On September 18, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) officially announced the 2024 class of AGU Fellows, comprising 53 distinguished individuals from around the globe. Among them, Professor Lu Zhong from the School of Environment and Spatial Informatics, was selected as a Fellow for his significant contributions to “the technological innovation of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and the advancement of its application in mitigating natural and human-induced hazards, including volcanic eruptions, landslides, and coastal processes”.

Established in 1919, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) stands as the preeminent Earth and space science association globally, committed to the advancement and promotion of Earth and space sciences. Currently, the organization boasts over 60,000 members hailing from 148 diverse countries and regions across the globe. Their research spans a breadth of disciplines, encompassing atmospheric and oceanic sciences, solid earth sciences, hydrology, and space sciences. Remarkably, since 1962, only a scant 0.1 percent of AGU members have been awarded the esteemed title of AGU Fellow each year. This honor is reserved for those individuals who have demonstrated exceptional contributions to the fields of Earth and space sciences.

Professor Lu Zhong has been honored with numerous prestigious awards, including the USGS Distinguished Achievement Award, the Gerald Cook Memorial Award, the Raytheon Distinguished Achievement Award, the Lloyd’s of London Natural Hazard Risk Science Award, and the Ford Senior Research Scholar Award, among an illustrious list of accolades. For a considerable period of time, he has demonstrated a profound dedication to interdisciplinary research encompassing satellite geodesy and geophysics. His independently developed high-precision deformation monitoring system, utilizing Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), has been successfully operationalized and extensively utilized in monitoring and geophysical inversion pertaining to earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, ground and collapse, as well as water surface conditions. This marks the second fellowship granted to Professor Lu Zhong, with the first one being the esteemed American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellowship awarded in 2021.