IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2017 - 96

focusing on the joint processing of spaceborne SAR and
global navigation satellite systems to retrieve geophysical
signals. His research interests include stereo SAR, correction
modeling for absolute SAR observations, and radargrammetric image processing with a focus on fusing SAR with geodetic observations to measure deformations.
Ramon F. Hanssen [Figure 2(c)] received his M.Sc. degree
in geodetic engineering and his Ph.D. (cum laude) degree
from the Delft University of Technology in 1993 and 2001,
respectively. He has held positions with the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Science, Delft University of Technology; the University of Stuttgart, Germany; the
DLR; Stanford University, California (Fulbright fellow); and
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, where he worked on potential field theory, microwave
remote sensing, radar interferometry, signal processing, and
geophysical application development. Since 2008, he has
been the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor in Geodesy and
Earth Observation with the Delft University of Technology.
He is the author of a textbook on radar interferometry and
has served as a memeber of several advisory groups on SAR
missions with the European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk,
The Netherlands. From 2011 to 2016, he was also chair of the
Delft University of Technology's Department of Geoscience
and Remote Sensing, and he is currently chair of the Department of Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning there. Hanssen's research interests include developing methods and algorithms for estimating the Earth's spatiotemporal geometry,
signal propagation in relation to studies of the atmosphere,
the monitoring of critical civil infrastructure, and improved
understanding of information retrieved by spaceborne radar
sensors. In 2007, he founded SkyGeo, a company that focuses on the operational geodetic monitoring of assets. Since
2012, he has been a visiting professor at Wuhan University,
China. Hanssen is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Richard Bamler [Figure 2(d)] received his diploma degree in electrical engineering, his Ph.D. degree in engineer-

FIGURE 4. Alberto Moreira (left) and Michelangelo Villano (center)

receive the IEEE GRSS Letters Prize Paper Award from GRSS President Adriano Camps.
96

ing, and his habilitation in the field of signal and systems
theory in 1980, 1986, and 1988, respectively, from TUM. He
worked at the university from 1981 to 1989 on optical signal
processing, holography, wave propagation, and tomography.
He joined the DLR in 1989 and is currently director of the
Remote Sensing Technology Institute there. In 1994, he was
a visiting scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, California, working toward preparation of the
SIC-C/X-SAR missions, and, in 1996, he was a guest professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Since 2003, he
has held a full professorship in remote-sensing technology
at TUM (a double appointment with his DLR position). Bamler's teaching activities include university lectures and courses on signal processing, estimation theory, and SAR. Along
with his team at the Remote Sensing Technology Institute,
he has been working on SAR and optical remote sensing, image analysis and understanding, machine learning, stereo
reconstruction, computer vision, ocean color, hyperspectral
image analysis, passive and active atmospheric sounding,
and laboratory spectrometry. His research interests focus
on algorithms for optimum information extraction from
remote-sensing data, involving new estimation algorithms,
such as sparse reconstruction and compressive sensing for
SAR, multi/hyperspectral imaging, and data fusion. He is a
Fellow of the IEEE.
IEEE GRSS LETTERS PRIZE PAPER AWARD
The GRSS established the IEEE GRSS Letters Prize Paper
Award to recognize authors who have published an exceptional paper in terms of content and impact on geoscience
and remote sensing in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Letters during the previous calendar year. If a suitable paper
cannot be selected from those published during the previous
year, then any papers published in prior years subsequently
recognized as meritorious may be considered. When determining the winning paper, originality, impact, scientific
value, and clarity are the factors considered. The award consists of a certificate and an honorarium of US$1,500, which
is equally divided among the authors.
The 2017 IEEE GRSS Letters Prize Paper Award was presented to Michelangelo Villano, Gerhard Krieger, and Alberto Moreira with the citation "for a very significant contribution to the field of endeavor of the IEEE GRSS in the paper
coauthored by Michelangelo Villano, Gerhard Krieger, and
Alberto Moreira and titled 'Onboard Processing for Data
Volume Reduction in High-Resolution Wide-Swath SAR,'
published in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol.
13, no. 8, pp. 1173-1177, 2016."
Michelangelo Villano (Figure 4) received his B.Sc. and
M.Sc. degrees (honors) in telecommunication engineering
from the University of Rome "La Sapienza," Italy, and his
Ph.D. degree (honors) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, in 2006, 2008, and 2016, respectively. From
September 2008 to August 2009, he was a Young Graduate
Trainee with the European Space Research and Technology
Center (ESTEC) at the ESA, where he developed processing
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 2017

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2017