Mikko Strahlendorff, Global Monitoring for Environement and Security GMES Bureau
Mikko Strahlendorff is a seconded national expert to the European Commission in Brussels. He serves in the Global Monitoring for Environement and Security GMES Bureau coordinating the development of Marine, Atmosphere and Climate Change services. He is involved in in-situ and service architecture planning for GMES. He is also the European Co-Chair of the Earth Observation working group for the EU-Russia Space Dialogue.
Before joining the European Commission Mikko was the Head of the Information System Services unit at the Finnish Meteorological Institute where he has served for about ten years in numerous product and service development functions for operational the weather forecasting system. He is a master of meteorology from Helsinki University in 2003.
Professor Sir Martin Sweeting OBE, FRS
Executive Chairman – Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL)
Director – Surrey Space Centre (SSC)
Born in 1951 in London and with a PhD in Electronic Engineering & Communications, Sir Martin pioneered the concept of rapid-response, low-cost and highly-capable small satellites utilising modern terrestrial COTS devices to ‘change the economics of space’. In 1985, after building and launching the UK’s first two research microsatellites at the University of Surrey, he formed a spin-off University company (SSTL – Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) which has now designed, built, launched and operates in orbit a total of 34 nano, micro, and mini-satellites – including the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation (with Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey & UK) and the GIOVE-A Galileo satellite for ESA. SSTL has also developed a highly successful satellite know-how transfer and training programme and has worked with 12 countries – particularly enabling emerging space nations achieve their first space missions and thus to access space directly to benefit their environment and economies. During the 1990s, as the capabilities of small satellites rapidly increased, they moved from being a research activity to meeting real applications for Earth observation, communications and space science. In 2004, SSTL formed a company – DMC International Imaging (DMCii) – to coordinate the DMC and to exploit the commercial applications of the DMC EO data. Working in partnership with the UK British National Space Centre and DMC Consortium members, the constellation is providing services and imagery to the International Charter: “Space and Major Disasters”. DMCii provides 24-hour emergency on call officer services and, in the event of a major disaster, tasks the global fleet of satellites made available by the world’s space agencies. Images from the DMC are used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping, and have been supplied to organisation such as the United Nations and the US Geological Survey during disasters such as the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
Sir Martin is also Director of the Surrey Space Centre, leading a team of 90 faculty and doctoral researchers investigating advanced small satellite concepts and techniques and which acts as the research laboratory for SSTL: real academic-commercial synergy.
In 1995, Sir Martin was awarded the OBE in HM Queen’s Birthday Honours and the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal – both in recognition of his pioneering work in small satellites. In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2000 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (the UK’s national academy) and also awarded the Royal Society’s Mullard Prize. Sir Martin was knighted by HM Queen in the 2002 British New Year Honours for services to the small satellite industry. In 2006, he was appointed a Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey, invited to sit on the BNSC Space Advisory Council and to join the ESA Advisory Committee on Human Spaceflight Microgravity & Exploration. Most recently, he was awarded the Royal Institute of Navigation Gold Medal in recognition of the successful GIOVE-A mission for the European Galileo system and featured in the UK’s “Top Ten Great Britons” and received the Times Higher Education Supplement Award for Innovation for the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).
Stuart Martin, Business Director, Space & Satellite Communications, Logica
Stuart joined Logica in 1989. After five years working in Germany he returned to the UK, where after he undertook a range of engineering and management functions in a number of major space programmes, mainly in the fields of navigation and meteorological processing systems.
In 2003, Stuart became Logica’s Business Manager for Galileo and related programmes. In this role he oversaw the award to Logica of several design and developments contracts for the Galileo ground segment, and also (through the Galileo Joint Undertaking) for the AGILE project – The Application of Galileo in LBS Environments – the flagship FP6 activity looking at the role of Galileo in Location Based Services.
Now with responsibilities for all Logica activities in the space domain, including Galileo and the Skynet 5, Stuart is currently Business Director for the Logica Space and Satellite Communications business.
Stuart holds a BSc in Physics from Imperial College.
Geir Hovmork, Deputy Director General, Norwegian Space Centre
Hovmork has been involved in space activities since 1981. First as project engineer and project leader at various satcom projects at the Space Activity Division of the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Indsutrial Research(NTNF-R). When the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) was established in 1987 he become Head of the Space Transportation section. Since 1994 he was Director for Industrial Development and from 2006 also the Deputy DG of the NSC. He represents Norway on various boards including ESA Council and subcommittees.
He holds M.Sc Electronic Engineering from the Technical University of Trondheim.
Prof. Walter Peeters, Dean & Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the International Space University (ISU) at Strasbourg, France
After initial management positions in construction and petrochemical industry, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1983 in a number of project control and management functions, among others in the HERMES project in Toulouse, France. Since 1990, he was involved in astronaut activities as Head of the Coordination Office of the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, with strong involvement in the EUROMIR missions. He joined ISU in 2000, after serving as visiting professor (Non-profit Marketing) at the University of Louvain, Belgium and was nominated as dean of ISU in 2005. He published more than 50 articles on incentive contracting, project management, space commercialization and organization in the space sector and is author of the book Space Marketing (Kluwer, 2000). Recent consultancy assignments include activities in the field of space economy (OECD, EC), space policy (Luxemburg, Estonia) and space tourism (Singapore spaceport, Gallactic Suite, Excalibur). He holds bachelor’s degrees in engineering and applied economics (Catholic University of Louvain), a Master of Business Administration degree (Louvain, Cornell University) and a Ph.D. degree in Industrial Organization (TU Delft, the Netherlands).
He has been recently appointed as director of the International Institute of Space Commerce (IISC), a think-tank based on the Isle of Man as a joint project between ISU and the Government of the Isle of Man.
Josef Aschbacher, ESAJosef Aschbacher is the Head of the GMES Space Office of the European Space Agency, which is located at ESA ESRIN in Frascati, Italy. Before, from 2001-2006 he was Programme Coordinator in the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes at ESA’s HQ in Paris. He was at the Space Applications Institute at the EC Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, from 1993-2000, where he was the Scientific Assistant to the Director in his last position. Through his work at the EC and ESA he earned a profound knowledge of the Earth Observation landscape in Europe and has actively contributed to the advancement of European space programmes, most notably the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative.
Josef Aschbacher has a PhD and Masters degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He has 25 years of working experience in the domain of satellite Earth observation and has published more than 100 articles, many in peer-reviewed journals. He has been a lecturer at University Innsbruck, Austria, the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, the Politecnico Milano, Italy, and the University of Wuerzburg, Germany.
Yrjö Gustaf Sucksdorff, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Geoinformatics Division manager
Yrjö is responsible of GIS and remote sensing activities at the Environmental Administration in Finland.
He is adviser of Finnish Space Board, Chair of national spatial data harmonisation work group for Finnish Spatial Data Infrastructure Board. Also, he is a member in ProGis society and Remote Sensing Club of Finland.
Yrjö forms part of European Space Agency’s ‘Data Operations Scientific and Technical Advisory Group’ (DOSTAG); is an adviser in the GMES Advisory Council and in Group on Earth Observations (alternate head of Finnish delegation) and a Member of Swedish Space Board’s Earth Observation Committee.
Luigi Fusco, Senior Advisor for Earth Observation Applications, European Space Agency (ESA)
Working in ESA since 1974, Luigi Fusco has more than 35 years experience in the Earth Observation (EO) system and application domain. He has continued to be involved in the planning and management of projects dealing with different aspects of EO payload data systems, EO applications and related innovation technologies. For the last few years, he has been leading the ESA participation in the development and utilisation of GRID, Open GIS, emerging Web-based and e-collaboration technologies for EO and environmental applications throughout ESA, EC and Italian (Lazio Region) funded projects. In the ESA participation to EC FP7 activities, he is the coordinator of the GRID-based Research Infrastructure Project GENESI-DR (Ground European Network for Earth Science Interoperations – Digital Repositories) and he has lead the ESA participation in many projects, including the recent: DEGREE (Grid support action for Earth Science), DILIGENT and D4SCIECNE (Digital Libraries in GRID environment), CASPAR (Testbed for Long Term Digital Data and Knowledge Preservation), Collaboration@Rural (Plaftorm for Collaborative Working Environment), MEGALAB (Very High Bandwidth Wide Area Network GRID infrastructure in the Rome area). Recently, as part of the ESA Technology Transfer Programme, is leading the ESA Business Incubation initiative in Italy to support the transfer of Space reated Technologies in other domains with the involvement of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) start-ups and Research Centres spin-off. He has published many papers in various international journals and conferences. He participates in the evaluation and review of EC-funded projects in the space and environment domains. He was nominated as Senior Advisor in ESA in 2000.
Pauli Stigell, Tekes Space unit
Pauli Stigell is a graduate in aeronautical engineering from Helsinki university of technology (1986). He designed various spacecraft science instruments for 12 years at VTT and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since autumn 2000 he has worked at Tekes Space unit. He is the secretary of the Finnish Space Committee, is involved in some of Tekes-funded space technology projects and represents Finland in some of ESA’s and European Commission’s space committees.
Alar Kolk, Member of Estonian Space Policy Working Group
Alar was the CEO of Enterprise Estonia and a member of the Management Board. In his previous positions Alar was the CEO of Estonian Technology Agency and the CEO of Estonian Innovation Fund. He has been active in Estonian R&D policy planning bodies: Innovation Policy Committee, Research Policy Committee and the Estonian R&D Strategy Committee. Today Alar is an adviser of Secretary General in Ministry of Finance. He is responsible for many strategic restructurings and organizational change in the Ministry. Alar has studied in and graduated from many different universities. Currently he is in the process to finalise his PHD in Helsinki University of Technology.
Ene Ergma, President of the Riigikogu
Education: Moscow State University, astronomy (cum laude) 1969; Cand. Sci. in physics and mathematics 1972, Dr.Sci. in physics and mathematics, 1984; Tartu State University, physics 1964; Viljandi Carl Robert Jakobson Secondary School No 1 1962
Career: 11th Riigikogu, 2007–; 10th Riigikogu, President 2003–2006, Vice-President 2006–2007; Estonian Academy of Sciences, Vice-President, 1999–2004; University of Tartu, Chair of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Professor 1988–1992; Professor of Astrophysics 1992; Institute of Theoretical Physics, Head 1992–1996; Physics Department, Head 1992–1998; Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Leading Researcher, Scientific Secretary, Senior Researcher, Junior Researcher 1974–1988; Estonian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Junior Researcher, 1972–1974
Party affiliation: Pro Patria and Res Publica Union 2002–
Membership in representative bodies: 10th and 11th Riigikogu
Social activities: member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU); IAU Estonian National Committee; European Astronomical Society (EAS); Estonian Physical Society; Tartu Observatory Science Council; National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Council; University of Tartu, Institute of Physics, Scientific Council, Estonian Academy of Sciences, member since 1997; Euroscience; Royal Astronomical Society, associate member since 2001; Descartes Grand Jury, member 2002, President 2003-2005; Göttingen Academy of Sciences, Gauss Professor; Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, foreign member; Tartu Academic Tennis Club
Scientific activities: Estonian Academy of Sciences, member since 1997; Göttingen Academy of Sciences, Gauss Professor, 1994; Highest Evaluation Committee, Professor 1990; University of Tartu, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Professor of Astrophysics 1988;
Dissertation Unstable Thermonuclear Burning at Late Stages of Stellar Evolution 1984
Timiebi Aganaba, ISU International institute of Space Commerce, Isle of Man
Timiebi Aganaba is an associate lawyer at Sofola & Associates in Lagos, Nigeria. Upon successful graduation from the Nigerian Law School in 2006, she worked at the Nigerian Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), serving in the Legal Affairs and International Cooperation department. She attended the International Space University (ISU) Strasbourg to pursue a Masters in Space Management. Upon graduation from the masters program, she worked as a teaching associate in the space management program at the ISU with a focus on space law and policy issues. Currently she serves as Directors assistant for the ISU International Institute of Space Commerce where she is responsible for undertaking research projects.
Göran Boberg, Swedish National Space BoardGöran Boberg is Director of Earth Observation at the Swedish National Space Board and has an overall responsibility for remote sensing activities. He has a university degree in Ecology and Physical Geography and has got long lasting experience in working with environmental protection and nature conservation issues at Municipality and Government level. He was working for the Ministry of Agriculture before he joined the Space Board, bringing in some of User’s perspective on Space activities. Göran Boberg is a delegate to the FP7 Programme Committee on Space, to ESA:s Programme Board on Earth Observation and the GMES Advisory Council. Heavily involved in all aspects of GMES, he is also Swedish coordinator for GMES and is currently running a special task from the Swedish Government to improve the user involvement and national coordination of Earth Observation, especially GMES.
Anu Reinart, PhD in environmental physics (2000, Tartu University, Estonia)
Expert in remote sensing in optically complex environment. She graduated from Tartu University as physicists (optics) and has worked in Estonia Marine Institute, Tartu University as research associate. In 2002-2004 she was working in Uppsala University, Sweden as EC Marie Curie Fellow and since 2005 has returned to Estonia, to the Department of Atmospheric physics, Tartu Observatory. She is a member of Estonian Space Policy workgroup and Estonian representative in EC GMES Bureau Advisory Council. She has been leading research projects financed by Swedish National Space Board, Estonian Science Foundation and EC FP7 Regpot EstSpacE and IAPP WaterS. Currently supervising 2 PhD dissertation. She has published 32 peer-reviewed papers.
Dana Reizniece, Member of Board, Ventspils High Technology Park,
a member of Latvian Space Working group and facilitator of space-related activities in Latvia. Development of Latvia’s Satellite Technology Centre and Space Cluster is among her current professional activities. She is one of the first Latvia’s small satellite “Venta-1” project directors.
Aarne Männik,
PhD in environmental physics, Estonian Meteorological Hydrological Institute
Aarne Männik is expert in numerical weather prediction and atmospheric modelling. He graduated from University of Tartu as MSc in environmental physicists in 1999 and defended his PhD in 2003. Since then he has worked in University of Tartu as research associate. Starting from 2006 works as head of development department at Estonian Meteorological Hydrological Institute.
Besides his work on numerical weather prediction models Aarne Männik is involved in EUMETSAT related development and activities in Estonia.
Urmas Raudsepp, Head of Department of Ecohydrodynamics, Marine Systems Institute
Urmas Raudsepp has PhD in environmental physics. His main activity is related to integrated use of Earth Observation data and numerical marine modeling in the developing of downstream services on marine weather prediction. Currently, he is Chairman of international HIROMB (High Resolution Operational Model for the Baltic Sea) consortium. Urmas Raudsepp is involved in MyOcean project and in development of Estonian space cluster. He is member of Estonian Marine Policy workgroup and operational marine pollution expert group. He has been leading a number of R&D projects financed by different institutions.
Kaupo Voormansik, PhD student, University of Tartu
Kaupo Voormansik is a young PhD student in the University of Tartu. His doctoral studies are carried out in cooperation with Tartu University spin-off company Regio Ltd. Kaupo Voormansik’s research work is directed for developing Location Based Services (LBS) that apply satellite remote sensing data.
Kaupo Voormansik graduated International Space University (ISU) MSc Space Studies program in 2009 and returned to Estonia looking to put his knowledge into good use. Before starting to work in the space field he studied Information Technology in the University of Tartu, where Kaupo holds MSc degree. In 2008 Kaupo Voormansik won the Skype scholarship for master studies in the ISU. As an ISU alumnus Kaupo Voormansik has very good overall understanding of satellite systems capabilities.
Tõnis Eerme, Member of the Board, Invent Baltics OÜ
Tõnis Eerme is a founder and partner of an innovation bureau Invent Baltics OÜ (www.invent.ee). He has previously worked as an innovation consultant at Tartu Science Park. He has provided business development services to many of the Estonian companies currently active in the field of space downstream services. He carried out a thorough analysis of the present status of the demand and supply in Estonian space downstream services sub-markets for an Estonian government agency, Enterprise Estonia, in 2009.
Frederique Berenbach, Head of Consultancy Services, Sapienza Consulting
Frederique Berenbach has gained a Bachelor in Business Management and Marketing from the IECS School of Management in Strasbourg.
Following an international career in new media and web communications she joined Sapienza Consulting (www.sapienzaconsulting.com) in 2002 a UK based SME specialised in delivering IT services and products to the space industry and institutions.
Since she started at Sapienza she has led many web projects for ESA which aimed at promoting and raising the awareness of ESA missions and data. Most recent projects were the design and development of the GEOportal and the GMES Data Access portal.
These days Frederique is responsible for the strategy and business development of Sapienza in the area of space ICT and software engineering as well as space outreach and communication.
Madis Võõras, advisor for technology, innovation & space in Enterprise Estonia
Madis is graduate of Tallinn University of Technology (1979) in mechanical engineering and University of Tartu (1999) – MBA.
Madis has 12 years work experience in practical engineering and engineering design management, he is author or co-author of 6 patents. In 1991 he started his career in corporate management, serving for 11 years as CEO and chairman of the board in large Estonian stock exchange listed industrial company. In 2003 he joined Enterprise Estonia and is now concentrated for development of space business and space applications utilisation in Estonia. He is national delegate in Estonia for European Space Agency and vice chairman of Estonian Space Policy Working Group. Madis is member of Estonian Innovation Policy Committee and Research Policy Committee.
Urmas Peterson, Research Scientist, Tartu Observatory
Urmas Peterson is currently a Research Scientist at Tartu Observatory and an Associate Professor with Department of Forest Management, Estonian University of Life Sciences. His main research interest are land cover mapping and monitoring addressing issues at scales ranging from the sub-pixel to regional. He is giving lecture courses of geographic information systems and spatial analysis at Estonian University of Life Sciences and Remote Sensing at Tartu University, Estonia.
Núria Blanes Guàrdia, European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC-LUSI).
Núria Blanes holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2001) and a Master in Geographical Information Technologies (LIGIT – Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2004-2006).
She has been working for the ETC since 2001, being involved in different activities related to several environmental aspects. Currently, she is coordinating the noise work programme of ETC-LUSI and participating in several GMES Land related projects (GSE Land, GNU and geoland2), mainly involved and in charge of the user platform activities.
Rainer Uhle, Senior Product Manager BW, SAP NetWeaver Product Management
Rainer Uhle is graduate of the RWTH Aachen in Mathematics and Geography (1985).
In 1987 he joined the SAP AG in Walldorf/Baden, one of the market and technology leaders in business management software, where he recently acts as a Product Expert in Product Management for Basis Technologies. His area of expertise concentrates on Reporting& Analysis, Management Information Systems, and Business Intelligence as well as Enterprise Information Management, Process Oriented Data Warehousing and Telematics. He is especially engaged in joined SAP Research projects dealing with Telematic Platforms for Vehicle2Business integration.
Since 2008 Rainer Uhle pursues a PhD in the ‘Program for Environmental Computer Science’ of the Georg-August-University School of Science (GAUSS) in Göttingen (http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/30826.html ). The thesis of his doctoral studies concentrates on ‚Galileo GNSS based Mobility Business Services‘.
Beside that Rainer Uhle acts since 2009 as official representative for the SAP AG in the ‘Forum for Applied Satellite Navigation and Mobile IT Baden-Wuerttemberg’ (Forum SatNav MIT BW, www.galileo-bw.de ) where he is leading the Working Committee for Mobility Management.
Rob Postema, Principal Business Consultant at Logica
Rob Postema is Principal Business Consultant at Logica. His activities, amongst others, focus on business development for downstream applications and services of satellite navigation, telecommunication and earth observation. From his understanding of satellite infrastructures and their potential, now and in the future, he explores the possibilities of introducing satellite services to improve client business and service processes, or introduce new and innovative services. In engagement with client who potentially may introduce satellite downstream services, he creates awareness through workshops and tutorials, and performs assessments to analyse feasibility and implementation roadmap.
Together with Frans von der Dunk of Black Holes B.V., he has developed a tutorial for understanding the framework conditions for GNSS downstream applications and services.
Robert Lowson, European Environment Agency’s Brussels-based GMES coordinator
Robert Lowson is the European Environment Agency’s Brussels-based GMES coordinator, working alongside the GMES Bureau in the Commission’s DG Enterprise. He has been in this post for three years, on secondment from the UK Government. Previously he was Director of Environment Strategy in the UK Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). His earlier posts included DEFRA Communications Director and Minister in the UK Representation to the EU.
Bernhard Bals, Project Manager, IABG Space Division
Bernhard Bals is Project Manager in the department for Quality Management and Program Consultancy of IABG Space Division. Before he started at IABG, he had been serving for 12 years as career officer in the German Armed forces, where he contributed to the start-up of operation of the SAR-Lupe space-based reconnaissance system between 2004 and 2009. Bernhard graduated in aerospace-engineering at Federal Armed Forces University in Munich (2004), Germany, and in economics at Fernuniversität in Hagen (2009), Germany. At IABG since 2009, he has been providing system engineering, quality management and project management consultancy for space-related projects, currently in Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Juhan Parts, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia
Juhan Parts has been the Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications since 2007. The Ministry elaborates and implements the state’s economic policy and economic development plans in the following fields: industry, trade, energy, housing, building, transport (including transport infrastructure, carriage, transit, logistics and public transport), traffic management (including traffic on railways, highways, streets, waterways and airways), increasing road safety and reducing environmental hazardousness of vehicles; informatics, telecommunications, postal service and tourism; coordinating the development of state information systems; research and development and innovation, metrology, standardization, certification, accreditation, licensing, registers, industrial property protection, competition surveillance, consumer protection, export promotion and trade safeguards; measures regional development and investment, related administration of minimum stocks of liquid fuel and drafting the respective legislation bills.
Juhan Parts is one of the most influential and experienced politicians in Estonia. His career started in Ministry of Justice as Deputy Secretary General, where he worked from 1992 until 1998. After that he served as an Estonian Auditor General until 2002. He was the Chairman of Res Publica Party during the period of 2002-2005. Starting from 2003 until 2005 Juhan Parts was Estonian Prime Minister. Juhan Parts has been chosen to be a Member of the 10th Riigikogu, Parliament of Estonia 2003, 2005 – 2007. In 2007 he became the Member of the 11th Riigikogu, Parliament of Estonia.
Juhan Parts graduated law in University of Tartu in 1991 with cum laude. Among his hobbies and interests are politics, history, travelling, checkers, football and hockey.
Marc Tondriaux, Director of Spot Infoterra, the Earth Observation Services Business Division, EADS Astrium
Marc Tondriaux is the Director of Spot Infoterra, the Earth Observation Services Business Division of Astrium Services, since 2007. As a Doctor Engineer graduated from the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécoms” of Paris, Marc Tondriaux started his career in 1979 as a research engineer at the National Center for Telecommunications in Paris. Marc also earned in 1996 an Executive MBA at HEC/ CPA.
He joint Matra Espace in 1985 as program manager for satellite communication network projects, before being named in 1990 as the Head of the Ground Segment Department in Matra Marconi Space, in charge of Telecom and Earth Observation Ground Segments projects among which projects like HELIOS ground segment and several export ground segments for telecom and Earth Observation satellites. He was appointed in 2000 Director of Ground Segment & Application Business Unit of Astrium.
He formed in 2008 the Spot Infoterra Business Division by gathering the Infoterra entities (from UK, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain) with the Spot Image Group.
Marc Tondriaux is Chairman of the Astrium subsidiaries Infoterra, and the Astrium representative at the board of Spot Image and of IGN France International.
Carsten Brockmann, Managing director, Brockmann Consult
Carsten Brockmann is managing director of Brockmann Consult, a company providing consultancy, services and software solutions for environmental data processing. He is currently coordinator of the ESA Coastcolour project and Principle Investigator of an international compaign preparing the Sentinel 3 GMES satellite mission. Carsten Brockmann received his diploma in oceanography and holds a Ph.D. in Earth Science. He specialised on remote sensing and informatics early in his professional career. He was working at the University Hamburg, the GKSS Research Centre and the European Space Agency as remote sensing expert before he founded his own business in 1994.
Marie MENARD-CAER, Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Bureau
Marie MENARD-CAER serves in the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Bureau. She is in charge of communication and involved in the developement of business opportunities for companies thanks to GMES services. Before joining the European Commission, Marie worked in different consultancy companies in charge of business development.
Marie MENARD-CAER has a PhD in Business Administration from IAE University and is graduated from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Reims (France). She worked on the effects of social networks on the strategy development for small and medium organisations such as SMEs.
Peter Buetfering, CEO, European Space Innovation AG
Peter Buetfering has worked as Manager and Co-Founder for Kesberg, Buetfering & Partner (KB&P) in Bonn from 1987 through 2007. From 2007 – 2009, Mr Buetfering was active as Managing Director for Adam Alva Neil, and since 2009 is CEO of the listed company European Space Innovation AG.
After studying law and philosophy in Bonn, Zurich, Vienna, Cologne and Paris, Mr Buetfering started working in the field of knowledge transfer and scientific journalism until KB&P was founded. As service provider and consultancy in the area of science and technology marketing, KB&P has initiated and managed numerous projects for public partners (e.g. German Ministries, DARA, DLR, ESA) as well as for private companies (e.g. Microsoft, RSA, BITKOM, Siemens, EADS, Deutsche Telekom).
A core interest of Mr Buetfering since 1989 is the space sector in Germany and in Europe. Continuous activities and contacts into space industry and administration over the years have created a substantial network into the research, business, and political spheres.
Annelies Hommersom, Project leader, Water Insight
Annelies Hommersom (1980) studied Environmental Sciences at the Wageningen University and Research Center. During her internship she worked with algae at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ); her Msc thesis was on water quality problems in river water at the St. Lawrence River Institute in Canada. In June 2010 she will defend her PhD thesis on remote sensing of the Wadden Sea for the Institute of Environmental Studies (IVM). Currently she works at Water Insight as project leader of the WISP-3 program.
Rein Kolk, CIO, Nycosat
Rein Kolk 20 years of experience in the domains of satellite Earth Observation and Environmental Impact assessment. Currently he is holding CIO position in private company NycoSat. In his previous position he was Director & Chairman of the Board in Governmental company Tartu Environmental Research Ltd. Prior to this position he was director in VEMO-pioneer Ltd, focused on development of tunable pulsed lasers. He also has carried out research on characteristics of the UV-radiation spectrophotometer SFM-4UF for “Salyut” space-stations. From 1977 onwards, he was working in group which carried out pre-flight tests of scientific instruments on board of space stations Salyut and Mir in Enterprices “Energy” and “KB Salyut” and in Hrunitsev named Space Technology Factory and Pre-departure tests in Baikonur. 1977-1982 he took part in calibration and testing. 1983-1990 he took part in calibration and testing and determination of the main characteristics of the VIS-NIR-teleradiometer FAZA. US-French-Soviet joint-project “Merit” he worked in Geophysical Satellites Stations in South America and in Africa.
Latvia National Contact point for Space, 7th Framemework Programme
Kaspars Kalnins,Riga Technical University, Institute of Materials and Structures
Dr.sc.ing Kaspars Kalnins is the leading researcher at the Riga Technical University, Institute of Materials and Structures. His main competences are numerical analysis of composite structures, design and optimisation with numerical experiments for development of fast simulation tools. Author more than 30 scientific publications, in the field of mechanics of composite materials. In 2007 has been nominated by Ministry of Science and Education as National Contact point for Transport (including Aeronautics) Space and Security research. Currently Kaspars is a member of Latvian Space Policy working group.
Teet Jagomägi, Chairman of Executive Board, REGIO Ltd
Teet has been working for REGIO Ltd over 20 years. Since 2002 he’s the owner and Chairman of the company. He’s also a member of Association of Estonian Information Technology and Telecommunications Companies (board member 2002-2003, 2009-) and member ot Association of Estonian Surveyors.
Teet holds M. Sc. in Geoinformatics from Institute of Geography, University of Tartu and B. Sc. in Computer Science Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu.
Mikhail Sofiev, Doctor, senior scientist, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Mikhail Sofiev is doctor & senior scientist at Finnish Meteorological Institute. He is also adjunct professor at University of Helsinki, Department of Physics.
His field of expertise includes mathematical modelling of atmospheric pollution by various compounds. M.Sofiev has worked in the field of atmospheric physics and chemistry, mainly concentrating in development and application of the Lagrangian and Eulerian air pollution models for regional and large-scale (Dispersion Model for Atmospheric Transport, DMAT), as well as operational dispersion modelling for accidental releases (SILAM air quality and emergency modelling system). The list of pollutants includes: acidifying and toxic compounds, ozone, radioactive and biological species.
His specific areas of interest are: model development, verification and comparison with measurements, statistical methodology for model validation, analysis of the measurement data, inverse and adjoint dispersion modeling, computer experiments, etc
Wolfgang Koschel, Project Director, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Wolfgang Koschel graduated as a Diploma Engineer in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) and got in 1971 a Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.) degree in Mechanical Engineering. Since 1982 he is University Professor at the University of Technology of Aachen (RWTH Aachen), chair for “Jet Propulsion”. In 1994 he was delegated to the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR) and was until Dec. 2007 director of the Institute for Space Propulsion in Lampoldshausen. In the years 1987 to 1995 he was advisor and member of the Steering Board of the National Hypersonic Technology Program at the German Federal Ministry of Science, Education, Research and Technology (BMFT, Bonn). From 1996 to 2007 he served as a member of the Advisory Board of the German Space Agency (DARA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Space Agency Branch. From 1999 to 2006 he was member of the “Haut Conseil Scientifique” de l´ONERA (Office National d´Études et des Recherches Aérospatiales), France. Since 2001 he is member of the Technical Committee Ariane (Comité Technique Ariane – CTA). Since March 2008 he is the German representative of the ASI/CNES/DLR project STAVE in the frame of the EU FP 7 Programme. Since 2008 he is also engaged as a president of the Aero Academy Dresden GmbH for quality management training in aerospace. During his professional career he worked on different topics of aerospace propulsion –aeroengines and liquid rocket propulsion – and launcher technologies. Professional memberships: Association of German Engineers (VDI), German Aerospace Society (DGLR), EUCASS (European Association for Aero Space Sciences), Membre Correspondent de l´Académie de l´Air et de l´Espace, Toulouse.
Ülari Alamets´, Chairman of Management Board, Enterprise Estonia
Ülari serves as Chairman of Management Board of Enterprise Estonia since April 2008. He first joined team of Enterprise Estonia in 2002 as director of Regional Development Agency, from 2003 until 2005 he hold a position of a director of Business and Living Environment Division. Since September 2005 he became Member of Management Board.Prior to this he worked at Estonian Regional Development Agency (ERDA) and Jõgeva County Government. Mr. Alamets is a Member of Advisory Board of Estonian Rural University and Member of Advisory Board for Foundation “Tallinn 2011 – Cultural Capital of Europe”.
Mr. Alamets has graduated from University of Tartu, School of Human Geography as Bachelor of Human Geography. He also took part of graduate level program on public administration, strategic planning and quality of public services in The University of Birmingham, School of Public Administration, Great Britain.
