Helmut Kraenzle, Professor of Geography at the United Arab Emirates University, is currently Director of the Masters Program in Remote Sensing and GIS in Abu Dhabi. Between 1996-2005, Dr. Kraenzle served at James Madison University as Professor of Geography and Team Leader of the Mine Action Information Center at JMU. In 2002, he was the recipient of the Madison Scholar Award from the College of Integrated Science and Technology for his excellence in research. Before he started his academic career, he was supervisor of the "Geographical Services" Section at E-Plus Mobile Communications in Düsseldorf, Germany. Dr. Kraenzle received his Ph.D. degree in Natural Science at the University of Munich, and his research interests are in Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Databases.