Professor Anthony Yeh Gar On of the University of Hong Kong, received the Distinguished Research Achievement Award (DRAA) in the Award Presentation Ceremony for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Knowledge Exchange 2015 of the University on 9 May 2016.

Esri China (HK) would like to congratulate Professor Yeh for his achievement and also express our gratitude for his contribution to the GIS industry and the society.

Dr. Winnie Tang JP, Chairman of Esri China (HK), congratulated Professor Yeh in the Award Presentation Ceremony.

The DRAA is HKU’s most prestigious research honour, bestowed on only a few outstanding individuals for their sustained and exceptional efforts in research. Up to two awards can be made in each exercise, which is conducted on an alternate year basis. It gives recognition to academics who have exceptional research achievements of international distinction and are at the forefront of their discipline.

Professor Yeh is Chan To-Haan Pressor in Urban Planning and Design, Chair Professor in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Urban Planning and Director of GIS Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. He is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom and a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Hong Kong Institute of Planners, Royal Town Planning Institute, Planning Institute of Australia, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Professor Yeh has been very active in carrying out research in advancing urban studies and urban planning in Hong Kong and China. He is a pioneer in GIS in Hong Kong. He started to teach GIS at the University of Hong Kong before the Lands Department set up the Land Information Centre in 1976. Trained with multidisciplinary knowledge and methods, his research covers remote sensing, GIS, new town development and high density living in Hong Kong, urban development and planning in China and the Pearl River Delta, producer services development, and recently urban big data and smart cities.

He has developed a family of constrained cellular automata urban planning models that can be used to generate different planning options according to different environmental considerations, urban forms and densities for the evaluation and planning for sustainable development.

Internationally, Professor Yeh has been the Founding Secretary-General of the Asian Planning Schools Association and Asia GIS Association, Chairman of the Geographic Information Science Commission of the International Geographical Union, and Vice-President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners. Locally, he has been Founding President of the Hong Kong GIS Association, Chairman of the Hong Kong Geographical Association, and Vice-President of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners. He is on the editorial boards of key international and Chinese journals and has published over 30 books and monographs and over 180 academic journal papers and book chapters.

For more information about the Distinguished Research Achievement Award (DRAA) of HKU, Please visit here.