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Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic AssociationGet to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic Association
Get to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027

Honorary Fellowship for Kirsi Virrantaus

Georg Gartner, Kirsi Virrantaus

Georg Gartner, Kirsi Virrantaus

Kirsi Virrantaus

Kirsi Virrantaus during her acceptance speech

The award

The award

During ICC 2013 Kirsi Virrantaus received the ICA Honorary Fellowship. Below you can read Menno-Jan Kraak‘s laudatio:

Dear Kirsi,

It is a great pleasure to stand here, and address you before I hand you one of the ICA awards. This award of ICA honours cartographers of outstanding international reputation who have made special contribution to the ICA.

So before I can hand this awards I have to convince the audience that you indeed qualify. Two keywords in the description of the award pop up clearly. International reputation & special contribution to ICA.

The last one is easy to verify because the ICA archives hold lot of proof. First of all you served two terms as vice-president. Starting in 1999 in Ottawa, Canada with a renewal to your term in Durban, South Africa and the obligatory end in Moscow, Russia in 2007. During those eight year is the Executive Committee started a tradition to have their meetings such that it coincided with Kirsi’s birthday, because during the first time it happened she took care of drinking logistics serving Finish vodka which was much appreciated. Today both EC meetings and birthdays are no longer that fun.

Well, one can wonder if just sitting there as vice president is good enough to qualify. That would be easy. But during your term you have also been active in two commissions: “Map and Spatial Data Use” and “Gender and Cartography”. And during your second term you also acted as working group chair of the working group on “Uncertainty of spatial data and quality of maps”. You have also hosted some pre-conference ICA events in 2007 in Espoo after which you organized a train trip from Helsinki to the main conference in Moscow. If this would not be enough you have also been the initiator of our research agenda. I clearly remember sitting in your class as co-chair of the visualization committee in La Coruna 2005, going though several exercises you prepared to get the framework of the agenda settled. Together with our former secretary general David Fairbairn you presented the first draft in Moscow 2007, which we could later publish in many cartographic journals. The fact they you got everyone in ICA to participate in this endeavor is also due to your international reputation.

Still I tried to find some more evidence for this. This was also not too difficult since you have played several leading roles in our sister organizations like FIG and ISPRS. But those activities happened before your ICA career. Your career has been an academic one, graduating in 1977 in Architecture, followed by additional degrees in Cartography and Surveying. Tracing your academic history, your publications track record is not easy because of the many metamorphoses you last name went trough. Your CV states: Kirsi VIRRANTAUS (formerly Makkonen, Eloranta, Artimo).

But I also have my own memories, we first met in The Hague in 1985 at an UDMS conference. And since then we somehow kept in touch. Today you are even Vice Dean at the School of Engineering of the Aalto University in Espoo/Helsinki. Well enough evidence to convince this audience I believe. Kirsi, I m happy to hand you this ICA reward, congratulations.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Milan Konečný

Milan Konečný

Milan Konečný during his aceptance speech

Ferjan Ormeling

Ferjan Ormeling during the laudatio

Milan Konečný

Milan Konečný

During ICC 2013 Milan Konečný received the ICA Honorary Fellowship. Below you can read Ferjan Ormeling’s laudatio:

For me, it is both an honour and pleasure to address Milan on this occasion, as his former team mate when he was president . Milan is a self-made man, born in a small town in Eastern Moravia. He was able to study in Brno, and distinguished himself there in such a way that he was asked to participate in polar expeditions to Spitsbergen. He opted for a scientific career and focused on digital cartography.

After his obligatory military service he got a job at the university and there he steadily advanced, also because he set up a lab on geoinformatics and cartography, and this is most important as I guess it enabled him to participate in national and international conferences, and also to participate as officer or board member in national and international scientific associations, where he has a most impressive record. It enabled him to travel widely, I guess he must have spent more than a year of his life in airplanes, and as far as the ICA is concerned, it culminated in his presidency from 2003-2007: Amongst the many things he initiated and achieved there, the most important for ICA were the policy towards the international organizations in the surveying and mapping field that were springing up at the time, such as digital Earth and Global Map (through memoranda of understanding, Milan linked ICA to UN bodies or other scientific organisations like PAIGH) , the increased cooperation with national mapping agencies, which he aimed for, together with Ramon Lorenzo, and the support he gave to cartographers in South and Eastern Europe. Apart from that, all his life he has been strengthening ties and links with cartographers in Siberia, China and Japan.

Just to show his international orientation, I have listed some of the institutions or associations Milan has been involved with – IEAS, Digital Earth, Global Map, GSDI, European initiatives like Inspire, and UN initiatives. As I said, Milan’s specialty has been building bridges to Eastern Europe and Asia, which started already at a time when it was difficult to travel outside the socialist bloc, but later Japan and India were added to his list of preferred destinations.

For all his contributions to the profession Milan was awarded prizes and honorary: from the Brazilian and Spanish cartographic societies, from the Novosibirsk and Sofia universities, he was asked as president of the European Joint Research Centre of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, and it is only fitting that he is now awarded a honorary fellowship of the ICA – it has been long due, but we have the rule that this honorary fellowship can only be awarded to people that do not hold office in the board, and this is the first occasion after 16 years of Milan’s membership of the ICA executive committee that he can receive this distinction. There is one more item I want to mention, and that is that we first evaluated the venue where we now have the conference back when Milan was president in 2007, in order to select this venue, and the success of this conference alone justifies this decision to award Milan the honorary fellowhip. Milan, many congratulations!

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Yasuo Masai

Professor Yasuo Masai was born in 1929 in Tokyo. He studied geography at Tokyo Bunrika University (presently University of Tsukuba) and there he was awarded a master’s degree (1953) and a doctor’s degree (1962) in science. Before receiving his doctor’s degree, he had studied abroad at Michigan State University, where he was awarded a PhD in geography (1960). He is an Emeritus professor of Rissho University, where he has taught geography for 16 years after teaching at Ochanomizu University for 10 years, and at the University of Tsukuba for 9 years.

He was the chair of the ICA Commission on Urban Cartography from l980 to 1987 and he organized meetings in Düsseldorf, Sofia, Tokyo, Perth, and other cities. He was also a member of the ICA Awards Committee from 1994 to 1997. He was also a national delegate of Japan at many ICA conferences. He was president of the Japan Cartographers’ Association from 1993 to 2000, and he became an honorary member in 2007.

He has published many books as an author or editor, including the Atlas of Tokyo (Heibonsha), Travels with Urban Maps (Hara-shobo), the Atlas of the World (D. Kindersley, Japanese edition), and others. One of his major academic contributions is a 1:20,000 Restored Urban Land Use Map of Edo (the old name of Tokyo as the feudal capital of Tokugawa Japan). This is a multicolor-printed map, scientifically converted from an old, geometrically imprecise map to a modern, accurate map to show land use coverage.

Because of these outstanding works, Professor Yasuo Masai is awarded with an Honorary Fellowship of the ICA.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Michael P. Peterson

Mike PetersonProf. Michael P. Peterson has an outstanding career in education research and service to the disciplines of cartography and geographic information science. His record of teaching accomplishments and awards, his excellent research particularly with topics of maps and the Internet, and his significant record of service to the his university, the discipline, and the ICA are exemplary of an ICA honoree. Professor Peterson has served the ICA as an exceptional Chair of the Commission on Maps and the Internet from 1999 to the present. His accomplishments as Commission Chair include expanding the research and educational frontier of Maps and the Internet, maintaining an exceptional Website for the Commission, conducting numerous short courses and workshops for the Commission in places around the world including Warsaw, Vienna, Madrid, Tokyo, Karlsruhe, Guangxhou, and Denver, Knoxville, and Shepherdstown in the United States. Publications by Professor Peterson under the auspices of the Commission include Maps and the Internet, a seminal book on the domain subject of the Commission.

Professor Michael P. Peterson is awarded an International Cartographic Association Honorary Fellowship Award for his outstanding contributions to the disciplines of Cartography and geographic information science and to the ICA through his work as Chair of the Commission on Maps and the Internet.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Monique Pelletier

Monique Pelletier was born in 1934. She is a graduate of the Ecole des Chartes (National School of Palaeography and Archival Studies), the French school created in 1821 which contributes to the professional training of executives (chief archivists, librarians and curators) responsible for preserving and making available France’s cultural heritage.

Monique Pelletier obtained her diploma of Archivist Palaeographer after defending her PhD on the “Great Council from Charles VII to François 1st”. Her studies on the history of cartography are founded on her large knowledge of the French monarchy and its institutions in the XVI century, a particularly complex period in Europe history.

Appointed as Conservator at the French National Library in 1960, she was first in charge of developing the Book Catalogue of the Library (1960-1969). In 1976 she became Chief of the Department of Maps and Plans, and transformed her department into a modern and open map library, encouraging and herself participating in the research activity on the history of cartography. These activities pushed her to contribute actively to several international networks (IFLA, LIBER, IMAGO MUNDI and the ICA).

Within ICA, she succeeded Helen Wallis to lead the Commission of History of Cartography from 1987 to 1995. She also led the French Committee of Cartography from 1988 to 1998. Today as an Honorary Member of the Committee she is directing the publication of the journal Le Monde des Cartes. Always keenly involved in her research activities, she has participated in conferences, organised meetings and published many reports.

Her bibliography is lengthy and includes major volumes on cartographic development in France. It is summarized in a book produced for her retirement and focused on her career in cartography: Monique PELLETIER Tours et contours de la Terre : itinéraires d’une femme au cœur de la cartographie (Monique Pelletier – Rounds around the Earth : the itinerary of a woman in the heart of cartography), Presse de l’ENPC, 1999.
Her most recent book, published in 2009, is entitled: De Ptolémée à La Guillotière XV-XVIe siècles. Des cartes pour la France : pourquoi? comment? (From Ptolemy to La Guillotière, XV-XVI century: maps for France, why, how?), CTHS Edition, 2009.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Bengt Rystedt

The ICA Fellowship is a distinguished award recognising the contribution of the recipient to the work of the International Cartographic Association. For Bengt Rystedt, ICA has been a focus of an extraordinary range of activities which have brought excellence to the organisation.

Whilst showing exceptional attention to detail, Dr. Rystedt has always considered the long term health and welfare of the Association. His long term commitment to equity, notably in dealing with ICA’s outreach to less developed nations, is evident in his strong interest in African issues and his willingness to engage with organisations and individuals in Africa in order to improve capacity building in that important continent. Much of this work has been done whilst playing a leading role in the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies, as an effective spokesperson for ICA and for the initiatives which have been proposed by the international geospatial community.

This practical approach has been matched by a true desire to develop the scientific basis of our organisation. Dr. Rystedt initiated the Research Agenda, and has been very much in favour of extending it to include the areas of Geographic Information Science which are central to the initiation and use of cartographic data and products.

His long term commitment to ICA is shown by service as Chair of the National and Regional Atlas Commission from 1985, service with the organising committee for the 1997 International Cartographic Conference in Sweden, and membership of the Executive Committee for many years, culminating in his election as President in 1999. In all his work for ICA, Dr. Rystedt has shown a great sense of responsibility, emphasising work and content but never his personal ambition. In his quiet and effective manner he was able to solve problems, and like the proud Swede he is, his diplomatic approach was always highly visible. He has been able to work always for the benefit of ICA over decades of loyal service.

For the dignified and outstanding way in which he has contributed for many years to the success of the ICA, the Association is pleased to award its Honorary Fellowship to Dr. Bengt Rystedt.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Kira B. Shingareva

Kira B. Shingareva is professor at the Moscow State University for Geodesy and Cartography. She graduated from the Dresden Technical University at 1961 and received her Ph.D in 1974, and became Doctor of Science in 1992. She has hold positions as principal scientist at the Planetary Cartography Laboratory and at the Laboratory of Comparative Planetology at the Institute of Space Researches at the Academy of Science.

At the University she participated in the National Space program by mapping the Moon, Mars, Phobos and Venus. She is an author of more than 150 publications, among them “Atlas of Terrestrial Planets and their Moons” and “Space Activity in Russia – Background, Current State, Perspectives”.

Since 1995 Professor Shingareva has been active in the ICA. She has been co-chairman of the ICA Planetary Cartography Working Group 1995-1999 and chairman of ICA Planetary Cartography Commission for two consecutive terms, 1999-2007. Among the achievements of her ICA activities we find “Series of multilingual maps of planets and their moons”, “Glossary on planetary cartography” and “Specialised map-oriented Databases on planetary cartography”.

Kira Shingareva has served ICA in an exemplary way. In spite of limited resources she has organised and documented several commissions meeting, and always reported the activities of her commission to the Executive Committee in a timely manner.

For her outstanding services to ICA Dr. Shingareva is awarded an Honorary Fellowship of ICA.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Graciela Metternicht

Graciela Metternicht has for the last 10 years been teaching at Curtin University, Perth Australia and is since July, 2007 professor of Geospatial Systems and Environmental Management at the School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. In 1985 she finished an education in cartography at Santa Fe, Argentina. In 1992 she received an MSc in Integrated Map and Geo-information Production at ITC in the Netherlands and in 1996 a PhD in Geography at the State University of Gent, Belgium.

Graciela Metternicht’s publication record contains over 100 works and she is active member of many organisations. In 1999 she took the responsibility to be the editor of ICA News, the newsletter of ICA. She is acting chair of the ICA Commission on Mapping from Satellite Images and active member of several other ICA commissions.

For her outstanding service to ICA, especially as editor of ICA News, Graciela Metternicht is awarded an Honorary Fellowship of ICA.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Helen Kerfoot

Helen Kerfoot was already presented with a diploma for outstanding services to ICA as member of the LOC that organised the 1999 International Cartographic Conference in Ottawa. She has played a more important role for cartographers worldwide however as chairperson of the UNGEGN standing advisory commission of the ECOSOC, UN.

After an MSc in Geology in Britain she took up a job as geologist in Northern Canada, where she became interested in toponymy and did toponymic fieldwork. Later she went to work for the Govt. Department of Energy, Mines and Resources in Ottawa. She is a past president of the Canadian Society of the Study of Names, which she presided over from 1997-2003. She was delegated by the Canadian Government to the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names around 1987, and was elected as chairperson in 2002.

Since then she has succeeded in turning UNGEGN into a more professional body and in bringing its work in line with current SDI-initiatives. She is one of the few experts with hands-on experience in practically all fields of toponymic standardization. Her drive to attend all the meetings of UNGEGN working groups, her participation in toponymy courses world wide, in scientific seminars and technical meetings as well as her endeavours to make all UNGEGN ‘jurisprudence’ on geographical names accessible through its website have benefited the whole spatial information community, as geographical names standardisation is a most important aspect in the exchange and linking of geospatial data.

For her services and contribution to cartography Helen Kerfoot is awarded an Honorary Fellowship of ICA.

Category: General News

Honorary Fellowship for Pinhas Yoeli

Pinhas Yoeli, Professor Emeritus at Tel-Aviv University, is known throughout the cartographic world for his breakthrough work on various difficult problems in automation including hill shading, contouring, name placement, and the colouring of undersea elevations. He has made outstanding scholarly contributions to cartography over a long and sustained period—about 50 years. A student and disciple of the Swiss cartographer Eduard Imhof, Professor Yoeli developed mathematical models that allowed the programming of Imhof’s principles. His book entitled Cartographic Drawing with Computers, published by the University of Nottingham in 1982, was the first teaching material of its kind that explained and further developed the background of graphic software suited to cartographic work. He offered his expertise as a professor in the field of digital cartography in many universities throughout the world. In the span of his career, he gained many disciples of his own and has been read by cartographers throughout the world who have been inspired as well as informed by his work.

For his inspired and sustained work in digital cartography—especially his work with mathematical models for hill shading, contouring, and name placement—and for his extensive record of teaching both in the classroom and through his publications, the International Cartographic Association awards Professor Emeritus Pinhas Yoeli its honorary fellowship.

Category: General News
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