About Mr. Henk Scholten Ph.D.

Henk J. Scholten studied Mathematics and Geography at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and obtained his Ph.D. in 1988.
Since 1990 he is professor in Spatial Informatics at the Faculty of Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Director of the Spinlab (www.spinlab.vu.nl).

Prof. Scholten is founder and CEO of Geodan, one of the largest European companies specialised in Geospatial Information Technology (www.geodan.nl). Prof. Scholten is advisor for the European Union and several ministries in the field of Disaster Management and GIS. He has written more than 100 articles and 9 books on GIS.

On April 29th, 2005, Prof. Scholten received a Royal Decoration for his significant contribution to geo-information, both on a national and international level.

In July 2009 the 'Lifetime Achievement Award'was given to Prof. Scholten by Jack Dangermond, founder of ESRI. This award is given to a person who has contributed significantly to advancing the science and technology of GIS throughout his career.