COAA Newsletter – Issue of March, 2008 Page 1

Chinese-American Oceanic and Atmospheric AssociationMail Box: P. O. Box 1293, Greenbelt, MD 20768, USAWeb Page: http://www.coaaweb.orgEditor: Renguang Wu

Contents• COAA 2008 board of directors Page 1• COAA Southern California Chapter Page 1• COAA board meetings Page 2• COAA member news

Passing of Dr. Jin Wu Page 3Prof. Norden Huang elected as a foreign member of Chinese

Academy of Engineering Page 3Dr. Min Wen received the Tu Changwang Award Page 3Dr. Quanan Zheng appointed as Associated Program Director of NSF Page 4

• COAA activitiesTraining of a Liaoning Meteorology Delegation Page 4Meeting with the Liaoning Meteorology Delegation Page 4COAA Chinese New Year luncheon Page 5COAA SCC Chinese New Year party Page 5Paper Review Panel Meeting for COAA 2007 Page 6

• AnnouncementsCOAA 2008 Spring Workshop Page 6A new journal: Advances in Adaptive Data Analysis Page 6

COAA 2008 board of directorsPresident: Shi-Keng (Sky) YangPresident-Elect: C.-K. TaiSecretary: Li ZhangTreasurer: Zhong LiuAcademic Programs: Donglian Sun & Li MingInternational Program: Ning ZengNewsletter: Renguang WuMembership & Publicity: Ruixin Yang

COAA Southern California ChapterThe COAA Southern California Chapter has been established in January 2008. The following

are Executive Committee members of the COAA Southern California Chapter:Chair: Yongkang Xue (UCLA)Secretary: Hui Su (JPL)Treasury: Yu Gu (UCLA)Program (Atmosphere): Jin-Yi Yu (UCI)Program (Ocean): Xiaochuan Wang (JPL)Membership: Qin Yue (UCLA)Publicity: Hengchun Ye (CSU)Publication: Fuu-Ming Kai (UCI)

COAA Newsletter – Issue of March, 2008 Page 2

COAA 2007~08 Board Meeting,11/30/2007, 7:00-10:00pm, College Park

A COAA board meeting was held atRoom 3425 of the Computer and SpaceSciences Building, University of Maryland atCollege Park on November 30, 2007 from7:00 to 10:00pm. Both previous and currentboard members attended this meeting.

The meeting began with the self-introduction of the members. During themeeting, the 2008 board of directors wereassigned as the following:

President: Shi-Keng (Sky) YangPresident-Elect: C. K. TaiSecretary: Li ZhangTreasurer: Zhong LiuAcademic Programs: Ming Li

Donglian SunInternational Programs: Ning ZengNewsletter: Renguang WuMembership&Publicity: Ruixin Yang

Nominated by the board, Haifeng Qian andLei Zhou will serve as COAA programassistants. Eric Nie will continue to serve asthe COAA web master.

The meeting decided that COAA wouldresume hardcopies of newsletters beginningfrom the next coming issue. The COAA newpresident, Dr, Sky Yang, summarized theCOAA activity plan in 2008. Prof. QuananZheng, the former COAA president, reportedto the board meeting on the on-goingpreparation on the COAA annual report,which will be finalized in early 2008.

The meeting determined that the seasonalgreeting cards would be sent out before thecoming Christmas and Ruixin Yang wouldcarry out the task. During the meeting, theboard discussed the possibilities to create aninternational program to receive delegationsfrom China. Another board meeting will bescheduled to further discuss this issue.

(In the picture, from left to right, are Zeng Ning,Renguang Wu, Li Zhang, Sky Yang, DonglianSun, Ruixin Yang, Zhong Liu, and Haifeng Qian)

COAA 2008 Board Meeting, 2/16/2008,9:30-11:30am, Potomac

A COAA board meeting was held onFebruary 16, 2008. S.-K. Yang, C.-K Tai,Zhong Liu, Renguang Wu, Ruixin Yang,Haifeng Qian, Lei Zhou and Li Zhangattended this meeting. Ming Li, Donglian Sunand Ning Zeng were absent. This meetingcovered three topics: COAA current state,financial, and tasks.

In this meeting, Sky Yang summarizedthe COAA activities since last the boardmeeting, including seasonal greeting cardssent out to COAA VIP members, theestablishment of the Southern CaliforniaLocal Chapter, the Chinese New YearLuncheon, the training of the LiaoningMeteorology Delegation organized by theSouthern California Chapter, a tribute at theDr. Jin Wu’s memorial service delivered bySky, meeting with the Liaoning MeteorologyDelegation, COAA new mailbox, etc.

Some specific issues related to COAAfinancial had been addressed in this meeting.

The meeting discussed specific tasks inthis year: COAA 2008 Spring Workshop,COAA Newsletter, COAA InternationalTraining Program, identifying candidates for2009 board, and the COAA 15th AnniversaryPublication.

COAA Newsletter – Issue of March, 2008 Page 3

Passing of Dr. Jin Wu

Dr. Jin Wu, 73, the founder of COAA anda retired University of Delaware professor,died of multiple organ failure caused byampullary cancer on January 14, 2008 inTainan. Dr. Wu was born in Nanjing, China,and received a civil engineering degree in1956 from National Cheng Kung Universityin Taiwan. He received, from the Universityof Iowa, a master's degree in 1961 and adoctorate in 1964, both in mechanics andhydraulics. After completing his doctorate,Dr. Wu joined Hydronautics, a Laurel-basedprivate research group that gathered andanalyzed data on fluid dynamics and thenature of oceans. From 1966 to 1974, he wasa research scientist and director of thecompany's Fluid Motions Division andGeophysical Fluid Dynamics. In 1974, hebecame an associate professor of marinestudies and civil engineering at Delaware andin 1985 was named the H. Fletcher Brownprofessor of marine studies and engineering.

On behalf of COAA, Shi-Keng Yang,2008 COAA President, delivered a tribute atProf. Jin Wu’s Memorial Service on February3, 2008.

Prof. Norden Huang elected as aforeign member of Chinese Academy of

Engineering

Professor Norden E. Huang, the formerpresident of COAA, was elected to theChinese Academy of Engineering as a foreignmember for his academic achievement and histremendous efforts to elevate levels of scienceand engineering in China. The formalannouncement of his election was made bythe Chinese Academy of Engineering at theend of year 2007.

After retired from NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center as the chief scientist inoceanography, Prof. Huang went to theNational Central University (NCU) in Taiwan

and established the new Research Center forAdaptive Data Analysis. He is currently thedirector of the center. Prof. Huang is widelyknown for his invention of the Hilbert-HuangTransform, which revolutionizes the time-frequency analysis in general. During the lastten years, Prof. Huang has won manyprestigious awards, such as membership of the(US) National Academy of Engineering,Academia Sinica, three NASA Space ActAwards, and the 2006 Service to AmericaMedal in the category of science andenvironment. Let us congratulate him foranother prestigious awards. (Provided byZhaohua Wu)

Dr. Min Wen received the TuChangwang Award

Dr. Min Wen, a COAA member and avisiting scientist to NOAA’s ClimatePrediction Center (CPC) from the ChineseAcademy of Meteorological Sciences( C A M S ) , C h i n a M e t e o r o l o g i c a lAdministration (CMA), has recently receivedthe Tu Changwang Award from the ChineseMeteorological Society. The Award is anhonor bestowed to outstanding youngscientists annually. It is equivalent to theMeisinger Award of the AmericanMeteorological Society.

Dr. Wen received her Ph.D. from TheNanjing University of Information Scienceand Technology, China, in 2002 and joinedthe CAMS in 2003. With expertise in climateanalysis, she has published papers on theAsian monsoon and intraseasonal variabilityof the tropical atmosphere. Dr. Wen came toCPC under the NOAA-CMA bilateralprogram in the summer of 2007 and iscurrently working on the influences ofatmospheric and land surface initialconditions on the sub-seasonal variability ofmonsoon climate in the NCEP ClimateForecast System. (Provided by Song Yang)

COAA Newsletter – Issue of March, 2008 Page 4

Dr. Quanan Zheng appointed asAssociated Program Director of NSF

Dr. Quanan Zheng, a Senior ResearchScientist of University of Maryland, CollegePark, Maryland, and a former COAApresident (2006-2007), has been appointed asAssociate Program Director for the PhysicalOceanography Program, Division of OceanSciences, National Science Foundation, sinceOctober 2007. The Physical OceanographyProgram supports research on a wide range oftopics associated with the structure andmovement of the ocean and interactionsbetween the ocean and the atmosphere, solidearth and ice that surround it. Dr. Zhengserves as one of managers for this program.

Training of A Liaoning MeteorologyDelegation

In January 2008, a Chinese delegation of10 meteorologists from the LiaoningProvincial Meteorological Administration ofChina visited USA. This delegation wassponsored by Chinese Ministry of Financeand was hosted by the U.S.-China BusinessTraining Center (USCBTC) in Los Angeles.

The COAA Southern California Chapter(SCC) organized a 10-hour training course tothe Liaoning delegation during January 10-13,2008. COAA SCC was requested to preparethe training course within only 2 weeks leadtime. Despite of the limited time, Drs. Hui Su(JPL), Xiaochun Wang (JPL) and Yu Gu(UCLA), and Yongkang Xue (UCLA), puttogether an informative training course andsatisfied both the Liaoning meteorologists andthe USCBTC.

The training course consisted of 5 two-hour sessions. Prof. Robert Fovell and Dr. Jin-Won Kim of UCLA, Drs. Brian Kahn andJonathan Jiang of JPL, and two UCLAgraduate students, Ms. Xingjuan Wang andMs. Qing Yue gave lectures for the courses.

Their lectures include hurricane forecasts,regional climate modeling, NASA’s EarthObserving Systems and weather forecasts, andremote sensing. The delegation ofmeteorologists expressed great interest in thematerials presented by the lecturers and askedmany questions. In the end, the head of thedelegation, Mr. Qu Xiaobo, Director ofLiaoning Provincial MeteorologicalObservatory, thanked COAA and USCBTCfor the excellent training course and suggestedfurther interactions in the future. (Provided byHui Su)

(Picture of the Liaoning Meteorology Delegationwith some COAA Southern California Chaptermembers)

Meeting with the Liaoning MeteorologyDelegation

On Saturday, January 26, 2008, COAAPresident Sky Yang, C.-K. Tai, Song Yang,and Ruixin Yang met the LiaoningMeteorology Delegation headed by DirectorQu, Xiaobo of Shenyang CentralMeteorological Observatory in Fairfax,Virginia during the delegation’s visit toWashington, DC area. During the meeting,feedback on the recent training sessions takenplace in Southern California was collected.Potential collaborations and suggestions onsimilar events in the future were alsodiscussed between the two groups. (Providedby Ruixin Yang)

COAA Newsletter – Issue of March, 2008 Page 5

COAA Chinese New Year luncheon

The COAA celebrated the 2008 ChineseNew Year with a lunch festival on February 2,2008 at the Tony Lin’s Restaurant inRockville, Maryland. About 40 people,including eight COAA ex-presidents, attendedthe lunch. Current president Sky Yang hostedthe party.

During the lunch, Sky introduced thecurrent board members, recognized the pastboard, expressed gratitude to Dr. Jin Wu forhis great contribution to COAA, and sharedhis personal stories with Dr. Wu. Prof. FrankPao, the president of Rho Psi Foundation,gave a keynote speech on Global Warmingand Global Market. Prof. Pao received theBenemerenti Medal from Pope John Paul II.As a director of development of internationalprogram in the Catholic University ofAmerica (CUA), he also introduced anestablished student exchange programbetween the School of Engineering of CUAand the Hong Kong Polytechnic University,which led to lots of discussions amongmembers on international collaborations indifferent universities during the party.(Provided by Li Zhang)

COAA SCC Chinese New Year Party

The Chinese-American Oceanic andAtmospheric Association Southern CaliforniaChapter (COAA SCC) celebrated the Year ofthe Rat on February 23, 2008 at the GoldenDragon restaurant in the China Town of LosAngeles. About 40 people attended the lunchparty. Prof. Yongkang Xue hosted the party,with assistance from the newly appointedseven COAA SCC Executive Committeemembers.

This year’s party featured two keynotespeakers by Dr. Timothy Liu and Dr. Lee-Lueng Fu, both from Jet PropulsionLaboratory. Dr. Liu is a Senior ResearchScientist. He is a fellow of American

Meteorological Society, and was recentlyelected as a fellow of American Associationfor the Advancement of Science. Dr. Liureviewed his career as an observer of globalocean since 1980s and talked about importantdiscoveries made by NASA’s scatterometermissions regarding ENSO, Arctic wind-iceinteraction, hurricanes, global ocean waterbalance and interactions among ice, land,ocean and atmosphere for global change. Dr.Fu is the NASA Project Scientist for theTOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 Missions. He isa Fellow of the American Geophysical Unionand the American Meteorological Society,and was recently elected as a member ofNational Academy of Engineering. Dr. Fuintroduced the ocean surface topographymissions and the significant research findingsby these missions that are directly relevant toclimate change.

Following the keynote speeches,representatives from each institution (UCLA,UCI, JPL) introduced Chinese and Chinese-American scientists and students in theirrespective institutions with nice view-graphsbearing pictures, Chinese names, educationbackground and research interests. Peopleexchanged information and renewedfriendship while enjoying Chinese food andlistening to Karaoke singers. The party lastedabout 3 hours in a festival atmosphere.(Provided by Hui Su)

(In the picture, from left to right, are Dr. Lee-Lueng Fu, Dr. Timothy Liu, Prof. Yongkang Xue,and Dr. Jonathan Jiang)

COAA Newsletter – Issue of March, 2008 Page 6

Paper Review Panel Meetingfor COAA 2007

The Paper Review Panel Meeting for theFourth International Ocean and AtmosphereConference (COAA 2007) special sectionswas held on February 26–28, 2008, inQingdao, China. Dr. Quanan Zheng, a formerCOAA president, chaired the meeting. Total96 papers are received. The panel is in chargeof final review for these papers and madepublication recommendations to ActaOceanologica Sinica and Journal of OceanUniversity of China. The papers that passedreviews will be published on 5-6 issues of thetwo journals in this year. A monographincluding all papers to be published will alsobe planned. All panel members thank the FirstInstitute of Oceanography, State of OceanicAdministration, China, for hosting andfinancially supporting the meeting. US NSFIR/D program provides international travelsupports for Dr. Zheng. (Provided by QuananZheng)

COAA 2008 Spring Workshop

The COAA 2008 Spring Workshop willbe held on May 3, 2008, 9:30am-3:00pm, inRoom 2400 (Seminar Room) of the Computerand Space Sciences Building, University ofMaryland at College Park. This Workshopwill be dedicated to Dr. Jin Wu who was thefounding member of COAA and had beeninstrumental in establishing collaborationsbetween Chinese and American institutions.This workshop will feature invited talks aboutProf. Jin Wu’s scientific and societalcontributions.

With the rapid economic developmentsand accompanied environmental degradationin China, the international scientificcommunity is paying increasing attention tooceanic and atmospheric research in China. Inthe meantime, Chinese scient if icorganizations are looking for collaborativeopportunities with overseas colleagues.

COAA members are in a unique position toplay important roles in fostering theinternational collaborations with Chinesecolleagues. You are invited to join a forum todiscuss strategies and develop plans for thecollaborations.

In addition to invited talks and the forum,you are invited to contribute a paperrepresenting your latest research. Yourpresentations will broaden our knowledge,inspire new ideas and may lead to potentialcollaborations with other COAA scientists.

Both oral and poster presentations aresolicited. Poster presentations are especiallyencouraged and will be given a five-minuteoral summary. The abstract deadline is March31, 2008. Please email your abstract to:

Dr. Ming Li, mingli@hpl.umces.edu,COAA Program Chair for Oceans

Dr. Donglian Sun, sun@atmos.umd.edu,COAA Program Chair for Atmosphere

A new journal: Advances in AdaptiveData Analysis

Prof. Huang has started a new journalwith World Scientific entitled "Advances inAdaptive Data Analysis" (AADA). AADA isan interdisciplinary journal dedicated to reportoriginal research results on data analysismethodology developments and theirapplications, with a special emphasis on theadaptive approaches. The mission of thejournal is to elevate data analysis far abovethe routine data processing and to make it atool for scientific research and engineeringapplications. For more information, please seehttp://www.worldscinet.com/aada/aada.shtml.

Many COAA members have conductedresearch using HHT or other adaptivemethods. Prof. Huang and other members inthe editorial board are sincerely looking foryour support to the journal by submitting highquality paper to this new journal. (Providedby Zhaohua Wu)