Honor and Responsibility
—Congratulations to Professor Fu, Bojie for His Honorary
Fellowship of RGS-IBG 2020
The Editorial Office of Journal of Global Change Data
& Discovery
The Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British
Geographers (RGS-IBG) recognized 22 scholars (organizations) for recognizing their
outstanding contributions to geographical research, fieldwork and teaching, and
public engagement in geographical society on May 18,
2020. Among them, Professor Fu, B. J., Dean of the Faculty of Geographical
Science, Beijing Normal University, the Associate Chief Editor of Journal of
Global Change Data &
Discovery, was awarded the Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his
outstanding support for the society and geography.
The editorial office of Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery sincerely delivers its congratulations to Professor Fu,
B. J. for the honor and appreciations very much to RGS-IBG for its meticulous
working, specifically to all of its staffs’ for their excellent work at home in
such a special COVID-19 pandemic. This encouraging news could sweep away the
haze of the epidemic in the minds of geographers and give them the confidence
to defeat the epidemic. We believe that honor is fruit of sweet loves integrating
with bitter dedications. Professor Fu obtained his bachelor and master’s
degrees in Department of Geography of Shaanxi Normal University, Ph. D. degree
from Department of Geography of Peking University. He has dedicated his enthusiasm,
knowledge, ability and experiences to geography for almost four decades. He
pays more attention to the research on landscape ecology and environment of the
Loess Plateau where he was born (Figure 1). Several publications of his research
on Loess Pleteau had more impacts, including “Hydrogeomorphic-ecosystem responses to natural
and anthropogenic changes in the Loess Plateau of China”, “Revegetation in China’s Loess Plateau is
approaching sustainable water resource limits”, and “Reduced sediment transport in
the Yellow River due to anthropogenic changes”.
Since 2011, a series of honors came to him,
including Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the World
Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and
International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Alexander
von Humboldt Medal.
Honor means
responsibility. He was appointed to be Dean of Faculty of Geography of Beijing
Normal University and elected to take the responsibility of Vice President of
the International Geographical Union, Vice President of International Association
for Ecology, Editor-in-Chief of Journal
of Geography and Sustainability. In most recent years, he focused his
research on the Sustainable Development Goals and ecosystem services (Figure
2). His points were shown at the most resent publications, such as, “Classification-coordination-collaboration:
a systems approach for advancing Sustainable Development Goals”, and
“Unravelling the complexity in achieving the 17 sustainable-development goals”. He indicated that a new
geographical method to reach the SDGs is by grouping the 17 SDGs of the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development framework into three categories, they are: essential
needs, expected objectives and governance.
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Figure 1 Fu, B. J. visited the Loess
Plateau
in 2019
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Figure 2 Academician Fu, B. J. attended the
IPBES conference in 2013
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When the Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery was launched in 2017, he was
invited to serve as an Associate Chief Editor. The new journal is focused on
the global change research data paper publishing and matching with the Digital Journal of Global Change Data
Repository. Both journals are twin of the Global Change Research Data Publishing
& Repository (GCdataPR), which is regular member of World Data System of
International Science Council, and China GEO Data Publishing Center. There is
new challenge in global change research data publishing and repository, which
is how to link research publications with the openly available of the original
datasets. He realized and emphasized that open knowledge and open data were the
critical issues for scientific discoveries and SDGs.
Today, being awarded Honorary Fellowship by
the RGS-IBG 2020, is a new milestone for him in his
academic career. It goes without saying that he is one of those who were productive
and charismatic leaders in geography of the world. His first decision after he
got the honor was to sign the “Common Understanding and Joint Action on Open
Knowledge and Research Data” between the Journal
of Geography and Sustainability and the Digital
Journal of Global Change Data Repository”. A new vision on big-data-driven geography
is coming.
Congratulations to Professor Fu, B. J.!
Written by Professor
Liu, C.
Editor-in-Chief, Digital Journal of Global Change Data Repository
Executive Associate Chief Editor and
Director of Journal of Global Change Data &
Discovery