Alumna and Husband Give $1M to Support Geographical Science Grad Students

A University of Maryland alumna and trustee on its foundation board and her husband have made a new $1 million gift to expand their support for graduate students in the Department of Geographical Sciences.

The endowed fellowship established by and named for Jingli Yang Ph.D. ’95 and her husband, Peter Li, will provide annual awards of at least $5,000 to two to four students, to be used to offset summer expenses as well as tuition and research-related costs, such as acquiring data, conducting fieldwork, purchasing specialized equipment and traveling to conferences to present research findings. The gift supports Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless, a new $2.5 billion fundraising effort.

“If graduate students don’t have summer support, then they have to find other ways of getting it, either by finding a summer job, or other opportunities supporting professors’ research projects, and that takes time and energy away for their own research,” Yang said.

She is a longtime supporter of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences who previously served on its Board of Visitors. She and Li previously established the Dr. Jingli Yang and Dr. Peter Li Graduate Support Endowment Fund, which provides graduate students interested in remote sensing and geographic information systems with merit-based summer research support.

The couple co-founded Earth Resources Technology, a company with more than 30 years of experience offering space and Earth science, enterprise engineering and mission operation solutions to the federal government. They have felt called to support graduate students who are pursuing a similar path, in summer, and now anytime of the year.

Yang fondly recalls the impact that UMD geographical sciences faculty had on her career. Professor Emeritus Stephen Prince helped her secure a NASA Global Change Fellowship. A seminar on how to present your research, led by Professor Emeritus John Townshend, taught her how to communicate her work clearly and succinctly, a skill that served her well when talking to potential customers.

“I feel indebted to the Department of Geographical Sciences, so I want to do anything I can to help,” she said.