During ICC 2021 in Florence, Lysandros Tsoulos received the ICA Honorary Fellowship. Below you can read Andrés Arístegui‘s laudation:
Professor Lysandros Tsoulos graduated from the University of Thessalonica in 1972. He received an M.Sc. in Digital Mapping and a Dr. Eng. from the National Technical University of Athens in 1989. His dissertation, entitled, “The Electronic Chart and its Use in Navigation,” contributed to the standardization of the content and functionality of electronic charts on board the ships. He worked for the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service for 16 years as director of the directorate of Cartography and the Computing Center and directed the Geomatics Center in the National Technical University of Athens, where he was professor of cartography until his retirement. He has over 120 publications in national/international journals and conference proceedings and two books on Digital Mapping and Geographical Information Systems and also participated in a number of national and European scientific projects. He is member in a number of National and International Scientific Committees and was president of the Hellenic Cartographic Society (2008 – 2016). His contributions to the National Technical University continue. Since 2009 he is Affiliate Professor at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping – University of New Hampshire US.
The ICA has the ambition, although not the means, to participate on an international level with rich and powerful organisations like the FIG or the International Hydrographic Organisation in the establishment of training standards for nautical cartographers. Like all ICA commissions, its Commission on Marine Cartography consisted of volunteers and it has been thanks to the voluntary input of Ron Furness and Lysandros Tsoulos that ICA has been able to contribute on par with that of the officials of IHO and FIG.
The basis of the ICA honorary fellowship award for Lysandros Tsoulos are his distinguished professional achievements in cartographic teaching, the research programmes of nautical cartography in particular and to his long association and extended contributions to and representation of the ICA, particularly for his 20-year representation on ICA on the FIG/IHO/ICA International Board on Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers. In this, he was one of two persons that brought ICA closer to the FIG and IHO and established it as a fully-fledged member of the International Board. He has been the main expert contributor to the development of the Standards of Competence for Nautical Cartographers, known as IHO Publication S-8. Over the last 20 years he has attended and contributed to the meetings of the Board, served as its chairman and brought into fruition a number of initiatives that endure.
In addition, he has contributed to many International Cartographic Conferences, has chaired sessions, and contributed papers.
The honorary fellowship of the International Cartographic Association is awarded to Emeritus Professor Dr. Lysandros Tsoulos for his long and consistent promotion and representation of ICA and its values through his membership of the FIG/IHO/ICA International Board on Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers. In particular, for his contributions to the development of standards of competence for nautical cartographers and his career contributions to cartography and his unwavering support of ICA.
