Manfred Zink

Manfred Zink received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in physics from the Technical University of Graz, Graz, Austria, in 1987, and the Dr.-Ing. degree in aerospace engineering and geodesy from the University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1993. In 1988, he was with the Microwave and Radar Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR). He has pioneered the calibration techniques for both air- and spaceborne SAR sensors. He was the Lead X-SAR Calibration Engineer for both SIR-C/X-SAR missions in 1994 and for the SRTM mission in 2000. In August 2000, he was with the European Space Agency and took over the responsibility for the calibration/validation of the ASAR onboard ENVISAT. After successful in-orbit commissioning of the ASAR, he was appointed as the Principal System Engineer for ESA's TerraSAR-L Program. In May 2005, he returned to DLR's Microwaves and Radar Institute, where he is currently heading the Satellite SAR Systems Department. From 2006 to 2015, he was leading the TanDEM-X ground segment project. Dr. Zink has been an active member of the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation, SAR Subgroup, since 1991, and from 2011 to 2016, he has been chairing this group. He was the recipient of the DLR Science Award in 1991 and the EUSAR Best Paper Award in 2008. In 2012, he and his colleagues were presented with the IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Award and have been nominated for the German Federal President's Prize for Technology and Innovation. He was the general chairman of the European SAR conference 2014.