During ICC 2017, William Cartwright received the ICA Honorary Fellowship. Below you can read Georg Gartner‘s laudation:
It is with great pleasure that I write in recognition of Professor Cartwright’s international status in the world of cartography and beyond.
Professor Cartwright has achieved an undoubted exceptional international reputation for his work with cartography and is highly regarded as a world leading expert on the field of cartography and GIScience in general. As a president and past-president of the International Cartographic Association he has significantly contributed to the self-understanding and the respected position of modern cartography. The definition of sustainable subject cores in relation to quickly changing innovations needs internationally recognized and accepted experts, being able to give orientation in this respect, of which Professor Cartwright is one of the leading ones.
As we have been both members of the international expert group in the “Cybercartography and the new economy” project, the Editorial Team of the Book Series “Lecture Notes on Geoinformation and Cartography”, the Scientific Adivsory Board of various Conferences and Symposia I had the opportunity to get into close contact with the expertise of Professor Cartwright in many respects, which lead also to Guest Professorships at Vienna, joined projects and joined scientific publications. It was not only remarkable to see, how Professor Cartwright’s guides scientific developments to international visible and significant outcomes but also to witness Professor Cartwright’s devotion to his work and discipline. I was impressed especially by the general understanding of science and research of Professor Cartwright. He literally “lives” interdisciplinarity and cross-subject knowledge finding, which makes Professor Cartwright an outstanding person and researcher.
As Vice-President (2003–2007), President (2007–2011) and Past-President (2011–2015) Professor Cartwright has steered the International Cartographic Association into a modern international organisation. He has established a number of innovative instruments and changes which prove to be a benefit for the international community. His exceptional acceptance by the scientific community helped essentially to reach out to neighbouring disciplines, where through the work of Professor Cartwright the respect and acceptance of cartography and ICA has been lifted. As chair of the Joined Board of Geospatial Information Sciences (2011–2013) he was actively involved in the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management and has been adopted to the UN Committee of Experts.
In summary, I have deep respect for the scientist, the cartographer and the person Professor Cartwright. He is an exceptional researcher and scientist, he is an extraordinary ambassador of Australia in a unique and positive way and he has contributed to the International Cartographic Association in a most relevant way.
It is a great pleasure for me to hand over the ICA Honory Fellowship in person to Professor Dr William Cartwright.
