Kyung Soo Chon
Dear Distinguished Members of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies (EASTS)! I am humbled by your support to lead the EASTS as the fourth President of EASTS.
As I look back at the 14 year history of EASTS, I cannot but think that this has been a long time and also a short time. Long time since it seemed like a distant reality to have such an expansive network of transportation specialists in Eastern Asia due to our historical and cultural differences. We have indeed come a long way since 1994, and have now produced a truly cooperative society, which will play a critical role in creating a regional community in Eastern Asia. I would like to express my gratitude on behalf all the members to the founder of EASTS, President Nakamura, and succeeding Presidents, Professors Cal and Morichi, and all the members for working very hard for the past 14 years to make this a great society of transportation specialists.
It seems like such a short time since we still have a long way to go to overcome the challenges we face in Eastern Asian cities, which have experienced the most rapid economic development, growth of megapolis, and urbanization in the 20th and 21st centuries. I hope we can conduct more collaborative research, and share our research findings in helping to solve the common problems. In this spirit, I ask for the members to continue their support for EASTS to make this an academically rigorous, policy-relevant, and cooperative network of scholars, practioners, and policymakers interested in transportation. Through active research and collaborative research networks built among our members from different countries in the region, I hope that EASTS can represent Eastern Asia to the world’s transportation research groups, and lead the transportation research in the world.
Thus, it gives me great hope and challenge as I start the Presidency of EASTS.
Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to lead EASTS during this most exciting period of growth.
Kyung Soo Chon
President