Obituary of Ruiliang Pu

Dear Colleagues,
It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we inform you of the death of our colleague and friend, Dr.
Ruiliang Pu, who passed away on Friday, August 25, 2023. Dr. Pu passed away unexpectedly at the age
of 67. We will all miss him more than words can express.
Dr. Pu was a professor at the School of Geosciences at USF, specializing in remote sensing,
Geographic Information System (GIS), and Ecology. During his graduate study at UC Berkeley,
he conducted research in the field of cartography. His work crossed theoretical, methodological,
empirical, and technological dimensions of the discipline and contributed to the sibling
disciplines of geography, GIS, and spatial statistics. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in Cartography &
Geographic Information System in 2000, Dr. Pu continued his research at UC Berkeley till 2005
before joining the faculty at USF in 2006. He was a pioneer in the fields of remote sensing, GIS,
and spatial statistics with applications in natural hazard monitoring and biophysical and
biochemical parameters extraction.
Dr. Pu was born in Wuxi, China. Before coming to the United States in 1995, he worked at
Nanjing Forestry University in China from 1985 to 1994. Throughout his academic career, Dr.
Pu had published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters in English and more than 26
journal articles and books in Chinese. He was a well published and cited author and scholar.
We remember Dr. Pu as a kind and selfless colleague, a resourceful and productive scientist, a
patient and inspiring mentor, and a dear friend to many. His memory will live on in the hearts
and minds of his friends and colleagues.
Dr. Pu was survived by his wife of 40 years, Guoling, his beloved sons, William and Wilson, and
his sisters, Meifang and Meiqin.