Academician Fu Bojie receives the 2020 Humboldt Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU)

The European Geosciences Union(EGU) announced the recepients of the 2020 Union Medals and Awards on October 22, 2019. Dr. Fu Bojie, Chair of the IGU-GFE, Dean of Faculty of Geographical Science of Beijing Normal University, was named the 2020 EGU Humboldt Medal.

This medal, named in honour of Alexander von Humboldt, is awarded to scientists who have performed research in developing regions for the benefit of people and society, through which they have achieved exceptional international standing in geosciences, planetary or space sciences. Dr. Fu Bojie received this award for his achievements in the land use structure and ecological processes, ecosystem services and ecological restoration of the Loess Plateau and his outstanding achievements in leading the global arid ecosystem research. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin on September 14, 1769. He was a famous natural geographer, explorer, and naturalist. He was the main founder of modern geography.

The European Geosciences Union is one of the two largest international alliances in the world. Since 2006, 11 scientists worldwide have won the EGU Humboldt Medal. Dr. Fu Bojie is the second Chinese scientist to receive the EGU Humboldt Medal after Academician Liu Tungsheng.

Fu Bojie was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. He was elected as a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 2012. In 2015, he was elected as foreign academician of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. In 2019, he was elected as foreign academician of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently the vice chair of the International Geographical Union and the deputy director of the National Ecological Protection and Construction Expert Committee of China.

Academician Fu Bojie is mainly engaged in the study of physical geography and landscape ecology, and has achieved systematic innovations in land use structure and ecological processes, landscape ecology and ecosystem services. He has published more than 500 academic papers, including more than 300 papers published in SCI journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience, and Nature Climate Change, and more than 10 books. His publication has been cited more than 40,000 times at home and internationally. He has won the second prize of the State Natural Science Award, the second prize of the State Science and Technology Advancement Award, the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2017 Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Advancement (Geosciences), and Award of Distinguished Service of the International Association of Landscape Ecology.

The 2020 EGU Humboldt Medal