WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2010 — (PRNewswire) — NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior presented the William T. Pecora Award to Marvin E. Bauer of the University of Minnesota for his pioneering work in remote sensing of natural resources. Bauer received the award today at the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing meeting in Orlando, Fla.

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The two agencies present individual and group Pecora Awards to honor outstanding contributions in the field of remote sensing and its application to understanding Earth. The award was established in 1974 to honor the memory of William T. Pecora, former director of the U.S. Geological Survey and under secretary of the Department of the Interior.

Bauer received the award for his contributions to remote-sensing education, science and applications. Early in his career, he helped define the role of remote sensing for agriculture and forestry while a research agronomist at the Purdue University Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing. He made significant contributions to NASA's Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment that used data from Landsat satellites to monitor croplands.

At the University of Minnesota in the 1980s, Bauer continued his research in agricultural remote sensing but also investigated forestry applications. His recent work has concentrated on monitoring lake water quality, impervious surface mapping, land cover classification, and change detection. Bauer is director of the university's Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Laboratory.

Bauer has served for 30 years as editor-in-chief of the Remote Sensing of Environment journal. He is a recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in recognition of his scientific contributions to NASA's terrestrial remote sensing programs.

The Pecora award was presented by Brad Doorn of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, and Thomas Loveland of the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.

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SOURCE NASA