Prashant Shukle receives OGC Lifetime Achievement Award

The OGC Lifetime Achievement Award is given on occasion to an individual who has provided exceptional service, usually over many years, to the OGC community.

Prashant was selected to receive the award for his leadership, commitment, and support for the advancement of geospatial information, technologies, and standards-based interoperability as a strategic element of government policy and efficiency. Further, Prashant’s leadership in the Canadian government and international geospatial programs, and his support for open standards and OGC’s mission, have helped improve decision-making related to social, environmental, and economic challenges faced by government, industry, and citizens.

“Over his 30-year career, Prashant has demonstrated a strong commitment to good governance and accountability,” commented Jeff Harris, Chair of the OGC Board of Directors. “Through his leadership positions at the local, provincial, and federal levels, most recently as Director General of the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, he spearheaded innovative initiatives to expand the value of geospatial information and technologies to the national economy, to improve access to geospatial information to meet a range of national needs, and to increase Canadian support to align with international open standards, including those of OGC.”

Prashant further worked to secure permanent funding for the GeoConnections Canada program to assure the advancement of Canadian policy and infrastructure necessary to enable public and private sector exploitation of location information for improved understanding and evidence-based decision-making. This is most evident in the many provincial and national programs that have adopted OGC and complementary standards to increase interoperable access, sharing, and application of geospatial information across all sectors in Canada.