Geodesy expert Richard Wonnacott, an Umvoto Africa Associate, has been awarded honorary membership of the South African Geomatics Institute (SAGI).

The award was made at the SAGI Eastern Cape Branch 2014 AGM, held in Grahamstown. It acknowledged Wonnacott’s dedicated and outstanding service to the South African survey industry and the international geodetic community.  In particular, “his vision of transforming the South African trig system from co-ordinates on paper to real-time position via TrigNet.”

Wonnacott said he had travelled to the Eastern Cape for many years while representing the Chief Directorate: National Geospatial information and Directorate of Survey Services.  “This year I was invited to speak at the AGM, and was greatly honoured to receive this acknowledgement.”

Wonnacott has worked on several major geodetic surveying projects. He managed the technical, financial and personnel matters of the Directorate of Control Surveys from 1993 to 2013 and initiated and project managed the implementation of the country-wide network of active GPS base stations (TrigNet).

He is a member of numerous national and international committees and bodies. These include being on the Governing Board of the International GNSS Service from 2006 until 2013 and the Executive Committee of the International Association of Geodesy since 2007.  He was elected as a Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy in 2007.