Award

Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software

The Sol Katz Award is OSGeo’s highest honor, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated leadership and dedication to the open source geospatial community.

About Sol Katz

Sol Katz was a pioneering developer at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who dedicated his career to promoting open standards and sharing code. He believed that taxpayer-funded software should be freely available to everyone. Sol passed away in 1999, but his spirit of generosity and collaboration lives on through this award.

Nominate Someone

Know someone who embodies the spirit of open source geospatial? Nominations open annually.

Award Criteria

Recipients are selected based on:

  • Sustained contributions to open source geospatial
  • Community leadership and mentorship
  • Technical excellence in code, documentation, or standards
  • Advocacy for open source principles
  • Collaboration across projects and communities

Past Recipients

YearRecipientRecognized For
2026Ian TurtonGeoTools co-founder and GeoServer
2025Nyall DawsonQGIS development and leadership
2024Tom KralidisGeoPython, pygeoapi, pycsw, and OGC standards
2023Howard ButlerPDAL, GDAL, PROJ, and GEOS
2022Sandro SantilliPostGIS, GEOS, and librttopo
2021Malena LibmanCommunity building and empowerment
2020Anita GraserQGIS advocacy, development, and leadership
2019Even RouaultGDAL and PROJ
2018Astrid EmdeOSGeo and FOSSGIS leadership
View Full List
Recognition

Other Recognition

Charter Members

OSGeo Charter Members are individuals who have demonstrated sustained and significant contributions to the Foundation and its projects.

About Charter Membership

Project Status

Projects earn recognition through OSGeo’s graduation process:

  • Incubation - New projects under evaluation
  • OSGeo Project - Fully graduated community projects
  • Community Projects - Associated projects with lighter governance

About Project Incubation

Nomination Process

  1. Review the criteria
  2. Write a nomination letter
  3. Submit to the OSGeo Board
  4. Awards announced at FOSS4G

Submit a Nomination

The Sol Katz Spirit

“Given the program’s success it seemed like a perfect chance to reach out to folks and help them do the same, but many times found that folks didn’t want to share.”

“Sol Katz didn’t just share his code, he shared his enthusiasm.”

— From remembrances of Sol Katz

Award Presentation

The Sol Katz Award is presented annually at the FOSS4G global conference, with the recipient giving a keynote address.

FOSS4G Conference