Dave Catts education and work history

University of Delaware (1974 - 1977)

Studies in Geology, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Meteorology, Archeology and Geography. From Moorestown High School in New Jersey, I wanted to become a Geologist (9th Grade). My brother was a Chemistry Major; but a Field Geology course changed his mind and mine. He went into Geochemistry and I went into other geophysical sciences which ALL NEED MAPPING.

University of Idaho (1977 - 1983)

1977-1983 Cart-O-Graphic Laboratory
Team participant on design and construction of custom maps and graphics for The University of Idaho, Latah County and State government. National Parks to local geologic quadrangles for U. S. Geological Survey in Idaho. “Compact Atlas of Idaho”.
1987-1981 Latah County Mapping Project
Dual team participant on hand scribing (3M Scribecoat) 1:24,000-scale maps for Latah County, Idaho. Topography on previous planimetric maps and completing the project with funding from the State of Idaho. Greg Conradi, partner.
”How To Produce Visually Effective Orthophotomaps”, The American Cartographer
First Technical Notes section in the American Cartographer along with printed 1:24,000-scale map of Moscow Mountain, Idaho.
1977-1982 Bachelors of Science in Geography cum laude
1977-1982 Bachelors of Science in Cartography cum laude
“Meritorious Achievement Award”, 1982 from Department of Geography, College of Mines and Earth Resources.

National Geographic Society (1983 – 1986)

1983-1984 Typesetter and Cartographic Artist
team participant on construction of “People and Places of the Past: A Cultural Atlas”, 1983. “Atlas of the World”, second reprint 1983. “Europe” 1983, political side completed entirely by yours truly.
1984-1986 Cartographic Artist, 2nd Cartographer in Production
team participant on production of maps, globes, atlases and special NGS funded projects. “Historical Map” series for the United States. “Laetoli, Site B” in Tanzania for Dr. Mary Leakey, final cartography. Field Research was what I wanted to do originally. Trained by Tibor Toth for landscape visualization of relief in pencil and started color assembly with acrylics at home. “The Virgin Islands”, American and British, 1989.

U. S. Geological Survey (1986 – 2003)

1987-1988 USGS-EPA Elizabeth River Project
Team participant on data acquisition and analysis. Lead development of GIS-based data acquisition for base category data
co-developed first archivable GIS-generated Digital Line Graph (DLG).
1987 Scott Polar Research Institute Antarctica Shoreline
Converted plotting database from Scott Polar (Britain) to geographic information systems topologically correct dataset which was distributed to the Department of the Navy for United States ships at sea. Letter of commendation from US Navy.
1987 SIMPLIFY / SIMPLINE developed new statistical/correlation graphing for geographic information systems (GIS). Discussed this GIS capability with Scott Morehouse of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and this capability was commercialized two years later in Arc/INFO graphing and statistical functions (not correlation).
1988 Computer-Aided Thematic Mapping Committee (CATMC)
Member of first USGS interdivisional group to address computer-derived graphics.
1988-1991 New Jersey Project 1:500,000-scale NJ State Base Map
project manager, supervising and training two USGS employees designed and developed state-of-the-art data generalization techniques
developed new digital graphic production techniques for NMD tested and developed datum conversion techniques for digital data.
1990 Provided input and examples of generalization techniques and processing
to Scott Morehouse, Chief of the Software Development Group at Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) for presentation at European GIS Conference in Paris.
1991 Generalization Tools for GIS Users (GENTOOLS)
Developed and distributed customized GIS software user interface (GUI) integrated and/or developed various data generalization methods and techniques. Integrated new image resampling techniques being developed by G. Lemeshewsky. Co-developed a Perl-based interface with State University of New York (SUNY) with Barbara Buttenfield.
1990 Geographic Information Systems - Thematic Mapping (GISTM)
Member of standards development team. NMD effort to develop computer-based graphic standards for GIS.
1990-1991 Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) Working Group
Team member of government-wide evaluation and implementation team developed tools/techniques allowing interchange of data between government agencies first inter-bureau transfer of data (USGS <-> Census, USGS <-> DOD)
1991-1992 MonoRevision Demonstration
Developed software and graphic user interface (GUI) development of GIS-based revision of data with black-and-white orthophotography. A “canned demo” to show effectiveness of GIS in collecting and tagging data.
1991-1992 Modernization-Product Generation (MPG)
Software and graphic user interface (GUI) development team member. National Mapping Division (NMD) effort to design and develop a computer-based map production system.
1990-1994 Revision-Product Generation (RevPG)
Evolution of MPG effort, Headquarters representative on development team managed RevPG development under Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) and Arc/INFO and GRID. CRADA as public distributable release of production software (RevPG ver. 3.1.1).
“Superior Service Award”, 1991
Presented by USGS Director Dallas Peck for RevPG for Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI): “Public Distribution of “USGS RevPG” 1994 USGS/ESRI Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). NMD technical lead point-of-contact (POC) for Phase One
1992, 1994 Project 610 with U. S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture
Provided technical and map assembly assistance to Bob Bailey, USFS-Fort Collins, Colorado, for the development of the digital publication, “Ecoregions of the United States”. This technical assistance was repeated in 1994 by helping produce, “Ecoregions of North
America”.
1992 USGS/ETAK Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
Navigational data evaluation with conflation routines. NMD technical lead Point of Contact (POC)
1996-1997 USGS/3M Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
NMD technical lead Point of Contact (POC). USGS manager of Phase Three - evaluation of high-productivity system. Supervised and directed five employees.
1998 USGS/Microsoft Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
Volunteered to assist Headquarters effort to develop public web site.
1995-1998 Transferred to Rocky Mountain Mapping Center as (RMMC) CRADA POC
Act as Center POC on developing and distributing all CRADA-related material.
1996-1997 Rocky Mountain Mapping Center (RMMC) Cartographic Research co-Point Of Contact (POC)
1997 Provided input and examples of generalization techniques and processing to Danielle Lee of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) for the development and integration of data generalization tools within Arc/Info GIS software. Acted to focus and
direct RMMC and NMD data requirements to Danielle Lee for consideration and development of processing options.
1997-1998 Maps On Demand (MOD) Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
A carry-over extension of 3M CRADA activity. Managed the identification and acquisition of Bureau equipment. Developed management and technical procedures to develop products.
1996-1997 Conflation Development for Water Resources Hydrography Dataset
Designed and developed (then co-developed) data conflation techniques. Enhance conflation routines for development of USGS new data capture and tagging interface for Water Resources Division 1:100,000-scale Hydrography Dataset.
1996-1998 USFS Point Of Contact (POC) on issues related to Project 615
Transition of processing techniques to ESRI software. Developed first computer generated topography layer for USFS map.
1998 University Consortium on Geographic Information Science (UCGIS)
Committee member at the request of Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) present government perspective on research and application trends. NCGIS publication on Geographic Information Science with Bob McMaster and Nina Lamm. Primary Author on Chapter on Scale. “Trends in Geography at the U. S. Geological Survey” with the National Science Foundation.
1996-1998 USGS Urban Geologic and Hydrologic Hazards Director’s Initiative: “Puget Sound Natural Hazards”
Bureau Implementation Team member for NMD. Manage and coordinated all NMD activities and budgeting. Coordinate NMD research activities under this Initiative. Implemented 3-dimensional visualization techniques including 3D Nature “World Construction Set”; then migration and development team for “Visual Nature Studio” as a TestPilot member. Begins as Geographic Landscape Modeling (GVIS) and changes to Landscape Modeling and Visualization (LVIS). Three-hundred USGS 30-meter Digital Elevation Models (DEM) for the project area. LIDAR project east of Seattle.
2001 State of Colorado Seamless Database for Elevation and Digital Raster Graphics
Using Arc/INFO and MapGuide and Author from Autodesk to develop Statewide Internet map server interface to adjusted DEMs and DRGs. Present government perspective on research and application trends.
1999-2003 USGS/BLM Integrated Science on Gunnison Gorge National Recreation Area (GGNRA)
Bureau Implementation Team member for NMD/Geography Discipline. Manage and coordinated all Geography Discipline activities and budgeting. Coordinate research activities under this Initiative. Implemented 3-dimensional visualization techniques including 3D Nature “Visual Nature Studio” as a TestPilot member. Seamless DLG Hypsography and Tagged Vector Contour database for three-by-three quadrangles for the project area. Inventory of Plants continues with Ecosystem Component Library (ECL). Developed “Visual Nature Studio Ecosystem Map 1:50,000-scale for GGNRA as seamless with sit captured foliage and placement with local GRASS project.
2002 Landscape Modeling and Visualization (LVIS)
Approved by Associate Director for Geography but “stove-piped” under Geographic Assessment and Monitoring (GAM) Program and the Keynote Address at Spring 2003 Research Meeting in Rolla, Missouri cancelled. Essentially the Approved Project was “torpedoed” by thee Associate Director’s higher level authority without telling me?

Humm … so in retirement, I address Earth and Human Modeling, which is Geography, and “pixel-paint” Cartography for fun.

"Three-dimensional thinking and analysis in the geospatial sciences: design, modeling and printing / framing for over 40 years.  I wrote my first Fortran 4 program on a IBM 360, with perforated paper tape, back in 1968 in The Hague, Netherlands.  When I came back to The States, all they taught was the mandatory typing class!  On to the University of Idaho for geography and computer mapping on a IBM 370 with card decks and Calcomp plotters with SYMVU, SYMAP and CALFORM, and shaded relief overprinted characters on line printers. At the National Geographic Society, Cartographic Division, I continued map assembly with quarterly Magazine inserts but learned shaded relief techniques from artist Tibor Toth, who hand painted, and his protege John Bonner, who airbrushed, and began painting map relief art at home by hand, in my spare time. At the Office of Research at U. S. Geological Survey under Dr. Joel Morrison, I helped convert manual cartography to digital processes with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and added research in GIScience with NCGIS and UCGIS. I am knowledgeable of the cartographic design, assembly processes, computers and software, used to build 3D models and generate large-format images and fly-through animations from large area environmental models … but now in retirement, I continue cartography as a hobby by processing and painting with the old and reliable digital brush, … a trackball."   Dave Catts