PROFESSOR HONORIS CAUSA

Following the decision of the Council of the Siberian State University, Russian Federation, in Novosibirsk on 23 March 2017, Joël VAN CRANENBROECK was awarded the title of PROFESSOR HONORIS CAUSA of the Siberian State University of Geosystems and Technologies in recognition of his personal contribution, support and development of Russian Science and Geodetic Education.

This honorary award presented to a Belgian Expert-Surveyor is unique in the history of Science in the Russian Federation and rewards the many contributions made in the field of GNSS positioning, geodetic engineering and topographic teaching. The projects in which Joël VAN CRANENBROECK has made an innovative and unique contribution include:

• The vertical alignment procedures for the highest towers in the world (the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Landmark Abu Dhabi, the Al Hamra tower and the NBK in Kuwait, the CMA tower in Riyadh, the Lamar tower and the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, the Shard in London, the Sky Tree tower in Tokyo and the new Lotte Tower in Seoul, among others),
• The development of topographical resolution methods,
• The creation of processing software and the design of GNSS receivers,
• His participation since 2016 as Vice-Chair of the 6.2 working group of Commission 6 of the International Federation of Surveyors,
• His new dam inspection methods, the geodetic surveillance of large bridges, as well as landslides and seismic areas.

Joël VAN CRANENBROECK has published more than 100 scientific articles and invented two patents in geodetic engineering. In 1992, he was at the initiative of the creation of the permanent GPS/GNSS networks in Belgium, WALCORS and FLEPOS, and was invited to join Leica Geosystems AG Heerbrugg between 2001 and 2013 as Director of the Permanent Stations Programme. He had already worked at the DGLPG-DGOAP (service of land surveys and general maps)  within the Belgian Land Registry, at the Geodetic department of the National Geographic Institute of Belgium, at STAR Informatic and at Van Hopplynus Instruments in Brussels, as a Geo-Systems Specialist and then as a Sales & Marketing Manager.

During the ceremony, he stressed the importance of this award and how much of an honour it was for Belgium, the Walloon Region and the entire profession of Expert-Surveyors, recalling that MERCATOUR was also Belgian.

Joël VAN CRANENBROECK is Managing Director of CGEOS - CREATIVE GEOSENSING, a company which he founded in 2014 which specialises in Geodetic Engineering, navigation and high-precision GNSS positioning, as well as in the surveillance of civil engineering structures.