Rector awarded for outstanding contribution to education in remote sensing

Jón Atli Benediktsson, rector of the University of Iceland and professor of electrical and computer engineering, received the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) award for his contribution to education in remote sensing. The award was presented today at the opening ceremony at the annual GRSS conference.  The conference is always well-attended, and online this year with over 5,000 registered participants. 

The IEEE GRSS Education Award was established to recognize an individual who has made significant educational contributions in terms of  innovation and the extent of its overall impact; including supervising research student. 

Jón Atli has taught courses and supervised many doctoral and master students in the field at the University of Iceland and international universities, as he participates in a wide international network in the field of remote sensing education. Nine doctoral students have graduated from the University of Iceland under his supervision, many in collaboration with international universities. Jón Atli served as visiting professor at The Universtiy in Trento in Italy from 2001 to 2015 where he taught image analysis and supervised graduate students.  

Jón Atli is among the leading research scientists in the field of remote sensing, which  involves for example, taking digital images from planes, drones, and satellites and using these to extract data regarding the Earth's surface. He has published over 400 articles and book chapters in the field of electrical and computer engineering and is widely cited; he has for many years made the prestigious list of Clarivate Analytics of the most influential researchers in the world. The University of Iceland is, furthermore, ranked in 6th place in the field of remote sensing and among the forty best in the field of electrical and computer engineering according to the renowned Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, published this summer.

Jón Atli has received numerous acknowledgements at home and abroad for his research. He is a Fellow at two international academic societies: IEEE (2004) and SPIE (2013). Jón Atli was the editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2003-2008 and has been on the editorial board of many international science journals. In 2011 and 2012 he was the President of IEEE Geosicience and Remote Sensing Society. Jón Atli is on the editorial boards of many science journals in the field of remote sensing. 

He has been productive in innovation and is  co-founder with Einar Stefánsson, professor in optomology, of the start-up company Oxymap which has developed equipment and software for the diagnosis of eye disease via digital image analysis. 

In his acceptance speech Jón Atli thanked GRSS for this great honour and outlined the importance of the society concerning professional networking and in strengthening the educational factor in the field. Jón Atli also thanked his collaborators within and outside of the University of Iceland as well as all his students for their invaluable contribution. 

Below is a recording of the rectors acceptance speech.

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) is an international society in the field of remote sensing and adheres to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology with over 400,000 members. GRSS's headquarters are in the United States, but has extensive global operations, publishing numerous scientific journals and organises conferences, including the annual conference where the GRSS Education Award will be presented. Due to the corona virus the conference was moved online.