Professor Haowen Yan holds two PhD degrees and is a Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholar. He has been awarded membership of the “National Young and Middle-aged Innovative Talents” and the “Million Talents Plan” of China. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of GeoVisualization and Spatial Analysis published by Springer-Nature. Haowen Yan studied at Wuhan University, the Information Engineering University of PLA of China, Hongkong Polytechnic University, University of Zurich, University of Waterloo and Old Dominion University. He has published 12 books, 5 of which are in English. He is the first author of 56 papers, holds 6 patents, has chaired 12 academic conferences and has completed 36 research projects as principal investigator.