William J. Emery (Life Fellow, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in physical oceanography from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA, in 1975.,After working at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, he moved to The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, in 1978, where he created a satellite oceanography facility/education/research program.

In 1987, he was appointed as a Professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.

He is currently an Adjunct Professor of informatics with Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy. He is the author of more than 182 refereed publications on both ocean and land remote sensing, and three textbooks.

Dr. Emery was a fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2010, the American Astronautical Society in 2011, and the American Geophysical Union in 2012.

He is the Vice-President for Publications of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and a member of the IEEE Periodicals Committee. He was a recipient of the IEEE GRSS Educational Award in 2004 and the IEEE GRSS Outstanding Service Award in 2009.

He was also a recipient of the GRSS Fawaz Ulaby Distinguished Achievement Award for 2022 and was elected to the IEEE TAB Hall of Honor in 2021.

He was elected as member of the Euorpean Academy of Engineering in 2016 and promoted as Emeritus member in 2023.