GUO Huadong
Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), Chinese Academy of Sciences

A tentative title: Big Earth Data for Belt and Road Development

GUO Huadong is a Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), an Academician of CAS, a Foreign Member of Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He presently serves as Chair of the Digital Belt and Road (DBAR) Program, President of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE), Director of the International Center on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage (HIST) under the Auspices of UNESCO, Director of the CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence on Space Technology for Disaster Mitigation (SDIM), and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Digital Earth. He served as President of ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). He has over 30 years of experience in Earth observation, specializing in radar remote sensing and Digital Earth science. He has been Principle Investigator for over 30 major national projects in China, and Principle Investigator for 7 international radar remote sensing projects. Prof. Guo has published more than 400 papers and sixteen books, and is the principal awardee of sixteen domestic and international prizes.

Bettina BARUTH
European Commission, Joint Research Centre

A tentative title: Contributing to market transparency - challenges of agricultural monitoring systems

Dr Bettina Baruth works since more than 15 years in the field of agricultural monitoring and crop yield forecasting. She graduated in Geography with a focus on Remote Sensing applications for landscape ecology and worked several years for the German Remote Sensing Data Centre (DLR/DFD) before joining the Joint Research Centre. Her Ph.D. dealt with the potential of landscape metrics derived from remote sensing to describe landscape patterns. Current activities are related to the usage of remote sensing for yield and production forecast and crop growth modelling. She is the editor of the European MARS Crop Monitoring Bulletin. Bettina holds the position as Deputy Head of the Food Security Unit and co-chairs the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM).

Valery BONDUR
Institute for Scientific Research of Aerospace Monitoring "AEROCOSMOS" (ISR “AEROCOSMOS”), Moscow, Russia

A tentative title: Remote Sensing of Seas and Oceans in Tropical and Subtropical Regions

Academician, Professor Valery Bondur is a Director of State scientific Institution "Institute for Scientific Research of Aerospace Monitoring "AEROCOSMOS" (ISR “AEROCOSMOS”) and a Presidium member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). He leads the Division of Oceanology, Atmospheric Physics, and Geography of the RAS Earth Sciences Department. His scientific activity is related to the Earth research from space, development of basic physics and system-wide principles for creation of aerospace systems for monitoring of ocean, atmosphere, land, geological environment, and near-Earth space in the context of the Earth sciences, environment protection, rational use of natural resources, prevention of dangerous natural and technogenic processes, etc. He has published more than 340 peer-reviewed research articles (more than 650 scientific works in total) with >11000 citations. His h-index is 63 in RSCI. He acted as a Principal Investigator of 50 national and 10 international research projects (EU, USA, and China). Academician Bondur has been twice awarded the Russian Government Award in the sphere of science and technology. He has various governmental awards of the Russian Federation. He has supervised 24 PhD theses and 10 doctoral theses, more than 30 times he acted as an opponent at PhD defenses. He reviewed 106 papers in 10 journals. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the “Issledovanie Zemli iz kosmosa” Journal / Izvestiya. Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, a member of editorial board in “Oceanology”, “Geodesy and Cartography”, “Aerospace Research in Bulgaria”, and “Marine Hydrophysical Journal”.

Mazlan HASHIM
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

A tentative title: Remote Sensing for Integrated Coastal Zone Management: UAV interventions

Professor Mazlan Hashim has spent over 30 years in the teaching, research and development, and project management of remote sensing, geospatial related applications and surveying equipment including field radiometry. His interest is in the rigorous development and innovation of diverse remote sensing and geopatial applications for natural resources and environmental management as well as nation strtategic planning. He has led several national and international collaborative studies in remote sensing and geospatial technology applications, with wide publications in more than 200 SCI (Science-citation indexed) articles, more than 300 conference proceedings, and several books. He received various awards at both national and international levels for his outstanding research and innovations in the field of geospatial sciences and its applications. Amongst others, he is co-recipient of the Eduard Dolezal award 1996 by International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), Eco-frontier Award 2002 by Global Environment Research Fund Japan, and Top Research Scientists Malaysia by Malaysia Academy of Sciences. Currently Prof Hashim is the Senior Director of Research Institute of Sustainable Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM); and Fellow of the Geoscience and Digital Earth Centre (INSTeG), UTM. He is also Fellow and life member of Institution of Geospatial and Remote Sensing Malaysia. He has 5 patents – granted, pending and disclosed, a founder and managing director of UTM-spinoff Company – Geospatial & Utility Services (GUS) Pte. Ltd formed since 2016.

Andre (Alex) HELD
CSIRO, Australia

A tentative title: Earth Observation Data Analytics for Global Challenges: The DataCube Solution

Dr. Held the Director of the Australian remote sensing data facility of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), and the 2016 Chair of the “Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). Alex also served as the Head of the CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications (COSSA) from 2004 -2007. Dr. Held has 25 years of experience in terrestrial remote sensing in CSIRO, and has led several projects and research teams since then. His PhD is from the University of California, Davis in the area of plant physiology. Dr. Held has focused his work on designing ways for better use of satellite earth observation data in agriculture, disasters and ecosystem science. He currently leads multi-national teams in CEOS involved in designing future data architectures for earth observation, as well as on the use of EO data for achieving sustainable development goals. He is an active delegate for Australia on the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), and in particular has been part of the original leadership of the Global Forest Observation Initiative – GFOI, under GEO. Alex has been the lead since 2013 of “GEOGLAM RAPP” http://www.geo–rapp.org/ ), a grassland and livestock monitoring system of GEO.

Kamal Labbassi
Chouaib Doukkali University, Morocco

A tentative title: The major challenges related to water safety in the northern part of Africa; an overview of water resources: Morocco as an example

Kamal Labbassi is a Professor Head of Geosciences & Remote Sensing Group at the Chouaib Doukkali University (Morocco) and the Secretary General of the African Association of Remote sensing of the Environment (continental scope). Doctorate Es-Sciences (1998), PhD Thesis (1991). Visiting Professor at the University of Nantes, France (2004-2005). Scientific reviewer to some Journals (Remote sensing. RPTS, and Revue Télédétection AUF). Initiated and directed numerous research projects focused on remote sensing applications in geosciences and involving an extensive network of international partners. Supervised several dissertations of Engineers, Masters and PhD theses. Author and co- author of numerous publications and scientific papers. Peer Reviewer of international programs implemented under the coordination of the African Union Commission, with the support of the European Commission.

Rosa Lasaponara
The Italian National Council Research

Tentative Title: Remote Sensing for Cultural Heritage: from Documentation to Risk Estimation and Preservation

Rosa Lasaponara –Senior research at the Italian National Council Research. She holds a MsC and PhD in remote sensing . She is and has more than twenty years of experience in modeling and processing of passive (multispectral and hyperspectral) and active (Radar, Lidar) data acquired from satellite, airborne and ground remote sensing. Her research activities deals with modeling, data processing and integration for cultural heritage, Landscape and risk monitoring. She is author or co-author of 350 peer reviewed papers. She is Editor of NHESS, academic Editor of RS , guest editor for JAS, JCH, AP, JAG. IJRS, EM. PI for numerous currently ongoing projects in Europe, Africa, South America, China.

She holds several international positions including: Science officer for EGU Natural Hazard division, chair of EARSeL SIG RS for archaeology (http://www.ibam.cnr.it/earsel/) CREATED WITH AND supported by UNESCO, Member of Governing Board of HIST-CAS- Cat 2 UNESCO centre; Visiting professor at the Chinese Academy Of Science (RADI) – Beijing, Member of the governing Board of HIST –CAS (UNESCO cat. 2 centre) Beijing.

Martino PESARESI
European Commission, Joint Research Centre

A tentative title: The Global Human Settlement Layer framework and the Digital Belt And Road: a synergic perspective

Works at the European Commission, Joint Research Center (EC JRC), contributing to programs dealing with the use of space technologies for automatic image information retrieval and decision support systems in the areas of post-natural-disaster and post-conflict damage assessment, conflict-related resource monitoring, risk and exposure mapping. In 2005-2007 he was the chair or of the Global Monitoring for Security and Stability (GMOSS) Network of Excellence. From 2007 to 2013, he was the leader of the team “Information Support for Effective and Rapid External Action” (ISFEREA) of the EC JRC. From 2014 to 2016, he was initializing and leading the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project activities of the EC JRC, establishing new geospatial analytics technologies for assessing the human presence on the planet supporting post-2015 international frameworks. He is the chair of the “Human Planet” international initiative in the frame of the Group of Earth Observation (GEO) work program 2017-2019. He is co-chair of the "urban working group" in the Digital Belt And Road (DBAR) program.

Bryan PIJANOWSKI
Purdue University

A tentative title: Recording the Earth: Research Advances in Global Soundscape Ecology

Bryan C. Pijanowski is Professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University. He is also the Director of the Discovery Park Center for Global Soundscapes and the Executive Producer of the Interactive IMAX experience film Global Soundscapes: A Mission to Record the Earth. His research focusses on the use of soundscape recordings to assess the health of ecosystems around the world. To date, he has conducted over 40 studies on five continents, often in very remote places of the world. His passive acoustic recorders have been recording in 8 of Earth’s 12 major biomes for at least one year (one study is now finishing its 10th year!). Over 3 million recordings approaching 1 PB are now being analyzed at his center. Dr. Pijanowski often travels to “the ends of the Earth” to record extremely natural places and he is known for performing his “deep listening” exercises – listening and analyzing with no technology -- in unusual places and times, like the top of the rainforest canopy in Borneo over an entire night. Studies span the use of soundscapes to understand how animal communities respond to wildfire, how livestock grazing in the eastern steppes affects ecosystem health, how changes in temperature and rainfall affect amphibian declines in the jungle, how climate change impacts glacier dynamics and how ocean acidification alters marine life in the Caribbean.

Gunnar SPREEN
University of Bremen, Germany

A tentative title: Remote Sensing of Sea Ice in the Arctic: From Long Time Series to Recent Developments

Dr. Gunnar Spreen received his Diplom in physics and Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Thereafter, until July 2012, he worked as a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar in the Climate, Ocean, and Solid Earth Science Section at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA. From August 2012 until July 2015 Gunnar Spreen was employed as permanent research scientist for sea ice remote sensing at the Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway. Since August 2015 he leads the research group "Remote Sensing of Polar Regions" at the University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics. His main research interests are remote sensing of sea ice properties with focus on monitoring changes of sea ice (extent, mass, and dynamics) and on understanding underlying climate processes in polar regions. Recent research is focused on improving estimates of the sea ice export out of the Arctic Basin combining sonar and satellite data. Conceptually, further work is based on the analysis of sea ice drift in comparison to atmospheric reanalyses, freeboard data from altimetry, and sea ice concentration using passive and active microwave remote sensing. Satellite measurements are validated using ground-based and airborne field observations. More information can be found at https://www.seaice.uni-bremen.de.

Monthip SRIRATANA
Climate Change Research Strategy Center, National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT)

A tentative title: Capacity Building of Big-Data from Earth Observation for Water and Land Management in Thailand

Dr. Monthip Sriratana recievied her Ph.D in Urban Engineering at the University of Tokyo, Japan. She previously held key positions at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. She serves as a Councillor for South and East Asia of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Board Member of Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES) and Sirindhorn International Environmental Park (SIEP). Dr. Monthip has been joining as the speaker at the side events of COP 19-21 on the National Adaptation Programe of Action (NAPAs) and on low carbon strategies including her involvement at the Working Group on Gender during COP21. She has initiated the joint programme with USAID ADAPT Asia-Pacific, and serves as the adviser under JICA/JST on ADAP-T programme in Thailand.

She also involve in climate change assistance to Thailand on “financing for innovation” which is expecting to continue playing a key role in channelling new global climate funds to Asia-Pacific countries. She has also high interest on how to promote the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) especially on how to mainstream gender in all financing for development in Asia and the Pacific.

Prof. TAN Shunsen
The Chinese Academy of Engineering

Prof. Shusen Tan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is an expert of satellite navigation system design. Having long been engaged in the field of Geodetic Survey equipment and satellite navigation engineering construction and applied research, he has successively served as operating system chief engineer of BeidouⅠ, deputy chief engineer of BeidouⅡ, deputy chief engineer of the major project in China second-generation satellite navigation system, who is the pioneer and builder in Satellite Navigation career of our country. In charge of top job in the new signal system design, navigation report system design, frequency design and International coordination of Beidou system, he makes outstanding contribution for the establishment and development of satellite navigation business. Besides, he has published two academic monograph and won one Grand prize, one First class award, and one Second class award of National Science and Technology Progress, four First class award of Provincial Science and Technology Progress. He was awarded Individual Merit in 2007 and was rated as Top Ten Outstanding Scientific and Technological Workers in 2014.