Thomas Jordan and Christopher Parrish selected for 2017 election

Bethesda, MD, December 22, 2016 -- Thomas R. Jordan is the recently retired Associate Director and current Lead Research Professional at the Center for Geospatial Research (CGR), Department of Geography at The University of Georgia (UGA).  A member of ASPRS since 1979, Jordan is a Certified Photogrammetrist and Certified Mapping Scientist, GIS/LIS. He received his B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Geography, with concentrations in Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing from UGA in 1979, 1981 and 2002, respectively.  Jordan is also a lifetime performing musician: singing and playing acoustic and electric guitar, banjo and mandolin in a wide range of musical styles.

Jordan’s responsibilities at UGA have involved management of CGR research projects with emphasis on the geospatial components, and the design and operation of the CGR computer systems, databases, web sites and networks.  His primary research interests currently include unmanned aerial systems (UAS), Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetric methods, and cross-discipline applications which integrate the full range of geospatial technologies.

Jordan is a member of the ASPRS Evaluation for Certification Committee and the ASPRS National Technical Planning Committee.  He was Technical Program Co-Director of ASPRS 2014 Annual Conference in Louisville and served as the Master of Ceremonies for field demos and invited speaker at the first UAS Conference in Reno in 2014.  He is a co-recipient of ESRI Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Awards in 2009 and 2015.  As a member of ISPRS, Jordan has attended most Congresses since 1992 (Washington, DC), helped to organize the Commission IV Symposia in 1994 and 2010, and was invited to perform (playing guitar for an event in a castle!) at the 1996 ISPRS Congress in Vienna.  He was Secretary of ISPRS Commission IV WG IV/6 (2000-2004) and Vice President of ISPRS Commission IV (2008-2012).

Christopher Parrish is an Associate Professor of Geomatics in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. His research focuses on full-waveform lidar, topographic-bathymetric lidar, satellite laser altimetry, hyperspectral imagery, uncertainty modeling, and UAVs for coastal applications. Parrish holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with an emphasis in Geospatial Information Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. in Civil and Coastal Engineering with an emphasis in Geomatics from the University of Florida. Parrish serves as Director of OregonView, a statewide consortium under AmericaView, dedicated to applied remote sensing research, STEM education, workforce development, and technology transfer. He has previously held the positions of Director of ASPRS’s Lidar Division and President of ASPRS Potomac Region. Prior to joining OSU, Parrish served as lead physical scientist in the Remote Sensing Division of NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey. He also holds an affiliate faculty position in the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping - Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM-JHC) at the University of New Hampshire.