Recently, Professor Guanpeng Dong of HENU was honored with the 2024 International Geographical Union (IGU) Early Career Award and invited to attend the International Geographical Congress in Dublin, Ireland in August to accept the award. This award, given every two years, aims to recognize young geographers worldwide who have made outstanding innovative research contributions. In 2024, a total of five young geographers worldwide received this honor while only five in China up to now. Professor Guanpeng Dong is the first geographer from a local university in China to receive this international award.

The IGU Executive Committee highly praised Professor Dong's innovative contributions to geographical modeling. His original multiscale statistical–mechanistic model will be applied to innovate geographical techniques and address major issues of global and regional sustainable development.

The IGU is an international academic organization composed of geographical associations worldwide. Its mission is to promote international cooperation and exchanges, conduct academic discussions and research, and award certificates of honor to geographers who have made special contributions to inspire geographers around the world.

Professor Guanpeng Dong, from Xiangcheng County, Henan Province, holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. He is a member of the Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development Research Center of HENU, a member of the Geographical Model and Information Analysis Committee of the Geographical Society of China and a visiting scholar at the Center for Spatial Data Science of the University of Chicago. In 2020, he was selected for the national-level Young Talent Plan. His relevant findings have been published in top international geography journals such as AAAG (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2023), GA (2015), and IJGIS (2018, 2023).