On April 9th, Her Royal Highness Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn paid her second visit to Wuhan University (WHU) and attended the inauguration of the new site for the Sirindhorn International Center for Geoinformatics.
HRH Princess Sirindhorn has a longstanding relationship with WHU. She was awarded the title of “honorary professor” of WHU in 2005 and came to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between Wuhan University and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Kingdom of Thailand on the Establishment of “Sirindhorn International Center for Geoinformatics”.Her visit this time will continue to improve cooperation between the Thailand and WHU and define the center’s research agenda.
Han Jin, the chair of the WHU Council met with HRH Princess Sirindhorn and introduced the center’s accomplishments over its 6 year history development and the state of the center’s new location.
At the inauguration ceremony, Han Jin expressed that the new site is a hallmark in the new level of China-Thailand cooperation in Geoinformatics and believed that the center will help further exchanges between researchers in both countries.
HRH Princess Sirindhorn spoke, recognizing the high-level research carried out by the center and its contributions to public welfare. She hoped that the center would continue to make scientific advancements that lead to better information and earlier warnings about severe weather and natural disasters.
HRH Princess Sirindhorn later visited the main control room, data processing room and her new office before listening to the report on the center’s progress. Two Thai doctoral students currently studying at the center introduced their research and life in China to the princess.
The center has a dynamic history. In 2001, a delegation from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand visited the State Key Lab of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing of WHU, and the two sides planned out the center’s establishment. In 2007, the center was inaugurated and rapidly developed, expanding so quickly that by 2010 it needed to move to a new site in the East lake new technology development zone. In 2012, the center was integrated into the broader-based Collaborative Innovation Center on Geomatics of WHU, where it will cooperate with like-minded enterprises extensively.
In recent years, the center has cohosted five meetings with the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Kingdom of Thailand to discuss annual joint research plans, the recruitment of Thai students and the center’s participation in international academics. A group, headed by Profess Li Deren and Professor Gong Jianya, has led many advanced discoveries at the center and has visited Thailand to report on the center’s academic development and to train personnel. The center aims to become a world-leading platform for Geomatics and carry out research in aerospace measurement and control as well as remote sensing satellite applications.
