PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
July 2017
465
A N I N T E R V I E W
PROFESSOR JIE SHAN
What are your thoughts on the award?
With humble appreciation and much honor, I learned of my
election as a Fellow of the American Society for Photogram-
metry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). I appreciate the oppor-
tunity to thank all that have cared, advised, mentored and
supported me. I also thank those who have worked with me
as colleagues, collaborators, authors, and reviewers. I thank
the authors of Highlight Articles over the years. I truly
learned a lot from you and I am so pleased to see your works
being presented to our community through my hands. Final-
ly, I would like to thank my students of all levels, then and
now. It is you that have taught me how to teach, how to learn,
how to discover, and how to advance.
How did you become associated with ASPRS?
My association with ASRPS dates back to 1988 when I was a
graduate student at Wuhan Technical University of Survey-
ing and Mapping (now Wuhan University), China. Working
with my supervisors Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wang Zhizhuo (then Hon-
orary Member of the International Society for Photogramme-
try and Remote Sensing) and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Li Deren (ISPRS
Honorary Member), I published one of my first peer-reviewed
research papers in
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote
Sensing
(
PE&RS
). As a young graduate student, I read
through the articles and papers in every
PE&RS
issue in pa-
per format since we did not have digital copy at that time.
This habit has stayed with me over decades. It is ASPRS and
PE&RS
that let me fall in love with photogrammetry and
remote sensing, pursue it as a career, and keep me informed
of developments and worldwide advancements. The informa-
tion in the Journal and the interaction with the community
through ASPRS activities have been critically important and
essential for the exchange of academic thoughts and the un-
derstanding of technological progresses. They let me watch
closely the state-of-the-art and continue to help me to grow,
develop and contribute to the profession.
How have you contributed to ASPRS?
Having had an opportunity to work for the Society and its
people is something of which I am extremely proud. Over a
period of 18 years I have guest-edited a number of special
issues and reviewed tens of papers. Mostly proudly, I have
worked as the Assistant Editor on the Publication Commit-
tee of ASPRS. One of my charges is to be responsible for the
designated column Highlight Articles. To fulfill this duty,
I have worked with over a hundred authors from industry,
government, academy, and even the public at large. Review-
ing and editing each Highlight Article often needs several
reiterations and may take up to tens of hours of my time.
Tremendous communications, interactions, and responses
have been generated over the years between the authors, the
publisher and myself. Nevertheless, it has been entertaining
and I did it with great enthusiasm and passion.
Another effort I happily made is to promote ASPRS and
PE&RS
and mentor our students and junior professionals to
publish their scientific work. Together with Profs. Russel G.
Congalton (then
PE&RS
Editor-in-Chief) and John R. Jensen
(ASPRS Past President), we have given a sequence of coordi-
nated presentations on journal paper writing, reviewing, and
publishing. These presentations were delivered for multiple
years during the ASPRS annual conferences. As a result,
we wrote a Highlight Article on
PE&RS
entitled “Writing a
Scientific Journal Paper: Preparation through Publication,”
which has been highly regarded by students and young pro-
fessionals. These presentations have also been delivered in
other professional meetings, seminars, and short courses.
Dr. Jie Shan is a full professor of Geoinformatics of the Lyles School of Civil Engineering
at Purdue University. He is the Assistant Editor on the ASPRS Publication Committee
and was recently elected a Fellow of ASPRS. The designation of Fellow is the second
highest honor ASPRS bestows on an individual. A Fellow shall be an individual who
is an active member of the Society and has performed exceptional service in advancing
the science and use of the mapping sciences. Fellow status is awarded for professional
excellence and for service to the Society. To be nominated as a Fellow, the candidates must
have made outstanding contributions in a recognized Society specialization whether in
practice, research, development, administration, or education in the mapping sciences.
Nominees must be active members of the Society at the time of their nomination and must
have been active members for the last ten consecutive years. The award was presented
during IGTF 2017-ASPRS Annual Conference held in Baltimore this past March.
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 83, No. 7, July 2017, pp. 465–466
0099-1112/17/465–466
© 2017 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.83.7.465
