Geography program receives special achievement award for exceptional application of geospatial technology

The Geography Department of SNRAS and the Scenarios for Alaska and Arctic Planning received a special achievement in GIS award at the Esri International User Conference in San Diego, Calif., July 10. This award acknowledges vision, leadership, hard work and innovative use of Esri's geographic information system technology.

Katie Kennedy

Geography and SNAP Education and Outreach Coordinator Katie Kennedy uses Esri ArcGIS technology in K-12 classrooms across Alaska and trains teachers to use the program. Kennedy was at the Esri conference to receive the award.

Organizations from around the world honored at the Esri UC span industries including agriculture, cartography, climate change, defense and intelligence, economic development, education, government, health and human services, telecommunications and utilities.

"The SAG Awards identify the organizations and people that are using the power of geography to improve our world and drive change," says Esri president Jack Dangermond. "At Esri, we are always deeply inspired by the passion and innovation of our users. They deserve recognition for both solving their communities’ greatest challenges and for their invaluable contributions to the continued evolution of geographic science.”

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server and internet platforms.

Further reading:
GIS software will open new worlds to Alaska teachers and students, SNRAS Science and News, Sept. 12, 2011