On September 19, at the 42nd plenary session of the ISO/TC8 Ship and Marine Technology Committee held in Athens, Greece, Academician Li Jiabiao was awarded the ISO Excellence Award this year, in recognition of his outstanding work in establishing and serving as the first chairman of the Marine Technology Sub-committee, formulating the international standard “Ships and marine technology-Technical guidelines for active source exploration with ocean bottom seismometers”. This is the first expert from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Zhejiang Province to receive this honor in the ship and ocean field.

Academician Li Jiabiao took the lead in developing the national standard in the field of marine survey in China, the Specifications for Oceanographic SurVey, in the 1990s. Since 2013, he has promoted the establishment of a specialized Marine Technology Sub-committee (ISO/TC8/SC13) in the International Organization for Standardization and served as the first chairman. The Marine Technology Sub-committee has continued to grow over the past nine years, now includes 18 member states and 6 working groups, and publishes a total of 13 international standards. It is one of the outstanding sub-committees of ISO/TC8 Ship and Marine Technology in recent years. At the same time, the International Standard for Active Source Exploration with Ocean Bottom Seismometers, presided over by Academician Li Jiabiao, is the first international standard for marine geophysical surveys developed under the leadership of China. The implementation of this standard is conducive to promoting the improvement of the technical performance of ocean bottom seismometers and the unification of data formats in various countries, and enhancing the international cooperation of different countries in investigation, development and utilization of underwater resources.

The ISO Excellence Award was established in 2015 to recognize experts, project leaders or working group conveners who have made prominent contributions to the formulation and revision of ISO international standards. Deep-sea exploration technology innovation is a key area for the development of global marine technology and an important direction for ISO standardization work. The rapid development of Chinese technology will become an important source of new standards in this field. The award winning of Academician Li Jiabiao fully reflects China’s important position in the standardization of marine technology and its technical strength in the field of deep seabed seismic exploration, which helps enhance the international influence of China’s autonomous marine equipment.