Dr. Thian Gan, Ph.D., P.Eng., PE, FASCE is Professor of Water Resources Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta since 1993, a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and a research ambassador of German Academic Exchange Service. His teaching/research in snow hydrology, remote sensing, hydrologic modeling, hydroclimatology, climate change, and water resources management and planning has gained international recognition. Dr. Gan has supervised 7 postdoctoral fellows, graduated 11 PhDs and 25 master students, and has published a book, “Global Cryosphere – Past, Present and Future, 472 pages, Cambridge University Press”, and over ninety refereed papers in various reputable, peer reviewed international journals of American Geophysical Union (AGU), American Meteorological Society (AMS), Royal Meteorological Society (RMS), Elsevier Science, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), remote sensing journals and others. He has been a Tan Chin Tuan Fellow of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2013-14); Issac Mayer Manasseh Fellow of National University of Singapore (2014); visiting professor of Aalto University, Finland (2013); a visiting scholar of United Nation University (UNU-FLORES), Germany (2013); a Rossby Fellow of Stockholm University, Sweden (2012); Erskine Fellow of University of Canterbury, New Zealand (2011); Visiting professor of Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland (2010); Research Scientist of Cemagraf, France (2009); CIRES Visiting Fellow of University of Colorado-Boulder (2007); Guest university professor (W3) of Technical University of Munich, Germany (2006-07); Adjunct professor of Utah State University, USA (1998-2005); Honorary Professor of Xian University of Technology and Yangtze University of China; JSPS Fellow of Kyoto University (2000) and guest professor of Saga University (1999) of Japan, and assistant professor of Asian Institute of Technology (1989-1990), Bangkok.