Optech's Chairman Keynote Speaker at SPAR

Dr Allan Carswell, chairman of Optech, will keynote SPAR 2010, on Monday, 8th February. He is to discuss the growth of the use of lasers and Lidar in surveying, and the lidar industry as a whole, from his perspective. On the 50th anniversary of the invention of lasers, Dr Carswell is a highly suitable choice as Speaker.

Dr. Carswell has been a respected member of both the research and commercialisation streams in lidar since its inception, and is a senior figure in atmospheric Lidar research. He was the Science Lead for the lidar system in NASA's recent Mars Phoenix Lander, which captured the first data proving the existence of snowfall on Mars. Back on Earth Dr.Carswell's company, Optech, has been at the forefront of Lidar surveying technology for over 35 years, driving its practical applications to answer real-world survey needs.

Dr. Carswell will address pioneering efforts in collaboration with many other commercial and research stakeholders, and their role in the research and development of lidar. The impact of three-dimensional imagery and information, which is now the norm in many surveying applications, will be discussed. The use of lidar in numerous applications, including ground-based static and mobile mapping as well as airborne terrestrial and bathymetric scanning, will also be discussed and illustrated.