Dr. Franz Rottensteiner wins prestigious Leica Geosystems’ award

Leica Geosystems’ Geospatial Solutions Division has awarded the Carl Pulfrich Award 2017 to Prof. Dr. Franz Rottensteiner for pioneering developments in 3D modelling and automated object extraction. The Carl Pulfrich Award is a prestigious award for honouring cutting-edge innovations and developments in geodesy, photogrammetry and the Earth sciences.
 
Dr. Rottensteiner’s achievements have substantial impact both in the fields of research and application. His work with respect to automatic extraction of buildings from airborne laser scanner data and aerial images has been integrated into various operational commercial products of geodata industry.
 
The academic Earth imaging community was encouraged to submit nominations for the biennial award. Nominees were considered on the basis of experience, activities in fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing, and contributions to the advancement of all aspects of the Earth imaging field. Applied work involving hardware systems, software solutions or innovative service activities were considered as well.
 
“Receiving this prestigious award is a great honour for me. Carl Pulfrich Award is synonymous with honouring achievements in geodesy and photogrammetry that benefit the industry. It is a significant incentive for me to continue my research in that direction,” said Prof. Dr. Franz Rottensteiner.
 
Receiving a considerable number of highly-qualified nominations, Dr. Rottensteiner was selected by the 10-member jury and awarded the Carl Pulfrich Award 2017. Dr. Rottensteiner studied surveying at Vienna University of Technology and received the Ph.D. degree and venia docendi in photogrammetry from the same university. He was a postdoctoral researcher with the Vienna University of Technology, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and the University of Melbourne, Australia. He became leader of the research group on Photogrammetric Image Analysis at the Institute of Photogrammetry and GeoInformation (IPI) at Leibniz Universität in Hannover, Germany, in 2008. Since 2014, he has been Associate Professor at IPI, focussing both his research and teaching on Image Analysis and its applications in Photogrammetry.
 
Speaking about the winner, the chairman of the 2017 jury, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Sörgel, added: “I’m pleased to recognise Prof. Dr. Franz Rottensteiner work in 3D modelling and automated object extraction. He has made a great contribution to the geospatial industry and I would like to wish him every success going forward.”
 
The tribute was given by Dr. Juergen Dold, president and CEO of Hexagon Geosystems, at the Carl Pulfrich Award Ceremony 2017 during the 56th Photogrammetric Week today in the University of Stuttgart.