Editors-in-Chief Guodong Cheng and Ximing Cai

Guodong Cheng (China)

Editor-in-Chief Guodong Cheng, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Academician and the founder of the Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions (SCAR), is now a Professor of Geocryology and Water Resources Engineering at the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI), CAS. He received his BS in Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology from the Beijing College of Geology in 1965. He was one of a few scientists who visited the US and Canada and initiated international scientific exchange in the late 1970s. As a visiting scholar in 1984–1986, Professor Cheng conducted his research on water migration in freezing and thawing soils and repeated ice segregation mechanisms in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) at Hanover, NH, and received the honour of the CRREL Research Fellow due to his achievements. The international cooperation programs later expanded successfully into many other countries, such Russia and the former Soviet Union, European countries, Japan, and Mongolia, with great recognition in the permafrost communities.

Professor Cheng successfully organized the Sixth International Conference on Permafrost in Beijing and the post-conference fieldtrips in July 1993. About 600 frozen ground scientists and engineers from more than 30 countries attended the conference. Due to his great contributions to the permafrost research communities during his Vice-Presidency of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) (1988–1993), he was elected as the IPA President for the term of 1993–1998. Working closely with IPA, Professor Cheng initiated and organized the First Asian Conference on Permafrost in August 2006 and led delegates to tour the milestone project of cold regions engineering––the Qinghai-Tibet Railway for which he was a major designer and program chair for the bundle research programs/projects on the railbed engineering across the Interior of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He served as a Co-Chair of the 3rdto 7thInternational Symposia on Permafrost Engineering alternatively held in China and Russia 1988, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2007. He was also a Co-Chair of the International Symposium on "Sustainable Water Resources Management and Oasis-Hydrosphere-Desert Interactions in Arid Regions" in 2005. Professor Cheng is currently the Vice-President of the Ecological Economy Association of China, Director-General at the Department of Geosciences of the Natural Science Foundation of China, Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology (in Chinese), Journal of Ecological Economy (in Chinese), and Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions (in English). He was also long-term, cherished members of the editorial boards of Cold Regions Science and Technology and Permafrost and Periglacial Processes.

His major research accomplishments include, but not limited to, the studies on mitigation of permafrost-related engineering problems for the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, and theory of repeated ice segregation mechanism (the Cheng’s Hypothesis and later as the Cheng-Mackay’s Theory), in addition to numerous highly recognized technical papers and monographs as well as awards and prizes in these disciplines. He was one of the Co-Founders and the first President of the CAREERI, CAS, and has established the interdisciplinary and integrated research networks in arid and semi-arid regions in China. He has been a staunch supporter for the earth systems science and the future earth, for which he has designed and is operating the Integrated Study on the Hei’he Watershed Science, a major research program under the auspices of the Natural Science Foundations of China, with many great achievements and socio-societal contributions. He always emphasizes the importance of the human sector in the earth systems science, along with water, soil, atmosphere and biosphere, and firmly believes the critical role of human in the earth systems.

Ximing Cai (USA)

Editor-in-Chief Ximing Cai, received his Ph.D. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999, and he is now a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Ven Te Chow Faculty Scholar in Water Resources and Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar, College of Engineering, UIUC. Before joining the UIUC, he worked as Postdoctoral Fellow and then joint Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

He is one of the pioneering researchers in integrated hydrologic-economic modeling for river basin management and water systems operations. His current research areas include the coupled human-natural system analysis with an emphasis of human interferences in hydrological processes, water-energy-food system modeling especially in dry areas, and sustainable water resources management particularly in developing countries. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer reviewed journal papers, two books and several monographs. He also serves as Editor for Water Resources Research (American Geophysical Union, AGU) and Associate Editor for Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management (American Society of Civil Engineers) and the Editor Board of International Water (International Water Resources Association). He has obtained several research awards including U.S. National Science Foundation Career Award and Best Paper Awards with Water International and Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. He has worked as consultant to the World Bank, United Nations and other international agencies. Dr. Cai has served the research communities by leading committees including chairing the Water and Environmental Systems Committees and International Council, both with U.S. Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI).