On behalf of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, I would like to thank Jon Benediktsson, our Past President, for his dedication and outstanding leadership over the past two years.
During this period, our Society experienced many challenges and accomplishments, including IGARSS 2011 that the team moved to Vancouver after the disastrous March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and IGARSS 2012 in Munich, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of our Society with the highest attendance in the history of the Symposium. Our publications were increasingly successful, there was significant growth in chapters and regional activity, and new educational initiatives were launched. We continue to appreciate Jon’s leadership and the efforts of all our volunteers, whose commitment and hard work were responsible for these successes.
I am pleased to add my congratulations to the eleven deserving members of GRSS who were selected to advance to the rank of IEEE Fellow. The Class of 2013 includes Maurice Borgeaud, Om-Prakash Calla, Mihai Datcu, Giles Foody, Paolo Gamba, Akira Hirose, Yann Kerr, Gerhard Krieger, Riccardo Lanari, Shunlin Liang, and Christian Pichot. We also appreciate the outstanding job of the nominators and our GRSS Fellow Evaluation Committee, chaired by Leung Tsang, and the GRSS Fellow Search Committee, chaired by Mahta Moghaddam.
In 2013, we look forward to IGARSS during July 22-26 in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian team is developing an outstanding technical program and planning unique social events. The highly successful Remote Sensing Summer School that preceded IGARSS 2012 is also being organized for 2013. Early abstract submission numbers indicate that there is great interest in the Symposium. We anticipate another great IGARSS
As Jon noted in his last message, the GRSS is also transitioning from our traditional Newsletter to a quarterly electronic Magazine (GRSS-M), with Lorenzo Bruzzone as Editor. The GRSS Magazine, which will be included in the GRSS membership, will be launched in March. It will include reviewed technical papers that are not suited for journals, as well as non-technical articles and information of interest to our members. The GRSS Newsletter will continue to be published electronically, but will evolve its focus to announcements and information for GRSS members.
The November AdCom meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, focused on Strategic Planning for the Society. Led by Andy Blanchard, theme leaders facilitated discussion, which is currently being formulated into proposals that will be discussed at the March AdCom meeting. We elected Kamal Sarabandi, of the University of Michigan, as the new Executive Vice President. I look forward to working with Kamal in this new leadership role. Other Vice Presidents for 2013 include Wooil Moon (VP for Professional Activities), John Kerekes (VP for Technical Activities), Adriano Camps (VP for Meetings and Symposia), Bill Emery (VP for Publications), and Steve Reising (VP for Information Resources).
If you have not already jointed the IEEE GRSS or renewed your membership for 2013, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible to fully experience the benefits of the Society. Our leadership team is looking forward to improving and increasing the services to our membership over the upcoming year. Please do not hesitate to contact any of us with suggestions concerning GRS Society activities
We are all looking forward to an exciting 2013 for GRSS and our profession.
Best regards for the New Year,
Melba Crawford
2013 President
IEEE GRSS
mcrawford@purdue.edu
