Vice-Chancellor appointed society president

15 September 2009

BU Vice-Chancellor’s new role as President of a leading UK science society is a “great honor”.

BU Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Curran has become President of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc).

The RSPSoc is the UK’s leading society for remote sensing and photogrammetry and their application to science, education, research, industry, commerce and the public service.

As a charity, its purpose is to inform and educate its members and the public. It supports networking between the university, business and government sectors and as an international society, is also active in Europe and on the world stage.

Professor Curran was one of the first in the world to read for a PhD in remote sensing and in the 1980s wrote the seminal ‘principles’ textbook for this fledgling field.

He went on to work for NASA, where he used remotely sensed data for environmental understanding at regional to global scales, and was latterly Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Southampton, before moving to Bournemouth University in 2005.

Professor Curran has authored and co-authored six books and around 400 articles on remote sensing. He is a Council member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the body which funds the majority of the UK’s environmental remote sensing research.

He continues to undertake research and publish on the global environmental applications of remote sensing. In addition to many professional honours and awards, his contribution to remote sensing was recognised recently by HM the Queen with the award of the Royal Geographical Society Patron’s medal.

Professor Curran joined a forerunner of the current Society as an undergraduate some two years after its foundation and he and his many graduate students have been active participants in the Society for over a third of a century.

Professor Curran said:

“Appointment as President of such a thriving and relevant Society is a great honour and privilege. It is also a personal pleasure as I have a great interest in the work of the Society and its many members.”

Professor Curran’s appointment as President took place on 10th September at the Society’s Annual Conference at the University of Leicester, the city of his birth.