President Robert W. Foster

The FIG General Assembly elected at its meeting in Sun City, South Africa in May/June 1999 Mr. Robert W. Foster as FIG President for a four-year term of office 1.1.2000-31.12.2002

Curriculum Vitae Date of birth  12 February 1932 Nationality  American Status  Professional Career Robert W. Foster is a Registered Professional Engineer and a Registered Professional Surveyor with 35 years experience in the planning and design of residential, commercial and industrial land uses, including the design of road systems and their infrastructure.

He received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Vermont in 1955. He provides consulting services in engineering and surveying and offers professional consulting services nationally in arbitration, dispute resolution and litigation involving civil engineering and surveying issues.

Mr. Foster is President of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), is a Past President of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), and has served on the Board of Trustees of The Engineering Center Education Trust (Boston). He is also a member of the Boston Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the New England Land Title Association, the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers (MALSCE), the Massachusetts Conveyancers Association (MCA) Dispute Resolution Register, and is chairman of the Hopkinton Zoning Board of Appeals. He has received several awards and citations from MALSCE, ACSM, and the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Mr. Foster has provided testimony in litigation involving property disputes, appeals for permit denials, eminent domain proceedings, and professional negligence. He has testified before the United States Congress and the Massachusetts Legislature on pending legislation and budgetary matters. He participated in rewriting Minimum Standards Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys" adopted by the American Land Title Association and ACSM in 1992. He conducted a study on the operations and functions of the Engineering Department of the Massachusetts Land Court for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) . He has conducted numerous seminars on the subjects of planning and zoning, professional practice issues and ethics, professional standards and alternative dispute resolution. For several years he conducted refresher courses for candidates for licensure as professional engineer and as professional surveyor.

Mr. Foster is author of The Liability Environment, a compendium of his columns appearing in the ACSM Bulletin. He has written several papers and articles on the global positioning system (GPS), ethics, professional practice, public relations, mapping he wetlands of Massachusetts, and the need for a land data system in New England. Mr. Foster has written a column regularly for the monthly Civil Engineering News and is a Contributing Editor for P.O.B. Magazine, a publication of Business News Publishing Company.

Presentations

• Address at the Handover Ceremony during Intergeo 2002 in Frankfurt, October 16, 2002
• Address to the II International Symposium of Association of Engineers and Land Surveyors of Puerto Rico by Robert W. Foster, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2002
• Closing Remarks by Robert W. Foster at GIS 2002 in Istanbul, Turkey, September 26, 2002
• Opening Address to GIS 2002 by Robert W. Foster in Istanbul, Turkey, 23 September, 2002
• Remarks by Robert W. Foster at the Signing of Memorandum of Cooperation between UN FAO and FIG in Rome, Italy, September 18, 2002
• International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Surveying Education Database and Academic Membership. 
  XVIII Surveying and Mapping Educators Conference, 2001: A Spatial Odyssey. Hosted by Penn State Wilkes-Barre Surveying Program, July 15-19, 2001
  • Acrobat-file (pdf-file) (15  KB)
• Spatial Information Management in the 21st Century. Presentation at the 7th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, United Nations, New York, USA, 23 January 2001, by Robert W. Foster, Matt Higgins and Jes Ryttersgaard, International Federation of Surveyors
  • Acrobat-file (pdf-file) (33 KB)
  • Powerpoint presentation (57  KB)
• FIG in the New Millennium - The Importance of International Bodies for Surveyors. Mediterranean Surveyor in the New Millennium, FIG Seminar in Malta 18-21 September 2000, by Robert W. Foster
  • Acrobat-file (pdf-file) (28 KB)
• Advancing the Global Role of Surveying for the New Millennium. Visit to Stockholm, Sweden, 21 March 2000, by  Robert W. Foster
  • Acrobat-file (pdf-file) (29 KB)

Contacts 

President Foster can be contacted either through the FIG permanent office in Copenhagen or his private address.

FIG Office
Kalvebod Brygge 31-33
DK-1780 Copenhagen
Denmark
E-mail: FIG@fig.net  
Tel +45 38 86 10 81

Robert W. Foster
President of FIG
85 Frankland Road
Hopkinton
MA 01748
U.S.A.
Email: rwfoster@juno.com
Tel. + 1 508 435 7178