Jiali Shang

Dr Jiali Shang is a research scientist at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre (ORDC), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) of the Canadian Federal Government. She is also adjunct professor of two Canadian Universities, York University and Nipissing University. She received her Bsc. in geography in 1984 from Beijing Normal University, China, M.A. in Geography in 1996 from University of Windsor, and Ph.D. in 2005 in Environmental Remote Sensing from the University of Waterloo, Canada.  Her research focuses on the methodology development and application of Earth Observation (EO) and sensor technology to vegetation biophysical parameter retrieval, crop growth monitoring and modeling, precision farming, detection of field operation activities related to crop production using both optical and radar data, and assessment of soil nutrient runoff. She has authored/co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications and book chapters. In addition to research, Dr. Shang is also actively involved in student education, postdoc supervision, international scientific collaboration, and capacity building. She is currently serving as president of the Economics Community under International Society of Precision Agriculture. She is the Canadian representative serving in the Capacity Development Working Group (CD-WG) of International GEO under the United Nations facilitating GEO’s efforts on capacity development, promoting the principle of co-creation and providing support to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of capacity development activities to fully use open EO data and tools. She is also a working member of the UN Open GIS Initiative.