[OSGeo-Discuss] Nomination for Venkatesh Raghavan

[Jeff McKenna]

I have the honor of nominating Venkatesh Raghavan[1] for the 2012 Sol
Katz Award.  I would classify Venka as the “builder” of all things
FOSS4G.  It was Venka who created the term “FOSS4G” back in 2004, using
it as the name of an international event in Thailand, and since then he
has promoted Free and Open Source Software for Geomatics all around the
world.

Venka has also been directly involved in OSGeo since its inception, in
fact he was on the first OSGeo Board of Directors from 2006 to 2007.  He
is still very active on the Board mailing list, and often shares his
broad experience with the OSGeo Board members.

A professor at Osaka City University in Japan, Venka constantly
encourages his students to leverage FOSS4G in all of their research.
His students and research teams have improved FOSS software with
international character support and translations for projects such as
MapServer, GRASS, and QuantumGIS.

Venka actively travels around the world promoting FOSS4G, and works
closely with various international event committees each year for such
events as GIS-IDEAS in Vietnam, FOSS4G-Japan, and FOSS4G-India.  In 2010
Venka was awarded a Guest Professorship at the China University of
Mining and Technology in Beijing for his “Outstanding contribution to
Open Source Geospatial Technologies”.

As you can see his FOSS4G reach is world-wide.  Many people have been
touched by his passion.  He is a “boots on the ground” kind of a guy,
who is a master at connecting geospatial communities.  Many of us all
around the world have grown our careers and skills through his advice.
I believe Venka would be an excellent recipient for the Sol Katz Award.

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Venkatesh_Raghavan

-Jeff McKenna
OSGeo Board member/friend