Dr. Hong has served on several international and national committees, review panels, and editorial board of several journals. He was Chair of the AGU Hydrology-Precipitation Technical Committee from 2008-2012. He is recipient of the 2008 Group Achievement Award from the NASA Headquarter. Dr. Hong received a PhD Major in Hydrology and Water Resources and Ph.D. Minor in Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis from the University of Arizona (2003) and an M.S. (1999) in Environmental Sciences and a B.S. (1996) in Geosciences from the Peking (Beijing) University, China.