Reston, VA, May 20, 2008 - MAPPS ( www.mapps.org), the national association of geospatial firms, today announced that a distinguished panel of five individuals will serve as judges for its 2008 Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Awards.

Robert Burtch, PS, CP, Professor of Surveying Engineering at Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan, will serve as chairman of the panel of judges. Burtch, who teaches courses in surveying, geographic information systems, photogrammetry and geodesy, was a 2007 MAPPS awards judge. Also returning to the panel is Dr. Pamela Lawhead, Associate Professor at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. Lawhead teaches in the Department of Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering and is Director of the Institute for Advanced Education in Geospatial Sciences (IAEGS), which provides Web-deliverable geospatial courseware.

Three new judges will serve on the 2008 panel. Dr. Tom Lillesand, CP, Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M), is President of the ASPRS Foundation and a past President of ASPRS. Lillesand is a former Director of the UW-M Environmental Remote Sensing Center. Dennis Morgan, CP, is retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he headed the contracting for aerial photography and photogrammetric mapping and related services for the Corps and other Federal agencies. He served as a civilian at the Corps for more than 25 years and helped grow the Center of Expertise for Photogrammetric Mapping, St. Louis, MO, into a leading provider of professional geospatial services via contractor support to the Corps and other Federal, state and local government agencies. Dr. Adrian Moore is vice president of research at the Reason Foundation, a non-profit, free-market think tank. Dr. Moore, an economist, is a leading authority on privatization and government use of private contractors for commercially available services. He was the keynote speaker at the MAPPS 20th anniversary summer conference in Monterey, California in 2002.

"This knowledgeable, impartial and distinguished panel will provide an objective technical peer review of outstanding projects completed by MAPPS member firms. We are honored that these respected individuals will serve as our panel of judges for our 2008 excellence awards," said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello. "Our awards recognize the extraordinary work performed by MAPPS member firms and provide an appropriate appreciation for the professionalism and technical competence our members bring to their clients and the general public."

The MAPPS Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Awards is a competition recognizing the professionalism, value, integrity, and achievement that member firms have demonstrated over the previous year.

Awards will be presented in six categories: airborne and satellite data acquisition; photogrammetry/elevation data generation; remote sensing; GIS/IT; small projects; and technology innovation. A Grand Award will also be presented from the six award winners to represent the MAPPS Project of the Year. The Awards will be presented at the MAPPS Annual Summer Conference, July 19-23 at Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The 2008 awards will be the second annual presentation of recognition of excellence in the practice of the geospatial profession. The 2007 MAPPS Project of the Year was awarded to Merrick & Company (Aurora, CO) for their "Environmental LiDAR Applications in Colombia, South America" project.

Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. Current MAPPS memberships span the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Active Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are either companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States or based outside of the United States. MAPPS provides its members opportunities to network and develop business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement. For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.MAPPS.org.

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Contact:
Nick Palatiello
MAPPS Marketing Communications Manager
703-787-6996