New Orleans, La., Nov. 4, 2010 – The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) announced Mr. Jack Dangermond, Esri president, as the recipient of the newly renamed Arthur C. Lundahl Lifetime Achievement Award. Dangermond was presented the award on the main stage during GEOINT 2010, where over 4,000 community members were in attendance for the Symposium.

To fully honor the USGIF lifetime achievement awardees, USGIF decided to change the name of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Though the purpose of the award will remain the same, the Foundation wanted to give it a name that would immediately be understandable and elicit the emotion and importance of such an award. Arthur C. “Art” Lundahl is recognized as the father of imagery analysis. He dedicated his life to the tradecraft, enabling him to gain the confidence of four U.S. presidents and significantly contribute to the GEOINT tradecraft and security of the United States. His immense contribution to the pioneering of the tradecraft is why the USGIF Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed the Arthur C. Lundahl Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Over the past 25 years, like many in our community, I have had the pleasure of working with Mr. Dangermond on using and even advancing the capabilities of Arclnfo,” said USGIF CEO and Chairman, Stu Shea. “It’s my privilege to present this honor to a man whose legendary commitment to the geospatial community has set the bar of excellence to new extremes.”

In addition to his undergraduate degree at California State Polytechnic University and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and Harvard University, Mr. Jack Dangermond has also been granted 10 honorary doctorate degrees from Cal Poly Pomona; the University of Minnesota; the University of Arizona; Technical University for Civil Engineering of Bucharest; State University of New York, Buffalo; the University of West Hungary; and the City University London. A landscape architect by training, Mr. Dangermond founded Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) in 1969 with a vision that computer mapping and analysis could help us design a better future. Under his leadership, this vision has continued to guide Esri in creating cutting-edge GIS and GeoDesign technologies used in every industry to make a difference worldwide.

USGIF is a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals whose mission is the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges. For more information, please visit www.USGIF.org.

Past Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
2009 – Mr. Charles E. Allen
2008 – Mr. R. Evans Hineman
2007 – The Honorable James R. Clapper Jr.
2006 – The Honorable Jeffrey K. Harris
2005 – Mr. William R. Allder Jr.
2004 – Dr. Leo Hazlewood