Date: January 8, 2022
Dear fellow CPGISers,
Welcome to 2022!
As the immediate past president and incoming BOD chair, I would like to express my gratitude to all your support to me and the Association. My thanks also go to the Board of Directors (Chaired by Dr. Qinhua Guo), Secretary Dr. Shuming Bao and all committees. Nothing could be done without your support. I am grateful to former presidents who offered absolutely valuable advice to me – Drs. Hui Lin, Xun Shi, A-Xing Zhu, Shixiong Hu, Changshan Wu, Bin Li, Fahui Wang, Yongmei Lu… to name a few. All together, we keep CPGIS growing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the world in all aspects, which has no exception to our CPGIS community. Our 29th Annual Conference in Nanchang, China had to be cancelled in 2020. Adapting the new challenges, in 2021 we carried on a number of amazing activities. Here are some record-breaking achievements we made together:
1) We are more united and stronger online.
On April 9, we organized the 2021 CPGIS Business Meeting that was open to all CPGIS members. I believe this was the first-ever online event of our association. As a kick-off of CPGIS activities this year, we went through all reports from the President’s Office, BOD, annual conference, journal and all committees. The meeting was informative and the discussion was ardent! I apologize for doubled meeting hours but I cannot express how encouraged and energized I was to serve CPGIS. We are built stronger.
2) The annual conference continued to be a success and inspiring.
The 28th CPGIS Annual Conference (Geoinformatics 2021) was held on November 3-5, 2021, Nanchang, China. It is the first time that we have an onsite/virtual hybrid annual meeting. Thanks to Dr. Hui Lin and the local host, Jiangxi Normal University, the conference turned out to be a success while facing the unprecedented challenges during the prolonged pandemic.
Our members have made distinguished achievements this year. During the conference, CPGIS gratefully recognized Dr. Hui Lin as the Honorary President of CPGIS. During the conference, we celebrated his excellent services as the founding president and life-time contribution and impact to our community. We also celebrated three annual CPGIS awards: the Distinguished Scholar Award to Dr. Wenzhong Shi; the Education Excellence Award to Dr. Wei Tu; and the Service Excellence Award to the Editorial Team of Annals of GIS.
3) As online activities become essential, CPGIS kicked off our e-learning events.
Although being held remotely in person, our learning journeys have been live online. The most active example is the CPGIS Educational Webinar Series with support of our co-sponsors. The first series has a theme of “Spatiotemporal Study of Urban Dynamics” in a bi-weekly basis between February 25-May 6, followed by the “GeoAI” series in May-July. My special thanks to Dr. Shuming Bao and the Education Committee (chaired by Dr. Qiusheng Wu) to make this happen. We will continue to promote these e-learning activities in the future.
4) The world is evolving, so is our CPGIS communication.
Aside from the conventional CPGIS website and CPGIS-L Group Email, the CPGIS news and GIScience events from all over the world are now collaterally posted in CPGIS WeChat Group and other social media platforms, Thanks to the Membership and Media Committee (co-chaired by Song Gao and Xiang Ye), Our information sharing and knowledge transfer have never been so timely, efficiently, and seamlessly. CPGIS is growing younger.
The 2022 is determined to be special for us – CPGIS IS 30 YEARS OLD. At this transition time, I call for your attention and contribution to our 30th anniversary events. Let’s celebrate in this joyful year!
With the new leadership of President Song Gao and his new administration team in 2022, and as always, the support from all of you, I fully believe that CPGIS will continue to succeed and play a much more important role in our society.
Sincerely,
Dr. Cuizhen (Susan) Wang
Immediate Past President, CPGIS
Professor of Geography
University of South Carolina, USA
