Fred Limp, Founding Director of Centre for Sophisticated Spatial Systems, to Retire

Fred Limp Jr.
Fred Limp Jr., College Professor in the Department of Geosciences, inaugural holder of the Leica Geosystems Chair in Geospatial Imaging and founding director of the Middle for Innovative Spatial Technologies, will be retiring from his posture at the conclude of the fiscal yr following more than 41 several years doing the job on the U of A campus.
Be sure to arrive celebrate with us in a drop-by accumulating from 2-4 p.m., June 4, at The Gardens on the U of A campus. Much more data can be found on the function web site. If you are not able to show up at, but desire to send your type regards, please examine out our digital card.
Even though at the U of A, Limp created consequential and prolonged-lasting contributions in many locations of investigate and schooling. In the space of geoinformatics, he was a founder and served on the Board of the Open up Geospatial Consortium, Intergraph Geospatial Executive’s Board, AmericaView, Place Picture Tutorial Advisory Board, the Countrywide Consortium for Rural Geospatial Improvements Board, Oracle North The united states Buyers Forum, Sam M. Walton Faculty of Business Facts Technologies Analysis Institute Board, the U of A’s RFID Middle Steering Committee and the OGC Interoperability Institute.
He was component of the enhancement neighborhood that spearheaded the Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) GIS application — GRASS — in the mid-80s and early 90s. He served as an instructor on the GRASS software at several spots like Colorado Condition, Rutgers, NASA and many others. He was appointed by Gov. Jim Person Tucker to the Arkansas Mapping and Land Documents Modernization Board and later on appointed by Gov. Mike Huckabee to the Arkansas State Land Info Board, which eventually grew to become the Arkansas GIS Board. He is co-creator of two legislative acts that executed geospatial technologies throughout the condition. He has been a leader in the enhancement of on the net geoinformatics education and learning, which includes enhancement of two certificate plans, each accepted by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and learning (ADHE).
He has also been a person of the strongest supporters of K-12 geospatial training through his early support of the EAST Initiative. He been given the Arkansas GIS Users Forum Life time Accomplishment Award and was a founding Arkansas Computing Academy Inductee. For his research, he received the GAIA Award from the GRASS Neighborhood, the Fulbright College or university Master Researcher Award and the U of A Alumni Distinguished Investigation Award.
Archaeology and heritage preservation — and its intersection with geoinformatics — has been a career passion for him. When completing his graduate research at Indiana University, he led the improvement of an archaeological computer mapping procedure and the DELOS info devices, just one of the initial in depth databases systems in archaeology. As an anthropologist in the late 1970s, he was included in a assortment of excavations and surveys even so, his dissertation provided the progress and programming of what would afterwards be known as a “GIS” — which he applied to implement site option analysis to pre-Columbian settlement destinations.
Immediately after acquiring his doctoral degree in anthropology (with an emphasis in archaeology) at Indiana University, he served as co-director for the Centre for American Archaeology’s Agreement Archaeology Application (1978-1979) and as assistant and interim director for the Arkansas Archaeological Survey (1979-1990). He was elected as treasurer and then, in 2010, as president of the Society of American Archaeology and served on the Board of the Foundation for American Archaeology and the College Consortium for Preservation Technological know-how. In 2014, he was appointed by Secretary of the Inside, Ken Salazar, to the Board of the National Heart for Preservation Technology and Coaching. Limp currently serves on the Board of the Institute for Industry Investigation.
In the earth of archaeology, he is acknowledged for his talents in applying a assortment of “higher tech” strategies utilised for discovery, analysis and preservation of archaeological and world wide heritage resources. He has been concerned in heritage preservation jobs on six continents involving the software of geographic data devices, worldwide navigation satellite units, remote sensing, laser scanning and photogrammetry. He observed the long run of geospatial technologies long before most folks. In 2006, he wrote a 3-element sequence entitled “An Impending Substantial 3-D Mashup,” for Geoplace.com, in which he predicted the upcoming fusion of systems from the geospatial, gaming and CAD/CAM sectors. Currently we see his forecast was correct on target.
In 1991, Limp founded the Heart for Sophisticated Spatial Technologies, usually referred to simply just as Solid – a person of the very first ADHE-authorized Facilities on the U of A campus. Forged was the embodiment of the suggestions he designed in his early job, and under his management, grew to become one of the leading geospatial study centers in the entire world, not only as utilized to archaeology, but as a accurate multi-disciplinary center. In the late 1990s, Forged developed the first seamless, statewide geospatial information warehouse for the State of Arkansas, which grew to become regarded as GeoStor. GeoStor made Arkansas geospatial knowledge quickly accessible by the community and had wide educational and financial impacts for the state. The framework formulated by Limp and the Forged group can even now be observed in geospatial data repositories in use these days, not only in Arkansas, but close to the environment.
“I think all people who has worked with Fred about the yrs — and there have been several of us — would agree that he is the Pleased Warrior. Constantly optimistic and inquisitive, we all grew to hope all those 2 a.m. emails with a ‘check this out!’ subject line,” remarked Jackson Cothren, existing director of Forged and Limp’s successor in that posture. Cothren also said, “Of all his achievements, his selfless and energetic devotion to his colleagues and pupils is how he will be remembered, and missed, in this article.”
If you would like to attend Limp’s retirement celebration, and maybe hear some tales, or notify one of your personal, please drop in from 2-4 p.m., Friday, June 4. Parking is readily available in Large amount 56B close to the intersection of Razorback Street and Nolan Richardson Travel (previously Leroy Pond Travel). To increase the quantity of guests who can show up at when also social distancing, you should consider preserving your time at the event to 30 minutes.