FIG Council

Geomatics and Property Valuation for Global  Sustainable Development

President Robert W. Foster, 1999-2002

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
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 V
Denmark
E-mail: FIG@fig.net  

Robert W. Foster
President of FIG
85 Frankland Road
Hopkinton
MA 01748
U.S.A.
Email: rwfoster@juno.com
Tel. + 1 508 435 7178
Fax: + 1 508 435 6534