GUO Huadong Elected Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Professor GUO Huadong, Director-General of the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), was elected as a member of Earth Science Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on December 9th,2011. He is the first person in AIR to be elected to the prestigious position,and the election is not only his personal,lifelong honor, but a boon to AIR’s development. His success is celebrated in hopes that it will strengthen the center’s ability to work toward national strategic demands, international scientific and technological frontiers, the “Innovation 2020” initiative, and the sustainable development of AIR.

In the past 30 years, Prof. GUO has played a leading role in radar remote sensing research and applications both in China and internationally. He established a radar scattering geometric model for non-vegetated sand dunes, methods for land identification using multi-frequency and multi-temporal radar, and conducted pioneering research in spatial information. His research on radar systems revealed features in radar’s electromagnetic interaction mechanism. The non-vegetated sand dunes geometric scattering model theoretically proved SAR’s penetration ability through dry sand. He developed radar polarimetric theory and researched the de-polarization phenomena of volcanic lava and multi-polarization phenomena of plants. His processing and identification methods, using multi-frequency and multi-temporal radar, have made important contributions to national demands in disaster mitigation and mineral surveying.The Digital Earth concept technical model and the “Digital Earth Prototype System DEPS/CAS”, developed under Prof. GUO, are considered a “milestone contribution” by international peers. He co-founded the International Society for Digital Earth, established the “International Journal of Digital Earth”, serving as the editor in chief, and promoted the development of global Digital Earth research. Prof. GUO has published more than 300 papers and 15 monographs and books. He is the principal awardee of 13 national prizes, including four second-and third-class prizes of the National Progress Award for Science and Technology, two first-class prizes of the CAS Natural Science Award, four first-and second-class prizes of the CAS Science and Technology Advancement Awards, and the second-class prize of the National Progress Award for Science and Technology in 2010. He also received the Boon Indrambarya Gold Medal award in 2009.

The CAS Academician of the highest national academic title is awarded to people who made systematic, creative achievements and significant contributions to the progress of science, technology, and their country, and have exceptional research and scholarly achievements.

In the afternoon of December 9, CAS President BAI Chunli awards the Academician Certification to GUO Huadong (left), who is newly elected CAS academician, scientist of Earth Science