November 14th, 2007
Time: 10am - 3pm
Location: Herman B Wells Library, Main Library Lobby

Keynote Speaker

Gilbert Rochon will be this year's IU GIS Day keynote speaker. Topic: The Evolution, Applications and Convergence of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Satellite Remote Sensing View or listen to the keynote address

Dr. Gilbert Rochon has over 25 years experience in higher education and research, with a specialization in applications of satellite remote sensing for sustainable development, food security, public health, disaster mitigation and environmental sustainability. He completed his doctoral studies at MIT, masters at Yale University and undergraduate degree at Xavier University, in his hometown, New Orleans, LA. He also held successive joint appointments with NASA, the USDA Forest Service, DOD Naval Oceanographic Office, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and under Northrop Grumman sub-contracts, as University Affiliates Coordinator for the DOD High Performance Computing Modernization Office’s (HPCMO) Programming Environment and Training (PET) Program at NAVO- Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, and was PI on DOT and USGS grants. He has given presentations in nine African countries, Asia (i.e. China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore), India, Australia, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and the Caribbean.

Dr. Rochon currently serves as Director of the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory; Chief Scientist for Purdue’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing and Associate Vice President for Collaborative Research at Purdue University, Information Technology (ITaP) and has courtesy faculty appointments at Purdue in Agronomy, Ag and Bio Engineering and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and is an Adjunct Professor, Natural Resources and Environmental Management, at Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai, Thailand. For the past three years, he has served on the Science Review Panel for the Arctic Region Supercomputer Center at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the NASA Socio-Economic Data Applications Center (SEDAC) User Working Group and the NATO Committee on the Challenges to Modern Society’s Pilot Study on Clean Technologies and Processes. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), ASPRS, ASA and African Association for Remote Sensing of Environment. He was previously a tenured Conrad Hilton Endowed Associate Professor at Dillard University in New Orleans, Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati School of Planning, Visiting Faculty Fellow at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Unit, Oxford, UK, NASA/JOVE Faculty Fellow at the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), NASA/ASEE Faculty Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Stennis Space Center, United Nations University (UNU) Fellow in Sudan, Faculty Fellow at the International Institute for Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico and  Adjunct Faculty at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and at Indiana University’s School of Medicine, Department of Public Health.

Games

Where in Indiana is a simple game where the participants have to match aerial photographs of geographic locations (e.g. cities, famous landmarks) with actual descriptions/names of the places. Come by the "Where in Indiana " booth to register! Prizes will be handed out every 30 minutes for one lucky person with the most correct answers.