New Scientific Principal Investigator of the EnMAP mission

published on October 23, 2014

Prof. Hermann Kaufmann (GFZ) retires after a successful career as one of the world-wide leading experts in the field of hyperspectral remote sensing. He initiated the spaceborne hyperspectral satellite mission EnMAP and became the Scientific Principal Investigator of this long-term research and development program. Since October, 2014, Prof. Luis Guanter succeeds Prof. Hermann Kaufmann and takes up the position as the new Scientific Principal Investigator.

Prof. Hermann Kaufmann has a long-term experience in the development of new spaceborne optical imaging systems. He is one of the pioneers of the basic science needed for the rapid development of hyperspectral remote sensing and he made important contributions to a wide field of applications in Earth sciences.

Prof. Hermann Kaufmann started his scientific career as a geologist at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany, in the geoscientific remote sensing group where he obtained his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in Geology in 1985. Afterwards he had been a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing of Karlsruhe University for 5 years, before he became Project Manager of the National Remote Sensing Facility in Harare, Zimbabwe (1990-1993). In 1992 he gained his inauguration (Dr. Ing. habil) in the field of remote sensing from the Faculty of Engineering of Karlsruhe University. In 1993 he became the head of the newly established Remote Sensing Section at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (GFZ).

Since the beginning of his scientific career he has been involved in the definition, development and validation of new sensors starting with the German imaging instrument program MOMS (Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner). Further, he contributed to other spaceborne sensor development programs including JERS-1, ADEOS-AVNIR and SENTINEL-2.

Prof. Luis Guanter received his PhD in the field of Environmental Physics at University of Valencia, Spain, in 2007. He held postdoc positions at the Remote Sensing Section of GFZ Potsdam and at the Institute for Space Sciences of Freie Universität Berlin. He spent one year as EC Marie Curie Fellow at Oxford University, UK. Since 2012 he was leading a DFG Emmy Noether junior research group at FU Berlin.

His main research interest is the monitoring of land and atmospheric processes by means of space-borne imaging spectroscopy and the development of multi- and hyperspectral remote sensing systems in the frame of future Earth Observation missions (e.g., EnMAP, Sentinel-2, and FLEX). Luis Guanter is member of advisory boards of various satellite missions. On October 1st, 2014 he took up the position as new head of the Remote Sensing Section at GFZ Potsdam and Professor of Remote Sensing in joint appointment with University of Potsdam.

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