A delegation headed by Dr. Linwang Yuan, Dean, School of Geographical Sciences at Nanjing Normal University (NNU), China, visited the Department and UMD on Oct, 10, 2018. He and his colleagues (Dr. Xiaoyan Liu and Zhang Zhang) met the faculty and also the students enrolled in our joint MPSGIS Program. Within this program, the students spend the first year studying at NNU and then complete the rest of classes here at UMD.

The visitors met with the Department Chair, Dr. Chris Justice and the Director of Center for GIS, Dr. Kathleen Stewart along with other faculty and staff involved in the joint program. Associate Dean, Dr. Wayne McIntosh, Assistant Dean, Dr. Mengxue Li and staff from the Office of International and Executive Programs (OIEP) also attended the meeting. The meetings discussed the status of the Program, addressed feedback from instructors and students, and shared ideas on future collaboration of education and research between NNU and UMD. At the end of meetings, Dr. Yuan gave a seminar titled "The Future of GIS" highlighting GIS-related research work from the School of Geographical Sciences at NNU.