The Robert N. Colwell Memorial Fellowship for 2009 was awarded to Sergio Bernardes.  He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia (UGA) where he expects to earn a PhD in Geography in 2010.

This award was presented by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) through the ASPRS Foundation from funds donated by students, associates, colleagues and friends of Robert N. Colwell. The award consists of a grant in the amount of $5,000, a certificate, and a one-year student or associate membership (new or renewal) in ASPRS. The presentation of the award took place at the ASPRS 2009 Annual Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland in March.

The Colwell award was established in 2006 to encourage and commend college/university graduate students or post-doctoral researchers who display exceptional interest, desire, ability and aptitude in the field of remote sensing or other related geospatial information technologies, and who have a special interest in developing practical uses of these technologies.

Bernardes’ research involves multi-temporal and multi-sensor analyses of biophysical parameters of vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon forest and savanna transition areas. His research on modeling of carbon sources and sinks, understanding human impacts on Brazilian Amazon forests and savanna, and advancing remote sensing image processing techniques will provide an important contribution to global change monitoring and modeling. Bernardes’ research program is consistent with the emphasis on practical applications of remote sensing to natural resources that characterized the career of Dr. Colwell, in whose memory this Fellowship is awarded.

Bernardes earned a BS degree in Agricultural Engineering from Vicossa Federal University, Brazil in 1991 and an MS degree in Remote Sensing from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research in 1996.  He held a highly competitive university-wide Graduate School Award for two years at the UGA and received the ASPRS GeoEye Award and other UGA graduate awards in 2008.