Li begins term as head of global landscape architecture group

At a speech marking the beginning of his term as the elected president of a global landscape architecture educators’ group, Ming-Han Li, professor of [landscape architecture] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu/) at Texas A&M, underlined the importance of mentoring in education.

“A good teacher instructs, a great teacher demonstrates, and a true mentor inspires,” said Li during his inauguration at the [Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture] (http://www.thecela.org/) ’s March 27, 2015 convention in Manhattan, Kansas.

CELA advances education, research and outreach in landscape architecture by publishing research conducted in the profession through its refereed publication, [Landscape Journal] (http://uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/journals/lj.html) , hosting annual conferences focusing on recent research and scholarship in all aspects of the field and by sponsoring numerous additional initiatives.

The council’s members include virtually all the programs of higher learning in landscape architecture in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Individual and institutional members from many other parts of the world also belong to the CELA family.

In his speech, Li called on CELA members to mentor students, junior landscape architecture faculty members and each other by providing encouragement, role modeling, constructive project review and critique.

“Mentoring changes insight, then incites change,” he said.

Li also outlined priorities and goals he will be emphasizing during his 2015-16 presidency, such as increasing the number of members reviewing abstracts and papers submitted to CELA’s journal and heightening member service in CELA initiatives.

His CELA presidency follows a one-year term in 2014-15 as the group’s first vice president and will be followed by a one-year term as past president.

Li, who joined the landscape architecture faculty at Texas A&M University in 2003, earned a [Ph.D in Urban and Regional Sciences] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu/academics/graduate/ursc/) at Texas A&M in 2002, a [Master of Landscape Architecture] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu/academics/graduate/mla/) degree in 1998 at Texas A&M and a Master of Civil Engineering degree at the University of Texas in 1995.

HIs research topics include stormwater management, soil bioengineering, soil erosion and roadside vegetation management in projects associated with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Southwest University Transportation Center and the Texas Department of Transportation.