Choice 2 (200 words):
Shashi Shekhar is a leading scholar of spatial computing, spatial data science, GeoAI and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Contributions include scalable algorithms for eco-routing, evacuation route planning and spatial pattern (e.g., colocation) mining, along with an Encyclopedia of GIS, a Spatial Databases textbook, and a spatial computing book for professionals. Shashi is a McKnight Distinguished University Professor, a Distinguished University Teaching Professor, and an ADC Chair at the University of Minnesota. Currently, he is serving as the Director of a National AI Research Institute, namely AI-LEAF, intersecting AI, Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Forestry, lead of the climate and sustainability group of the Computing Research Association (CRA) workgroup on socially responsible computing, a co-Editor-in-Chief of the Geo-Informatica journal (Springer), and an Associate Director of his college's Data Science Initiative, Earlier, he presented at a Congressional reception (2015), co-chaired SIAM Data Mining conference (2023, 2024), CRA Snowbird conference (2022), and served as the President of the University Consortium for GIS (UCGIS). He also served as a member of many National Academies' committees and the CRA board. Recognitions include IEEE-CS Technical Achievement Award, UCGIS Education Award, IEEE Fellow and AAAS Fellow.