Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo and Chief Technical Officer, Japan Earthquake Science Exploration Agency (JESEA)

Professional Career

1963: Graduated from Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo

1970: Awarded Doctor of Engineering, University of Tokyo

1971: Associate Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo

1980; Organized the first Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS) in Bangkok in cooperation of NRCT and JARS

1981~2009: General Secretary, Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS)

1983~2000: Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo

1988: Organized ISPRS Congress in Kyoto, Japan as Congress Director of ISPRS

1991~ President, Japan Association of Remote Sensing (JARS)

1992~1996: President of International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)

1993: Awarded Honorary Fellow, ITC, The Netherlands

1997: Awarded Most Exalted Order White Elephant Second Class from the King of Thailand

1998: Awarded Honorary Doctor, ETH, Switzerland

2000: Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo

2000~2012: President, Japan Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (JSPRS)

2000~ Honorary Member, ISPRS

2002 Awarded Lifetime Contribution Award at Map India, held in Bangkok, Thailand

2007~ 2015 President, Japan Association of Surveyors (JAS)

2010~ Honorary Member, AARS

2013~Honorary Member, JSPRS

2013~2016.12 Advisor Japan Earthquake Exploration Agency (JESEA)

2015: Awarded Honorary Member, JAS

2016.12~ present: Chief Technical Officer, JESEA

2016: Awarded Chen Shupeng Award, AARS

2017: Awarded Hall of Fame at Geospatial World Forum, held in Hyderabad, India

2018: Awarded Social Contribution Award for Re-Green Movement of Reforestation in Thailand since 1991

Prof.Dr.Damdinsuren AMARSAIKHAN, a leading scientist of Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS) was elected as a full member of the MAS and became Academician in June 2011. He defended his theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in technical science in 1996, and for the degree of Doctor of Science (ScD) in 2006, respectively.

Academician Damdinsuren AMARSAIKHAN has been working at the MAS since his graduation from the university in 1987, and has held different leading positions. From 2007 to 2017, he worked as a professor of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) at Geography Department, National University of Mongolia. He also was a visiting researcher and professor at the German Aerospace Research Establishment-DLR (1997); University of Newcastle, UK (2001); University of Dortmund, Germany (2005), Tohoku University, Japan (2002-2004), Geyongsang National University, Korea (2005, 2006 and 2007); Dortmund University of Technology (2008-2009); and Free University of Berlin (2013).

His professional interests include development of techniques of optical, radar and hyperspectral RS for LUCC studies, and natural resources assessment; design and implementation of different GIS and spatial information systems; data fusion and multisource image classification; urban planning using advanced geospatial techniques; and environmental/ecological monitoring and management using GIS/RS and geostatistics.

He is one of the first scholars of Mongolia who contributed much to the development of GIS, radar and hyperspectral RS, and geoinformation theory in the country. He is an author and co-author of about 300 international and national articles published in the peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings. Moreover, he is the main author and editor-in-chief of more than 10 books entitled “Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Natural Resources Management”, “Principles of Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing”, “Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing”, “Remote Sensing Satellites and Instruments” and so on. All these books efficiently used by the geoinformation users are the first books ever to be written in the Mongolian language on the subject of RS, instruments, and GIS.

Academician Damdinsuren AMARSAIKHAN was awarded the “Young Scientist” Prize by World Academy of Sciences; “Outstanding Scientist of Mongolia – 2005” by the Ministry of Science and Education of Mongolia; “Best ITC Alumni Paper Award” from the ISPRS Mid-Term Symposium of 2006; Special Prize of “Outstanding Scientist of Mongolia - 2008”; “Most Outstanding IT Researcher of Mongolia - 2009”; and Special Prize of “Outstanding Scientist of Mongolia - 2010”. In November 2011, his paper was selected as “The Paper of the Month” of International Federation of Surveyors. In 2020, he was awarded the Eduard Dolezal award of the ISPRS during the Congress held in Nice, France.

Dr. M. Saandar is a mapping specialist of long experience in Mongolia and abroad. He received his Ph.D. degree in Satellite Mapping at the Moscow Central Research Institute on Aerial Survey, Geodesy and Cartography. He started his career in the early 1970s as young engineer at the State Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of Mongolia (SAGCM) for development the aerial survey and stereo photogrammetric production system on the national topographic and natural resource mapping. In the mid of 1980s he was developing at the SAGCM the digital photogrammetric, aerial photography and space remote sensing technology. From the early 1990s he was Researcher at the Geoinformation Center working on design implementation of geological GIS system in cooperation with UNDP and the Ontario Geological Survey, Canada.

In post-Soviet times Saandar founded MonMap Engineering Services Company to initially carry out the nation-wide GPS network (MONREF97) in Mongolia in cooperation with the Lantmateriet/Swedesurvey; implementing first CORS network at the Administration of Land Affairs, Geodesy and Cartography; ADB soft loan financed project on cadastral survey and Land registration of Ulaanbaatar city; Ministry of Construction and Urban Development and the ground calibration GPS transect survey in Mongolia under US Endeavour Shuttle Radar Topography Space mission flight program. More recently his company has been involved in the development of the Mongolian geoid model and its gravity survey in cooperation with Denmark/DTU space, US and Mongolian Government.

Dr. Prakash Chauhan (born on 15.05.1969) obtained his Post Graduate Degree in Applied Geophysics from University of Roorkee (now Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee) and Ph. D. in Physics from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. Prior to joining National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, he was the Director at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun since April 2018. He joined Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1991 at Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad as scientist and since then working for the applications of Space Technology including Remote Sensing technology for Geosciences, Atmospheric and Oceanic process studies, Natural resources management for ocean and land resources. He initiated research activities for planetary remote sensing at Space Applications Centre to study solar system objects mainly Earth’s Moon and Mars, through Indian planetary missions. His major achievements are in the area of Earth Observation Applications including development of algorithms for ocean colour parameter retrieval, marine living resource assessment, aerosol remote sensing for space-based air quality monitoring, river and reservoir water level estimation using space borne altimeters and coastal zone management. More recently he has been working to use satellite remote sensing data for understanding the climate response of Himalayan Cryosphere and Air Quality assessment from Space. He has done lead work in using the hyperspectral satellite data for Indian Planetary Missions such as Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-1 for lunar surface composition mapping. He had been the Principal Investigator for Infrared Imaging spectrometer (IIRS) instrument on-board Chandrayaan2 mission. He also led a team scientist for scientific analysis of data from Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) instruments. More recently his work on Chandryaan-2 IIRS spectrometer data has resulted in unambiguous detection of H2O and OH on the surface of the Moon. As Director of Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehardun, Dr Chauhan spearheaded activities for research and Capacity Building in the field of applications of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics Technology for societal applications in India. He is actively providing guidance and support for international organisations like CSSTEAP-UN in conducting space technology courses for Earth System Science. He has been awarded prestigious Prof. P.R. Pisharoty memorial award for the year 2004 by Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr. Vikarm Sarabhai Research Award by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad for 2009, ISRO merit award by Indian Space Research Organisation in 2010 and Satish Dhawan Award by ISRS, Dehradun for 2016. He has published more than 150 peer review papers in national and international journals and he is currently fellow of the National Academy of Science (NASI), Allahabad, Indian Society of Remote Sensing and Indian Social Science Academy.