Prof. Dr. Xinlian Liang received his Doctoral degree from Aalto University (Finland) in 2013. He is a full professor in Wuhan University since 2021. He was a research manager in the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) during 2006-2020 before joining Wuhan University. He was the Chair of the Working Group III/1 ‘Thematic Information Extraction’ (2016-2022) and ‘Remote Sensing Data Processing and Understanding’(since 2023), the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). He is the Associated Editor of Forest Ecosystems and Geo-spatial Information Science (web of science listed). Prof. Liang’s main research interest focuses on quantitative understanding forest 3D structures, characteristics, and function processes through various remote- and close- range sensing technologies, and to further investigate the interactions between forest function processes with the cycles of carbon, water, and nutrient using machine learning. In past twenty years, he had collected rich experiences on forest digitization with a wide spectrum of technologies including the laser scanning and multi-/hyper-spectral images, from terrestrial, mobile, UAV, aerial, and satellite perspectives.

Dr. Liang was listed in the World's Top 2% Scientists ranking by Stanford University in 2021, 2022 and 2023. His references in science are represented by a series of highly citied papers, e.g., ESI hot/highly cited paper (0.1%, 1% top cited paper in Geosciences, Plant & Animal Science), Google scholar matrix paper, and journal feature papers and most downloaded paper. He has an H-index 34 (ISI) and 43 (Google Scholar). Dr. Liang’s publication list includes over 100 peer reviewed papers (80+ in ISI Web of Science).