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Geological Remote Sensing Group
GRSG SIG Annual Report 2003-2004
This has been an eventful year for the GRSG, with initiatives to strengthen links with our RSPSoc and Geological Society “parents”, build on our international links, revamp our website, attract more student members, boost the content of the GRSG Newsletter and increase our conference activities. GRSG life was made even more interesting in June, when our dynamic Chairman, Dan Taranik, had to resign because of a job posting with Anglo American in Chile.
The GRSG currently has ca. 200 members, of which approximately 60% are in the UK, 15% in the rest of Europe, 15% in the USA. The balance of GRSG account at the end of 2003 was a healthy £3,218.66. During 2003 we reviewed our membership fees, modified our payment system (primarily to allow for payments in Euros) and re-organised our membership database.
With ca. 40% of our membership being overseas, we have aimed to build on our international profile. In 2003 there was a GRSG presence at the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories’ Symposium in Ghent and the International Association for Mathematical Geology Congress at Portsmouth. Agreement was also reached with the Geological Society of Nevada to co-sponsor a conference on remote sensing and mineral exploration to be held in Reno during May 2005. The GRSG Annual Conference was held at the Geological Society, in London, on December 18th. The meeting reviewed recent developments in geological remote sensing and was well attended, with an even mix of UK-based and overseas presentations.
In an effort to attract more student members, two stipends of up to £250 are now available to students wanting to make geological remote sensing presentations at international conferences. The first beneficiaries were Margaret Andrews Deller of the Open University, for her paper on the mapping and dating of saprolites in Ethiopia (to be presented at the 2004 International Geological Congress in Italy), and Gareth Funning of Oxford University, for his paper on satellite radar interferometry and earthquake activity in Alaska, presented at the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco.
As well as being a Geological Society SIG, GRSG is now a fully affiliated RSPSoc SIG: we’ve paid the £100 fee and are already starting to reap the benefits of increased publicity and logistical assistance with our events. On the communications front, we now have a GRSG email discussion group and a re-vamped website, kindly maintained by Tim Wright at Oxford University’s Earth Science Department. During 2003 the complete set of GRSG Newsletters, dating back to 1990, were scanned in PDF format: this archive covers many key events in the recent development of geological remote sensing and can be freely accessed via our website.
Four committee meetings were held during 2003. In addition to the loss of Chairman Dan Taranik, our long-serving Secretary, Pippa Mason, stood down and has since joined the RSPSoc Council: our loss is their gain! The GRST AGM saw the election of Richard Teeuw as Chairman and Claire Roberts as Secretary. Other key roles have been accepted by Naz Khalique (Newsletter Editor), Tim Wright (Publicity Officer) and Marc Goossens
(Fund-Raising Officer). Thanks to all of the GRST Committee for their sterling efforts over 2003.
Richard Teeuw
