[4][5] Jón Atli Benediktsson completed doctoral degree (PhD) in electrical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana in 1990.

The dissertation’s title is “Statistical Methods and Neural Network Approaches for Classification of Data from Multiple Sources”.

During these years, he taught many courses, e.g., on pattern recognition, signal processing, probabilistic methods, circuit analysis, soft computation and remote sensing.

[7][9] In 1996, Jón Atli was elected chairman of the Technical Committee on Data Fusion, which is operated by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society.

Jón Atli was elected Fellow of the IEEE[15] (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), 2004 “For contributions to pattern recognition and data fusion in remote sensing”.

He was also elected Fellow of SPIE[16] (International Society for Photonics and Optics) in 2013 “For achievements in multi-temporal and hyperspectral remote sensing”.

[18] In 2018, Jón Atli received the IEEE GRSS David Landgrebe Award for his outstanding contributions to image analysis of remote sensing data.

[19] He received the Best Paper Award from the International Journal of Image and Data Fusion for 2016-2017 along with J. Senthilnath, Deepak Kumar and Xiaoyang Zhang for the article “A novel hierarchical clustering technique based on splitting and merging”.

Marpu, M. Pedergnana, M. Dalla Mura, S. Peeters, and L. Bruzzone for the article “Classification of hyperspectral data using extended attribute profiles based on supervised and unsupervised feature extraction techniques.”[20] IEEE and the Association of Chartered Engineers in Iceland designated Jón Atli Electrical Engineer of the Year 2013.

[22] In 2013 he received the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society’s Highest Impact Paper Award along with Mathieu Fauvel, Jocelyn Chanussot and Jóhannes R. Sveinsson for the article “Spectral and Spatial Classification of Hyperspectral Data Using SVMs and Morphological Profiles”.

on Geoscience and Remote Sensing along with Villa, Chanussot, and Jutten for the article “Hyperspectral Image Classification With Independent Component Discriminant Analysis”.

[19] Jón Atli also received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal “in recognition and appreciation of valued services and outstanding contributions”, presented in Hawaii, on 27 July 2000.

[27] Jón Atli received the “Outstanding Service Award” from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society in July 2007.

He also received recognition from the IEEE Geoscience Remote Sensing Society for “truly exceptional leadership and guidance, as Chairman of the Data Fusion Technical Committee during the three years 1996-1999”, presented in Hawaii, 27 July 2000.