IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2013 - 4

President's message
by Melba Crawford

n behalf of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, I am delighted to congratulate Lorenzo
Bruzzone, the Editor-in-Chief of the new GRS Magazine.
The transition from a Newsletter to a Magazine was successfully proposed to the IEEE by AdCom member Bill
Emery, who is responsible for new publications (and a
member of the IEEE Periodicals Committee). The transition has been accomplished by Lorenzo in a very short
time, with the support of the IEEE Publications staff.
We appreciate all of these efforts as the Magazine joins
the Transactions, Letters, and JSTARS in our publications portfolio. The GRSS Newsletter will continue to be
published electronically, but will evolve its focus to announcements and information for GRSS members.
Having recently started my term as President of
GRSS, I extend our thanks Jon Benediktsson, our Past
President, for his dedication and outstanding leadership over the past two years. During Jon's presidency,
our Society experienced many challenges and accomplishments, including IGARSS 2011 that was moved to
Vancouver after the disastrous March 2011 earthquake
and tsunami in Japan, and IGARSS 2012 in Munich,
which celebrated our Society's 50th anniversary 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 recognize the efforts of all our volunteers, whose commitment and hard work are 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
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2013.2244280
Date of publication: 17 April 2013

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.
We look forward to IGARSS 2013 in Melbourne, Australia, from July 22-26. 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. Abstract submissions
indicate that there is great interest in the Symposium.
We anticipate another great IGARSS.
The November AdCom meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, focused on Strategic Planning for the Society.
Led by Andy Blanchard, theme leaders facilitated the
discussion, which is currently being formulated into
proposals that will be discussed at the July 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 (Professional Activities), John Kerekes
(Technical Activities), Adriano Camps (Meetings and
Symposia), Bill Emery (Publications), and Steve Reising
(Information Resources). 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 Society activities.
We are all looking forward to an exciting 2013 for
GRSS and our profession.

Best Regards,
Melba Crawford
President, IEEE GRSS
mcrawford@purdue.edu
GRS

ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

march 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2013