U.S. and France Organizations Award Expert from INPE

Hello reader!

It follows a note published on the day (06/19) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) stating that U.S. and France Organizations award expert from INPE.

Duda Falcão

U.S. and France Organizations Award Expert

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Gilberto Câmara, a scientist for the Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE), has been awarded two international awards. One is the William T. Pecora Award, awarded by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an U.S. government agency linked to NASA and responsible for the receiving and dissemination of satellite images.

The other prize will be awarded by a French institution on Thursday (21) during a parallel event of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. The ceremony award the France's National Order of Merit and will take place during a seminar organized by the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), at 19:30 (UTC).

Graduated in Electronic Engineering for the Aeronautics Technology Institute (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – ITA), Gilberto Câmara achieved a Master's Degree and PhD in Computer Science for INPE, where he has been working since 1980, developing software of remote sensing and satellite image processing and participating in monitoring projects in the Amazon. He has directed INPE between December 2005 and May 2012.

Pecora Award

Awarded annually by the USGS, the William T. Pecora award is a gratitude to scientists or groups that have made outstanding contributions to the use of earth observation satellites for better understanding our planet. This is the first time that Pecora is awarded to a scientist outside the United States. The date of the ceremony has not been reported.

This prize has been awarded since 1974 in memory of Dr. William T. Pecora, director of the USGS from 1965 to 1971 and responsible for the Landsat Program, whose satellites have been recording the changes in terrestrial environment in the last four decades. More on http://remotesensing.usgs.gov/pecora.php

Recognition

Both honors are related to the performance of Gilberto Câmara aimed at widespread the use of data from Earth observation and geoinformation tools. "This award is for all of us at OBT (Department of Earth observation). Each team member in its own way has helped INPE to gain the international prominence that we have today," said the researcher.

Gilberto Câmara highlighted the global leadership achieved by INPE due to the adoption of a policy that allowed free distribution of data from satellites such as Landsat and CBERS, to the development of free software for geoinformatics, also to the well-established program of research and development, which resulted in the postgraduate course in Remote Sensing recognized with the highest score (concept 7) by CAPES.

The researcher also mentioned the construction, by OBT/INPE, of an environmental monitoring system in the Amazon that allowed Brazil to reduce deforestation from 27,000 sq km to 6,000 sq km. "As it was reported by Science, our system 'is the envy of the world'. Nature also called it 'the greatest environmental success of the recent decades,'" said Gilberto Câmara, emphasizing the work of the entire team at INPE.

INPE's researcher for over 30 years, Gilberto Câmara is awarded

by government bodies of the United States and France

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)