see news Item:
https://www.osgeo.org/foundation-news/sol-katz-award-for-geospatial-free-and-open-source-software-call-for-nominations-2023/
8 May 2023
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to open nominations for
the 2023 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.
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 May 26th
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 2023 event in
Prizren, Kosovo. 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:
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 2023:
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
Extended Program Text
--------------------------------
The Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software (GFOSS)
is awarded annually by OSGeo to individuals who have demonstrated
leadership in the GFOSS community. Recipients of the award will have
contributed significantly through their activities to advance open
source ideals in the geospatial realm. 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.
Solomon Stuart Katz aka Sol 1947-1999
Background
Sol Katz was born in Sweden (on August 3rd, 1947) and moved to NY at the
age of 1. Yiddish was his first language, but he was amazingly bright,
and learned both Hebrew and English quickly. After high school, he spent
three years in the US Air Force, stationed in Germany, where he picked
up yet another language. Following his brief military career, he decided
to go to Brooklyn College in NY where he got his Bachelors in Geology in
2.5 years. He then married his wife Hedy in 1969, and went back to
Brooklyn College while teaching in NY Public Schools and got his MA,
also in Geology. After several years working for the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) in several states, he settled down in Lakewood, CO and
decided to go back to school at the University of Denver in Computer
Science and earned a second masters. At this time, he also had two
children - Shanna and Risa. He was well loved in his office, at his
children's school, and at home. Always full of laughter and good humor,
Sol could easily be recognized by his flamboyant Hawaiian shirts and
toucan or propeller hats. Sadly, after fighting Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
for almost a decade, Sol died April 23, 1999 in bed.
Open Source
-----------------
Sol Katz was an early pioneer of GFOSS and left behind a large body of
work in the form of applications, format specifications, and utilities.
In the early 80's, Sol assisted in the development of a public domain
GIS package called MOSS (Map Overlay and Statistical System). This
software was arguably the first open source GIS software in the world.
Sol would later go on to release and maintain PC MOSS (GitHub archive:
https://github.com/OSGeo/MOSS/). He was also one of the first involved
in public data translator utilities. Utilities that he developed for
converting DEMs and reading SDTS files were contributed back to the
geospatial community, and are still available today (GitHub archive:
https://github.com/jmckenna/sdts2dem). Sol was also a frequent
contributor to many geospatial list servers, providing much guidance to
the geospatial community at large. Sol Katz's collection of GIS
utilities at the BLM continues to be implemented by many software
projects. His legacy still lives on in the GFOSS world.
Utilities
----------
Sol's code continues to be implemented in many software drivers,
including the updated sdts2dem utility. Sol Katz's collection of GIS
utilities at the BLM was formerly available at
ftp://ftp.blm.gov/pub/gis/ (currently not available on the new BLM
transfer system).
About the Open Source Geospatial Foundation
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)(4)
organization to empower everyone with open source geospatial. The
software foundation directly supports projects serving as an outreach
and advocacy organization providing financial, organizational and legal
support for the open source geospatial community.
OSGeo works with Camptocamp, GeoCat, OPENGIS.ch, WhereGroup and other
sponsors, along with our partners to foster an open approach to
software, standards, data and education.
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
https://www.osgeo.org/