October 15, 2024
SANSA Chief Scientist, Professor Mike Kosch, has been awarded a prestigious award by the United Kingdom (UK) Institute of Physics (IOP) for his groundbreaking work in auroral research.
Prof Kosch has been awarded the IOP Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize for image processing techniques derived from pioneering auroral research. These techniques have been deployed in hundreds of automated cameras for wildfire detection, realising huge savings in timber losses and CO2 emissions.
Professor Kosch’s pioneering research into artificial auroras and locating distant, ill-defined moving objects led to his development of advanced image-processing techniques for wildfires. In 2011, he joined spin-out company EnviroVision Solutions (EVS), which integrated these techniques into multiple networks of automated and strategically positioned cameras, in a system called ForestWatch®. The advanced image processing techniques he developed have allowed prompt reporting of smoke plumes even when the source of the wildfire is not visible, saving tens of thousands of hectares of commercial and indigenous forests and millions of tons of CO2 emissions.
Kosch said he was very pleased to receive this award and honoured to have his work recognised in this way. “It clearly shows how blue skies research, specifically into the natural, artificial, and black auroras in this case, has been translated into significant socio-economic benefit, thereby proving that blue skies research always has great potential value.”
