[OSGeo-Discuss] Nomination for Venkatesh Raghavan

[Ravi Kumar]

I second the nominating Venkatesh Raghavan for the 2012 SolKatz Award.
I  agree with Jeff. Venka is the inspiration behind FOSS GIS sweeping across Asia and much of the world.
I have known him from the very First FOSS GIS conference in Asia, and he encouraged us resulting in the 
FOSS workshop in the Geological Survey of India in 2005.

He continues to physically visit most of the places where 'FOSSGIS is in action', and connects to young researchers
readily. 

The projects he promotes are the very building blocks of our FOSS GIS initiative the world over. 
His contributions in FOSS GIS for Geologists, like 3-D models are unique. 
In short Venka is the leading light for FOSS GIS in Asia and the world.

V.Ravi Kumar 
Friend /Fellow Geologist

(Charter member of OSGeo, Ex Board Member, Joint Secy OSGeo India) 

	* 

	* Development of SISGeM-An Online System for 3D Geologic Modeling
An Online System for 3D Geologic Modeling -. Tatsuya Nemoto*, Venkatesh 
Raghavan**, Shinji Masumoto*, Kiyoji Shiono*. * Department of Geosciences ...


Ravi Kumar


________________________________
 From: Jeff McKenna <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>
To: "SolKatzAward at osgeo.org" <SolKatzAward at osgeo.org> 
Cc: osgeo <discuss at lists.osgeo.org> 
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 8:17 PM
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Nomination for Venkatesh Raghavan
 
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


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