At the 17th International Conference of the ISTVS, held in September in Blacksburg, Virginia, Dr. Roy Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., presented the 2011 St. Christopher Lecture on his amazing work with the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
You can view his full presentation slidedeck here, complete with many wonderful Mars images from the work of the rovers or download the presentation as a PDF (3MB).
Ray Arvidson is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University, St. Louis.
He is Deputy Principal Investigator for the science payload on NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers. In addition, Arvidson serves as an interdisciplinary scientist on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, head of NASA's Planetary Data System Geosciences Node and a director of NASA's Regional Planetary Image Center.
He has more than 100 publications dealing with remote sensing of Earth, Mars and Venus. He was science team leader for the imaging system on NASA's Viking Landers from 1977 to 1982.
Arvidson attended high school in Williamstown, N.J., then earned a bachelor's degree in geology from Temple University, Philadelphia, and a doctorate in geological sciences from Brown University, Providence.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/telecon/bios20091110.html
http://eps.wustl.edu/people/Raymond_Arvidson
Since 1966, ISTVS has honored distinguished workers in the field of terrain-vehicle interaction by offering them the opportunity to deliver the St. Christopher Lecture at an international ISTVS conference, held every three years.
Named for the patron saint of travelers, this is the highest award offered by the society. The recipient need not be an ISTVS member. Selection and invitation of recipients is the responsibility of the conference organizing committee.
Previous recipients of the St Christopher Lecture award include the inaugural 1969 presentation by Dr. Walter Söhne, the 1981 presentation by Professor Walter Jurecka, Professor Masanori Kitano in 1984, Professor Iwan Wästerlund in 1999, and Dr. Ronald A. Liston in 2002.