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Prof. Dr. Barbara Koch

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 BarbaraKoch

     Prof. Dr. Barbara Koch
     Chair of Remote Sensing and Landscape Information Systems 
     University of Freiburg 
 
     Delivery address: Tennenbacherstr. 4, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany
     Tel.: +49-761-203-3694
     ferninfo@felis.uni-freiburg.de
 

 

 

Ms Professor Dr. Barbara Koch studied Forest Sciences from 1977 to 1982 at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. From 1982 to 1994 she worked as a scientific staff member at the Institute of Land Use Planning and Nature Conservation at the Technical University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich). The main research areas were the use of multispectral optoelectronic airborne scanner data for the detection of forest damage and spectral analysis of vegetation under standardized conditions in the laboratory and field. Her research was interdisciplinary from the start and was carried out in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Chair of Geosciences and Remote Sensing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, the Institute of Biophysics at the University of Hanover and the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in Pasadena, USA. This also led to a research stay at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in the United States. In 1984 Ms Koch established a working group on “Remote Sensing and Geo-Information Systems in Forestry”.

Over the years, Ms Koch has considerably extended his research activity and carried out numerous research projects for remote sensing and geo-modelling in the framework of forest and landscape analysis (e.g. airborne laser-induced chlorophyll fluorescence measurement to detect the vitality of forest trees). She participated as a co-investigator in the research project for the preparation of the SIR-C mission and she was responsible for the organisation and supervision of AISAR flight campaigns and the analysis of the data for the forest area. The implementation of the research project was carried out in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL). The thematic focus was the study of multipolar metric airborne radar data in order to detect various land cover types with emphasis on the cover type forest. She was science team member of the MOMS-02 mission satellite system, the first German mission on the Russian Priroda space station. The thematic focus was the preparation and implementation of the accompanying scientific advice into the mission and the thematic analysis of the data. The project was carried out in collaboration with the DLR, the company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), the Institute for Photogrammetry at the University of Hanover, Stuttgart and Munich and the Chair of Geosciences and Remote Sensing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. Furthermore, she participated in the scientific direction of the research project for detecting the forest formations in the Pantanal (Brazil) in the framework of the cooperation project: „Das Pantanal von Mato Grosso, Brasilien: ökologische Charakterisierung, anthropogener Einflüsse, Entwicklungs- und Schutzkonzepte“. The project was carried out in collaboration with the Max-Planck Institute für Limnologie in Plön (Germany) and the University of Cuiabá (Brazil).
 
In 1993, she received the Bruno H. Schubert Young Scientist Award for outstanding scientific achievements.
 
Before completing her habilitation in Munich, Ms Koch was offered the Chair for Remote Sensing and Landscape Information Systems at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg. In addition to the traditional fields in remote sensing, she developed and established a research and teaching programme for geo-modelling at the former Faculty of Forestry Sciences in Freiburg. Already in 1997, she worked on the use of pulsed airborne and terrestrial laser data for the analysis and description of vegetation or vegetation structures. The work of the Chair played an international pioneering role for the detection of tree vegetation. In this context, the chair developed numerous algorithms and a software (TreesVis). Ms Koch is member of the Scientific Committee in many of the relevant scientific conferences and she is a reviewer for national and international journals.

Since 2005, she manages the Steinbeis Research Center “FeLis” which transfers scientific knowledge into industry applications. 

Ms Koch was Women's Representative of the Faculty, member of the University Budget Committee, Vice-Dean and Dean. As dean, she was responsible for the conversion of the former Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences into the Faculty of Environmental and Natural Resource and had to implement the realignment of teaching and research as part of the expansion of the faculty. At this time, she is Academic Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, board member of the Centre for Renewable Energy, Head of the working group on Education of the University Centre for Sustainability and Transformation and Vice-Chairwoman of the Senate commission. In these roles, she works on the tri-national Science offensive for Environment and Sustainability. As a member of the Steering Committee of the Fraunhofer Research Institutes Freiburg, she is furthermore involved in the development of the cooperation between the Fraunhofer Institut and the University in the area of research and teaching.
 

Curriculum Vitae

Function at the department

Key activities

  • remote sensing
  • geomatic
  • spatial modelling
  • teaching

Curriculum vitae

Education
  • 1982               Diploma in Forestry Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich
  • 1988               Ph.D., Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich 
  • 1994               Habilitation, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg
 
Work experience
  • 1982-1994      Research Assistant , Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich
  • Since 1994     Head of the Professorship of Remote Sensing and Landscape Information Systems
  • Since 2005     Leader of the FeLis Steinbeis-Transfer Centre http://www.stz-felis.de/english/welcome.html
  • 2013-2014     Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Freiburg
  • Since 2013     Board member of the Centre for Renewable Energy
  • Since 2014     Head of the working group on Education of the University Centre for Sustainability and Transformation
  • Since 2014     Academic Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Freiburg
  • Since 2014     Member of Senat der Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg

Projects

Publications and presentations

Membership of professional bodies

Editorial Membership
  •  Member of editorial board of the “Journal of Forest Planning”
  •  Member of VDI und DIN – Normenausschuss KRdL
  •  Member of editorial board of “Silva Fennica”
  •  Member of editorial board of “Photogrammetrie, Fernerkundung und Geoinformationssysteme” (until 2008)
     
Other tasks and functions
  • Member of the Steering Committee of the Fraunhofer Research Institutes Freiburg (since 2013)
  • Member of the board of FVA (since 2013)
  • Member of Deutschen Forstwirtschaftsrates  (since 2013)
  • Appointed a deputy member of Black Forest National Park (since 2014)
  • President of the Council of European Foresters (since 2015)
 
Scientific Expert
  • Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  • EU-Commission DG XII
  • Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG)
  • Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)
  • Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Verkehr, Austria
  • Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
  • Finish Academy of Science
  • Swedish Space Agency
  • Academy of Finland

 

Journal Reviewership
  • European Journal of Forest Research
  • Journal of Applied Ecology
  • ISPRS Journal
  • Photogrammetrie Fernerkundung und Geoinformation PFG
  • European Journal of Forest Research
  • International Journal of Remote Sensing
  • Swedish National Space Board  

Awards 

  • 2012 awarded by the State of Baden-Württemberg for the innovation prize “Übermorgenmacher”
  • 2010 awarded by the University of Freiburg as candidate for the Leibniz Award by the University of Freiburg
  • 2009 ERDAS Award for Best Scientfic Paper in Remote Sensing, 2nd place, American Society for Photogrammetrie and Remote Sensing
  • 2008 Best Paper Award International Society of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetrie
  • 2006 Best Scientific Paper Award International Journal of Remote Sensing
  • 1995 awarded by the Faculty of Forest Sciences as candidate for the Alfried-Krupp Award by the Faculty of Forestry, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg
  • 1993 awarded for the Bruno H. Schubert Preis for young researchers in environmental sciences