December 1995 LARS Newsletter

*****************************************************************************
NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION PROCEDURE:
You may add/delete your subscription to/from the LARS Newsletter by two ways:
1) Send e-mail msg with request to: johannsn@iies.ecn.purdue.edu
2) Do it yourself in 2 steps:
a) Send message to: almanac@acn.purdue.edu, leave subject blank
b) Type one-line message:  subscribe lars_news_mg or unsubscribe lars_news_mg
Your login will automatically be added/deleted from the alias.
*****************************************************************************
LEVANDOWSKI LECTURE IN NATURAL RESOURCES: To honor the career and life of
Professor Don Levandowski (1927-1994) the above titled lecture series has
been established by the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.  This
is a fitting tribute by friends, students, and colleagues who valued his
devotion to them and his enthusiasm for his chosen field.  On 5 Oct 95
Melvin H. Podwysocki, research geologist for the USGS in Reston, VA,
presented the first series lecture on "Applications of Airborne Imaging
Spectrometer Data to Geologic and Environmental Problems".  Anyone
interested in making a contribution to the Levandowski Lecture fund, should
contact Dr. Ernest Agee "agee@vm.cc.purdue.edu".

KRISTOF ACCOUNT: There is still time to make a 1995 deductible contribution
to the Stevan J. Kristof Outstanding Graduate Student in Remote Sensing
Award.  From the earnings we currently make nearly $300 of the $400 which
is provided to the winner (the difference has been made up anonymously).
Make your check payable to Purdue University and send to DAIS, Purdue
Memorial Union, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1800 and place the name "Kristof
Account, # 880 1884 0000" on your check.  Thanks for your support.

APPOINTMENTS: John Moser, Professor of Forestry, has been appointed as the
National Program Chair for the Seventh American Forest Congress which will
be held in Washington, DC from February 20-24, 1996.  The last Forest
Congress was held in 1975; this is only the seventh Congress to be convened
since 1882.  The purpose of the Seventh Congress is to develop a common
vision for America's forests, the principles to support that vision and the
next steps to achieve the vision.  The Congress consists of 2000 citizens
with a diversity of interests in forests who will participate in a large
group facilitated effort.
Chris J. Johannsen began serving on the Committee on Earth Studies, Space
Applications Board, National Resource Council for a three-year term.

AWARDS: Bharat K Bhargava, Professor of Computer Science received a
meritorious service award from IEEE.  He also received an AT&T Special
Purpose Award of $23,000 for his work on Adaptable Video Conferencing.
Congratulations!

PROJECTS FUNDED: Ed Mikhail and Jim Bethel, Civil Engineering were awarded
a 3 year research project entitled "Rapid Construction of Virtual Worlds".
The funding is from ARPA and TEC.  The overall goal of the project is to
enhance the speed of producing 3D databases from aerial imagery for
simulation purposes. The subtasks involve, initially, terrain (DTM)
extraction and, later, feature extraction. All of the work is being done in
a softcopy photogrammetric environment.  The Purdue contract is for
$455,000. Other participants in the program are Carnegie Mellon Univ.,
Naval Postgraduate School, and SRI.

LARS STUDENT NEWS: Amanda Allen, 1st year Ph.D. student, FNR, interested in
the impacts of regional land use on wildlife population, and community
ecology (major professor: Barny Dunning).  She will be working in
landscapes of the SE states dominated by U.S. Forest Service management.
She has a special interest in hawks, especially falcons.  Email address:
a-allen@forest1.fnr.purdue.edu.

Brian Pilcher, 1st year Ph.D. student, FNR interested in the development of
land management plans that incorporate both economic use of land and
maintenance of biodiversity (major professor: Barny Dunning).  Brian has 15
years experience working in the timber industry of the Pacific NW, and is
interested in working with his industry contacts to explore the current and
future impacts of land management on wildlife.  Email:
bpilcher@forest1.fnr.purdue.edu.

S. Rasoul Safavian (major professor, David Landgrebe) E&CE, completed his
PhD  in August 1995. His thesis title is "Inference And Decision-Making
With Partial Knowledge."

Bruce Worstell, AGRY graduate student, (major professor Marion
Baumgardner),  spent Spring 1995 with Dr. Norman Bliss at the EROS Data
Center.  They were  developing tools for soil data convertion from the
State Soils Geographic  (STATSGO) data base to the Soil and Terrain (SOTER)
data base.  They also developed new map units based on the SOTER
methodology where parent material information from the Soil Interpretations
Record (SIR) data base was combined with terrain features extracted from
digital elevation models. Bruce expects to finish his M.S. in the fall
1996.

PUBLICATIONS:
+Pulliam, H.R., and J.B. Dunning.  1995.  Spatially explicit population
models.  Ecological Applications 5:2.
+Dunning, J.B., D.J. Stewart, B.J. Danielson, B.R. Noon, T.L. Root, R.H.
Lamberson, and E.E. Stevens.  1995.  Spatially explicit population models:
current forms and future uses.  Ecological Applications 5:3-11.
+Liu, J., J.B. Dunning, and H.R. Pulliam.  1995.  Potential impacts of a
forest management plan on Bachman's Sparrows: linking a spatially explicit
model with GIS.   Conservation Biology 9:62-75.
+Dunning, J.B., R. Borgella, K. Clements, and G. Meffe.  1995.  Patch
isolation, corridor effects, and avian colonization of habitat patches in a
managed pine woodland.  Conservation Biology 9:542-550.
+Pulliam, H.R., J. Liu,  J.B. Dunning, T.D. Bishop, and D.J. Stewart.  1995.
Modeling animal populations on changing landscapes.  Ibis 137:S120-S126.

PRESENTATIONS: Bharat K Bhargava was the keynote speaker at the Database
and Expert System Conference on Sept 6 in London presenting "Communication
Overheads in Digital Libararies"

Barny Dunning, FNR, participated in a Global Change Workshop at the
Ecological Society of America annual meeting at Snowbird, Utah, August,
1995.  The  program looked at extensive and intensive effects of global
change (both climate change and regional land use change) on selected
wildlife populations and ecological processes.

Todd Helt, AGRY graduate student, (with T. E. Dobos,  E. Micheli, Godollo
University; M.F. Baumgardner, & C.J. Johannsen, AGRY) presented a poster
titled "Factors Effecting Regional Water Quality - Applications of a Remote
Sensing and GIS Enhancement of the Hungarian Soils and Terrain (SOTER)
Database" on Nov 6-9 at the Geological Society of America annual meeting,
New Orleans, LA

Chris J. Johannsen (with Sam Parsons & Daniel Ess, A&BE) presented a paper
"Field Positioning Technologies" on Dec 7-8, at the MAX Conference,
Indianapolis, IN

LARS VISITORS:
July 25, Ron Hochstetler, Conrad Aviation, Kensington, MD, Chaur-Fong Chen,
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
July 27, Mark Blakely and Dave Buelt, Agri Business Group, Indianapolis IN
July 28, Kevin Erb, University of Wisconin, Green Bay WI
July 31, John Colwell, Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC), McLean, VA
August 2, Angela Townsend (Journal & Courier) Lafayette IN
August 15, Bob Stewart, Business & Tech Center, Purdue Research Park, W Laf
August 18, Bruce Braun, National Research Council, Washington
August 23, Des Keller, Progressive Farmer, Birmingham AL
August 24, Rich Hoormann, Farmland Industries, Kansas City, MO
Sept. 8, Paul Howard, Voice of America, Dearborn Chicago
Sept. 18, John E. Estes, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Sept. 29, Dr. Alberto Bustani, Director, Center for Environmental Quality,
Lic. Ricardo Contreras Jara, Satellite Communications, University of
Monterrey, Mexico
Oct. 2, Margaret Gerberi, Communications Dept. and Geoff Thomas, London England.
Oct. 9 Liviu Singher, A&BE, Purdue University
Oct. 10 Joe Knight, AGRY, Purdue University
Nov. 15, David Cressman, Ecologistics Limited, Waterloo, Canada
Dec. 1 Duane Parker and Steve Dlugosz, Countrymark Cooperative INC,
Indianapolis IN
Dec. 19, Steve Magner, Attica, IN
*******************************************************************************
* ============================================         *-|//-*                *
* ||| .   .         . |    .       .    . |||        > +--+--+ <              *
* |||   .     .   .   |  .    .     . .   |||          *-//|-*                *
* ||| .  .  . .  .  . | .  .     .   .   /|||           + | +                 *
* |||. Season's Greetings!     .      . / |||                                 *
* |||\.   .    .      |     .      /\  /. |||    + | +           Happy        *
* ||| \  . /\  . .    |.    /\.   /. \/   |||   *-|//-*         Holidays      *
* |||. \. /  \   ./\  |   ./  \ ./.   \ . ||| > +--+--+ <                     *
* |||   \/ .  \/\/  \ |   / .  \/    .    |||   *-//|-*                       *
* |||=====================================|||    + | +                        *
* |||.   .\ .   *  \ .|\/ .  .  .\  .  .. |||        |------------|           *
* |||  .   \   ***  . | \.   .    \.    .*|||        |            |           *
* |||    .  . *****.  | .\   .  .  \    / |||        |------------|           *
* |||.       *******. |  . .  . *   \.  / |||                                 *
* |||  .  . ********* |  .     ***  .  /__|||    ======================       *
* |||        .  * .   |    .  *****   .   |||   ======************======      *
* |||      .   .    . |  .   ******* . .  |||   ======************======      *
* |||  . @______ .  . |   . *********   . |||   ======*** ^ ^  ***======      *
* |||   ._+___+_.     |  . *********** .  |||   ======** (  \ ) **======      *
* ||| .      .  .  .  | .       *      .  |||   ======**________**======      *
* |||_________________|___________________|||   ======__|______|__======      *

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

CONFERENCES/WORKSHOP DATES: We are giving you a Christmas break and not
listing the dates in this issue.  Happy Holiday Season to all LARSians and
Friends!

--Chris J. Johannsen, Director
  Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS)
  1158 ENTM 220, Purdue University,
  W. Lafayette, IN 47907-1158, USA
  (317) 494-6305, Fax: (317) 494-7753
  johannsn@iies.ecn.purdue.edu