Sol Katz Award

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Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software

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 have contributed significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals in the geospatial realm. The award acknowledges both the work of community members, and pay tribute to one of its founders, for years to come.

Recipients

Background

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Katz

OSGeo Public Site: https://www.osgeo.org/community/awards/

Process

  • Put out a call for nominations fairly widely on appropriate mailing lists (freegis, osgeo discuss, etc)
  • Nominations are sent privately to SolKatzAward@osgeo.org (public nominations will be discarded).
  • Committee selects awardee
  • Prepare plaque and tokens of appreciation
  • Present in FOSS4G closing plenary
  • Update this page with results
  • Create announcement (mailing lists, websites, etc)

2021 Call for Nominations

SUBJECT: Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software - Call for Nominations

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to open nominations for the 2021 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@osgeo.org with a description of the reasons for this nomination. Nominations will be accepted until end-of-day August 20th 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 2021 event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 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: 

 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 2021:

  • 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

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.

Pics submitted by his daughters: Solomon-Katz.jpg Solomon-Katz2.jpg

Daughters Risa and Shanna introducing the award in 2011: Shanna & Risa Katz Shanna & Risa Katz

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).

Selection Committee 2020

Anita accepting the award at the OSGeo AGM in 2020
  • 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

Selection Committee 2019

Even accepting the award at FOSS4G Bucharest
  • 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

Selection Committee 2018

Astrid accepting the award at FOSS4G Dar es Salaam
  • 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

Selection Committee 2017

Andrea accepting the award at FOSS4G Boston
  • 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

Selection Committee 2016

Jeff accepting the award, through a video, at FOSS4G Bonn
  • Venkatesh Raghavan (chair)
  • Frank Warmerdam
  • Markus Neteler
  • Steve Lime
  • Paul Ramsey
  • Sophia Parafina
  • Daniel Morissette
  • Helena Mitasova
  • Martin Davis
  • Arnulf Christl
  • Gary Sherman
  • Maria Brovelli

Selection Committee 2015

Maria just after receiving the award, at FOSS4G Seoul

Selection Committee 2014

Gary accepting the award, through a video, at FOSS4G Portland

Selection Committee 2013

Arnulf (left) receiving the award at FOSS4G Nottingham

Selection Committee 2012

Venka (second from right) receiving the award at FOSS4G India in Hyderabad

Selection Committee 2011

Martin receiving the award at FOSS4G Denver

Selection Committee 2010

Helena posing with the award, that she received at FOSS4G Barcelona

Selection Committee 2009

Daniel receiving the award at FOSS4G Sydney

Selection Committee 2008

Paul received the award, through a video, at FOSS4G Cape Town

Selection Committee 2007

Steve receiving the award at FOSS4G Victoria

Selection Committee 2006

Markus posing with the award, that he received at FOSS4G Lausanne

Selection Committee 2005

Frank, the 2005 recipient of the award.

2005 Award Documents

Translations of this page

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