Professor Pingzhi Fan (PhD FIET FCIE) is Vice-President of Southwest Jiaotong University, PRC, in charge of academic affairs. He is also a visiting professor of Leeds University, UK. Dr Fan has received a number of awards including the UK ORS Award in 1992 and National Science Foundation of China for Outstanding Young Scientist in 1988. He has served as general chair and technical program chair of more than ten international academic conferences, as well as guest editor-in-chief, editorial board member and editor of six international academic journals in Japan, USA and China, and currently serves as the IET Asia Pacific Region Board member. He is a fellow of IET and fellow of CIE. Dr Fan is the inventor of 25 patents and the author of over 350 research papers and 8 books. He has also led a number of research projects.