Professional Profile: Robert W. Foster Robert W. Foster, PE, PLS is a Registered Professional Surveyor and Registered Professional Engineer (Civil) with over 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 and received his mediation training from Framingham Court Mediation Services in 1996. He provides consulting services in engineering and surveying and reviews the construction of road and infrastructure systems for the Towns of Hopkinton and Hopedale; he 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 (IFG), 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 Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts Dispute Resolution panel of neutrals, and is Chairman of the Hopkinton Zoning Board of Appeals. He has received several awards and citations from MALSCE, ACSM, the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and The Engineering Center. 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 Standard 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 pf planning and zoning, professional practice issues and ethics, and professional standards. 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 Global Positioning System (GPS), ethics, professional practice, public relations, mapping the 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. |