IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2019 - 5

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
BY PAOLO GAMBA

Summing Up a Productive 2019

his is my last "President's Message" for 2019, and it
is time to summarize the principal achievements we
have accomplished over the year, thanks to your efforts,
and to express a few ideas for the new year to come.
First, our Society is growing. At the beginning of the
year, I was very proud to announce that the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) had exceeded
4,000 members for the first time. I am pleased to let you
know that the total number of members has increased
to more than 4,400, again with significant growth in
Asia. It is a very important recognition that our efforts
to share the value proposition for being a GRSS member
are working. Additionally, the number of GRSS Chapters has increased to 80, including both regular and student Chapters. In spite of these successes, however, we
still need to try harder to reach other communities and
engage more people, so that we can increase both the
geographic extent of GRSS Chapters and the variety of
topics of GRSS activities all over the world.
A second important achievement for the GRSS in
2019 has been the increase in collaborative activities
with other communities, including technical societies
within and outside the IEEE, and with regional entities.
The first result of these activities will be a special session,
"Mapping at the National and Regional Scale," during
the 2020 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote
Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2020). This session is being jointly organized with the International Society for
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. There will also
be a panel, "New Trends in Microwave Radar Systems,"
jointly organized with the IEEE Microwave Theory and
Techniques Society. In addition, for 2019 the GRSS organized two Industry Nights, one in San Francisco in
March and the other in Boston in November, to reach
out to local companies. The idea is to build a network

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2019.2949448
Date of current version: 18 December 2019

DECEMBER 2019

IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

of collaborations and common interests that can help
increase GRSS membership. We also want to engage the
part of the industrial sector focused on the New Space
economy, especially on Earth observation missions,
data interpretation, and data analytics. I am very glad to
report that both events were very well attended and resulted in a greater number of volunteers willing to help
with GRSS activities, especially those building a bridge
between the research community and industry, such as
the Industry Speakers program.
A third achievement has been
the great success of the second
THE IDEA IS TO
Student Grand Challenge, devotBUILD A NETWORK OF
ed to the design and realization
COLLABORATIONS AND
of a sensing payload on board a
three-unit CubeSat that will be
COMMON INTERESTS THAT
launched in 2022 by the United
CAN HELP INCREASE
Arab Emirates (UAE) Space AgenGRSS MEMBERSHIP.
cy. In spite of the challenging nature of the task, the call resulted
in six proposals, which were evaluated by an independent panel of scientists from three
space agencies (NASA, the European Space Agency, and
the UAE Space Agency). Thanks to the outstanding work
by the members of this panel, the top three proposals
were selected, and the students have already been notified and asked to start working on the design of their
proposed sensor.
In summary, it is wonderful to be able to report that
the GRSS is growing its community
1) by expanding geographically, with new Chapters
and new members
2) by developing topically, with new topics addressed as
a result of the cross-fertilization of ideas through additional areas of expertise from partner organizations
3) by reaching out to new and diverse communities with
specific interests in remote sensing activities, including to partners in research, industry, and government.
5

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2019

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