Katz was an early pioneer of FOSS4G and left behind a 
large body of work in the form of applications, format specifications, 
and utilities while at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. This early 
FOSS4G archive provided both source code and applications freely 
available to the community. Sol was also a frequent contributor to many 
geospatial list servers, providing much guidance to the geospatial 
community at large.

Sol unfortunately passed away in 1999 from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but 
his legacy lives on in the open source world. Those interested in making 
a donation to the American Cancer Society, as per Sol's family's 
request, can do so at https://donate.cancer.org .

Nominations for the Sol Katz Award should be sent to solkatzaward at 
lists dot osgeo dot org with a description of the reasons for this 
nomination (after sending, please wait for the moderator to accept your 
message). Nominations will be accepted until end-of-day 4th October 
Anywhere on Earth. A recipient will be decided from the nomination list 
by the OSGeo selection committee.

The winner of the Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source 
Software will be announced virtually during the FOSS4G 2024 event in 
Belém, Brasil. The hope is that the award will both acknowledge the work 
of community members, and pay tribute to one of its founders, for years 
to come.

It should be noted that past awardees and selection committee members 
are not eligible.

Past Awardees:

  2023: Howard Butler
  2022: Sandro Santilli
  2021: Malena Libman
  2020: Anita Graser
  2019: Even Rouault
  2018: Astrid Emde
  2017: Andrea Aime
  2016: Jeff McKenna
  2015: Maria Brovelli
  2014: Gary Sherman
  2013: Arnulf Christl
  2012: Venkatesh Raghavan
  2011: Martin Davis
  2010: Helena Mitasova
  2009: Daniel Morissette
  2008: Paul Ramsey
  2007: Steve Lime
  2006: Markus Neteler
  2005: Frank Warmerdam

Selection Committee 2024:

     Jeff McKenna (chair)
     Frank Warmerdam
     Markus Neteler
     Steve Lime
     Paul Ramsey
     Sophia Parafina
     Daniel Morissette
     Helena Mitasova
     Martin Davis
     Venkatesh Raghavan
     Arnulf Christl
     Gary Sherman
     Maria Brovelli
     Andrea Aime
     Astrid Emde
     Even Rouault
     Anita Graser
     Ariel Anthieni
     Sandro Santilli
     Howard Butler