Hydrographer hall of fame

In 2012, the Board of Trustees of The Hydrographic Society of America instituted the Hydrographer Hall of Fame (HOF). The purpose of the HOF is to honor hydrographers who have made significant advances in the science of hydrographic surveying, who have had distinguished surveying careers, who have made contributions in the education of hydrographers and who have provided exemplary service to the society.

CLASS OF 2025

Brian Calder initially trained in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, earning his Ph.D. in 1997, and became involved in ocean mapping when he joined the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping & UNH-NOAA Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire as a plank-owner in 2000.

Starting as a research scientist, Brian is now a Research Professor and Associate Director of CCOM, and works primarily on high-speed, high-resolution bathymetry processing for hydrographic applications, and the associated estimation, use, and distribution of uncertainty of the processed bathymetry (with a side-line in volunteer bathymetry loggers, software, and processing methods). He is probably best known for development of the CUBE and CHRT algorithms, but also chairs the working group that developed and maintains the BAG file format for gridded bathymetry (which informed the initial design of S-102), and has served on a number of IHO committees.

Maxim van Norden had a challenging career in military hydrography, educating future hydrographers, and continues to serve on the NSPS-THSOA Hydrographer Certification Board.

Maxim was the Coordinator for the Hydrographic Science Master’s Degree (Category A) and B.S. Marine Science (Hydrography) (Category B) programs at The University of Southern Mississippi for ten years, graduating 118 hydrographers from around the world. He started his hydrographic career with the Naval Oceanographic Office and served in various positions for 36 years that provided the U.S. Navy geospatial battlefield dominance. He implemented the use of new technology and the application of new techniques in U.S. Navy survey operations. He was instrumental in obtaining access to foreign territorial waters for joint survey operations. He served on numerous IHO and NATO committees to improve or update international hydrographic survey and navigation display standards. He has been a member of THSOA since its founding and has served as Southeast Chapter President, Conference Technical Programs Chair, and on THSOA scholarship committees.

Mike Nitska has been employed as a Hydrographic Surveyor in the hydrographic/land survey industry since 1981. He received a B.S. in Hydrographic Surveying from Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology, Toronto Canada in 1981.

During his career, Mike has worked around the world performing Hydrographic Surveys in Australia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Mauritania, the North Sea, Malta, Brazil, Guyana, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada and the United States.

Mike has been employed by Hydroterra Technologies LLC in Scott LA since March 2012 as their survey cost estimator for Hydrographic and Land survey projects. Prior to this, he was employed by NEI as their rental coordinator.

Mike was the THSOA National president from 2018-2019 and along with his team members put on a very successful USHYDRO 2019 conference in Biloxi Mississippi. He is also the current chairmen of THSOA-SE Chapter and has held this position for thirteen of the past fifteen years.