Nomination by UK of Gerhard Kӧnig for the Samual Gamble

Nomination by UK of Gerhard Kӧnig for the Samual Gamble

Prepared by Henny Mills

The United Kingdom hereby nominates Gerhard Kӧnig for the Samual Gamble for his excellent and longlastingservices to ISPRS over the last 12 years. Gerhard Kӧnig will be retiring from work at TU Berlin in Spring 2016 and has subsequently also decided that his work and involvement in ISPRS will come to an end with the Congress in July 2016. We believe therefore the congress 2016 would be an ideal time to thank Gerhard for his sustained and excellent work for ISPRS with the award of the Samual Gamble Award.

Gerhard is a person who keeps his profile low and quietly carries on his excellent work for ISPRS while not standing in the centre of spotlight.Within all ISPRS involvements he showed great enthusiasm and commitment to the activities, such as workshops, working groups etc. Without people like Gerhard, ISPRS would not be function as well as it does, and We therefore believe his work and long lasting contribution should be recognized and awarded. Despite him being a person who keeps himself more in the background, he is well known and respected within the ISPRS commission VI community for many years. It has been difficult to trace back all activities of Gerhard in ISPRS as he has been active within ISPRS for many years, but some of his contributions shall be highlighted.

The range of ISPRS activities in which Gerhard was involved are substantial.

Initially Gerhard got involved into ISPRS around 1985 in Commission II under the leadership of Prof.Albertz but then moved his focus to education and contribution to Commission VI.

One of Gerhard’s most precious activity is his endless support and coordination of CATCON. It is difficult to trace back all the involvement of Gerhard in CATCON, but he always promoted it actively, encouraging as many people as possible to participate in it. At theISPRS Congress in 2008 Gerhad worked hard during the congress to ensure the smooth execution of the CATCON competition and the establishment of active working groups following the congress. CATCON has successfully run since 1996, and to our knowledge Gerhard was actively involved in its organization and execution definitely since 2006 Tokyo. Further CATCON competition which Gerhard supported were held at the congress in Beijing (2008, CATCON 7) and in Melbourne (2012, CATCON 8). In this role Gerhard has also already opened the CATCON call for Prague 2016 and will ensure it will be a success again.

Gerhard was always willing to become actively involved in ISPRS asa chair or co-chair a Commission VI working group. Previously hechairedWG VI/2 E-LEARNING between 2004 and 2008, WG VI/2: E-Delivery Of Education between 2008-2012 and is currently the Co-chair of ‘WG VI/2 - E-Delivery of Education Services’.To reflect his profession on e-learning, he was selected as the co-author of the “Chapter33 Educational developments and outreach” of the 2008 ISPRS Congress Book

Gerhard also led the ISPRS sponsored project Analysis of E-Learning Software and Guidelines for quality Assurance in Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and GIS, which was presented in 2008 in Beijing. He is currently working on a new (so for unofficial) edition of the tool, which he has been working under his own initiative, underlining his commitment and enthusiasm of promoting education within ISPRS (

In his role as co-chair and chair of those working groups, he always ensured successful workshops were organized and the mid-term symposium run well. We are sure all the chairs of commission VI during those years, will agree that Gerhard was an important factor not in only in the success of the mid-term symposiums but also the Commission VI work. As such Gerhard did not only attend and contribute scientifically to the symposium and congresses but organized e-learning workshops in Germany (Berlin or Potsdam) in 2005, 2009 and 2014.

We believe that Gerhard’s sustained and outstanding contribution to ISPRS is worthy its recognition as his enthusiasm and dedication will surely be missed within Commission VI. Gerhard ensured like no one else that activities such as CATCON were running over many years and that many Commission VI event were successful. We believe he would be a more than worthy recipient of the Samual Gamble Award.

This nomination is supported by:

Kohei Cho, Former ISPRS Commision VI President, AARS General Secretary

AnjanaVyas, Chair WGVI/2

Mark Shortis, RMIT

Jianya Gong, President of ISPRS TC V

December 20, 2015

Dear ISPRS Council,

Letter of recommendation for the nomination of Gerhard König for Samual Gamble Award

As the General Secretary of the Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS), I would like to nominate Gerhard König as the awardree of the Samual Gamble. When I was the Chair of ISPRS WG VI/2 on Computer Assisted Teaching from 1996 to 2004, he was an active member of the WG. That is why I asked him to be the Chair of WG VI/2 on e-Learning when I was the President of Commision VI from 2004 to 2008. He Chaired WG VI/2 from 2004 to 2012 and Co-Chairs WG VI/2 from 2012 to 2016. During his chair, he successfully organize CATCON4 in 2006 at the TC VI Symposium in Tokyo, CATCON5 in 2008 at the ISPRS Congress in Beijing, amd CATCON6 in 2012 at the ISPRS Congress in Melbourne. Without his contribution, CATCON may not have continued in this way. Considering his profession on e-learning, I asked him to be one of the co-authors of the “Chapter 33 Educational developments and outreach” of the 2008 ISPRS Congress Book. His outstanding experiences on e-Learning are well reflected in the chapter.

In 2011, we AARS and ISPRS coorganized ISPRS WG VI/2 workshop and web contest WEBCON at the 32ndAsian Conference on Remote Sensing(ACRS) in Taipei. These events were quite successful and collected many participants. These events could not happen without Gerhard’s leadership. Promotion of education in the academic societries is not easy nor fascinating work. However, he has been doing it for many years with certain achievements.I believe he would be one of the most appropriate person to receive the Samual Gamble Award.

Kohei Cho

General Secretary

Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS)

November 19, 2015

Dear members of the Samual Gamble Award selection committee,

Re: Nomination of Dr. Gerhard Kӧnig for theSamual Gamble Award

I recommend Dr. Gerhard (Gert) Kӧnig for this award without any qualification or hesitation.

Gert has made a sustained and significant contribution to the educational material for, and promotionof, photogrammetry and remote sensing. He has consistently shown leadership over many years through his broadinvolvement in ISPRS working groups, sponsored meetings, inter-congress symposia and congresses.

By far his most important contributions have been his roles as a Technical Commission VI Working Group 2 Chair and organiser of the CATCON competitions. Gert was closely involved in TC VI and CATCON prior to 2004, but commenced formally as Working Group VI/2 Chair in 2004 at the Istanbul congress. He consequently organised the CATCON competition at the Commission VI inter-congress symposium at Tokyo. He has continued to serve ISPRS as a working group chair or co-chair, and as a CATCON organiser ever since.

I have worked very closely with Gert over many years and he is unquestionably a real gentleman in the sense that he is unfailingly respectful and supportive. Everyone who comes into contact with him appreciates his quietly positive attitude, willingness to help in any circumstance and his great sense of humour. Whilst he does not have a high profile within the society, he has made a substantial contribution to the culture and community of ISPRS.

Once more it is my great pleasure to support the nomination of Dr.Kӧnig for the Samual Gamble Award, it is richly deserved.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Mark R. Shortis

Professor of Measurement Science

School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences

1 December 2016

Dear ISPRS Council,

Letter of recommendation for the nomination of Gerhard König for Samual Gamble Award

I hereby declare my support for the nomination of Gerhard König for Samual Gamble Award. I believe Gerhard would be a worthy recipient for his excellent and sustained services to ISPRS.

As the president of ISPRS Commission VI between 2012 and 2016, I worked with Gerhard and learnt to appreciate his enthusiasm and dedication to ISPRS.

As a Co-Chair of WG VI/2, Mr. Gerhard Koenig has participated in organizing the 10th Education in GIS workshop in Potsdam, Germany on June 12-13, 2014. He also organized the workshop ‘Advances in Web-based Education Services’ in Berlin, Germany on June 18-19 2015. He is also organizing the seventh Computer Assisted Teaching Contest (CATCON 7) during the XXIII ISPRS Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 12th July – 19th July 2016. The list of these activities demonstrate his active and impressive contribution the ISPRS society. He joined the mid-term symposium of ISPRS Technical Commission VI on May 19, 2014 at Wuhan, China, and I fully understand his passion on the activities of the ISPRS.

I am therefore delighted to supply this letter of recommendation for Gerhard’s nomination for the Samual Gamble Award.

Yours Sincerely

Jianya Gong, Ph.D.

President of ISPRS TC VI

Wuhan University