Clint Slatton, NCALM steering committee member and an assistant professor with a joint appointment in electrical and computer engineering and civil and coastal engineering University of Florida, has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or PECASE, award.
The White House describes the award, which comes with a five-year $1 million research grant, as “the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.”

For more details see here and here

An excellent article by NCALM was featured in December issue of Physics Today, the flagship publication of The American Institute of Physics, which is the most influential and closely followed physics magazine in the world.
Direct link to the article.

The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) invites graduate students who are interested in research grade ALSM data to make use of the center's facilities through the Seed Money Projects programme. This NCALM programme funds 5-7 seed projects every year covering area no more than 40 sq km. The motivation for such seed projects is to have graduate students start their preliminary scientific research and subsequently develop larger NSF proposals to make scientific discoveries using observations and data sets from ALSM technology.

The proposals can be submitted electronically by visting the center's website www.ncalm.org. The submission deadline has been extended to November 7, 2007. Click here to proceed to proposal submission webiste.

University of Florida's Dr. William E. Carter was invited to contribute an article on earth rotation and polar motion, including the old optical observations and Very Long Baseline Interferometry, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who has completed its 200 years of service. In past Dr. Carter held key positions at NOAA's National Ocean Service and National Geodetic Survey, and is now with University of Florida's Geosensing Systems Engineering Program.

The VLBI is historically related to the development of the modern terrestrial reference frame used for georeferencing the laser swath mapping observations. Click here to read the article on NOAA's website.

The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), which is supported by the National Science Foundation, is seeking an individual/institution in South America to collaborate on the collection of airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM), also known as LIDAR, observations for scientific research projects in nations located in South America. The collaborator would assist NCALM in communicating with the Principal Investigators of funded projects to develop detail plans for ALSM data collections, identify potential owners or operators of aircraft that might be used in data collections, obtain necessary clearances, provide or arrange for personnel to collect GPS observations at ground stations, and other activities required to support the efficient and cost effective collection of research quality ALSM data.

Those individuals/institutions interested should contact:

Dr. Ramesh. Shrestha,
University of Florida,
email: rshre@ce.ufl.edu ,
phone: 352-392-4999,
Fax: 352- 392-5032.

LIDAR Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a technique for making precise distance measurements over broad areas. The technique is useful for creating three dimensional images of surfaces. The U.S. Antarctic Program has an agreement with NCALM
http://www.ncalm.org/
at the University of Florida to support airborne LIDAR surveys in Antarctica. Interested PIs requiring airborne LIDAR for their project should contact the NCALM and the appropriate NSF Antarctic Program Officer prior to submitting their proposal. NCALM requires a proposal, from which they will develop a budget to be incorporated into the NSF proposal as a subaward. The LIDAR portion of the project must also be described and justified in the peer-reviewed sections of the proposal.

For more information at NSF, please contact

Thomas Wagner, Ph.D.
Program Director, Antarctic Geology and Geophysics National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
4201 Wilson Blvd, Rm. 755; Arlington, VA 22230, USA
email: twagner@nsf.gov
ph (703) 292-4746 fax (703) 292-9079 or 9081

The NCALM Proposal deadline has been extended to December 5th, 2006.

The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), invites proposals from graduate students seeking airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM) observations covering limited areas (generally no more than 40 square kilometers) for use in research to earn an M.S. or PhD degree. Submission date extended. Proposals must be submitted now on-line by December 5, 2006. For background information and complete guidelines for submitting a proposal, please see www.ncalm.org.

Nominations are solicited for three seats on the Steering Committee of the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) for the interval July 1, 2006 to June 30th, 2008.

NCALM is a research center supporting the use of airborne laser mapping technology in the scientific community. It is operated jointly by the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Florida (UF) and the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California- Berkeley (UCB). The NCALM Steering Committee consists of nine members of the research community who review the progress of the NCALM program, provide advice and feedback to NSF program managers and the Center Directors concerning issues and problems, and help promote the NCALM program.

Individuals are encouraged to nominate themselves. Please send a two page NSF-style CV and a brief paragraph outlining your interest in participating to ramon.arrowsmith@asu.edu before May 15, 2006.

A Data Policy page has been added to the NCALM site, please review this here.