Volker Liebig

Volker Liebig (born on 3 September 1956) is a German geophysicist and honorary professor at the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart.

From 2004 to 2016, he was Director of the European Space Agency's (ESA) earth observation programmes and Head of the ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) in Frascati near Rome.

Under his leadership, the space component with the Sentinel satellites of the European environmental observation system Copernicus was set up.

Career
From 1979 to 1986 diploma and PhD at the Institute of Geophysics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

His PhD thesis was on magnetotelluric measurements in Antarctica. 1984/85 Participation in the German Antarctic North Victoria Land Expedition (Ganovex IV). From 1986 to 1993 he worked in the space industry.

From 1993 to 2004 he held various management positions at the German Space Agency (DARA), which was merged in 1997 with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In 2000 he was appointed Programme Director of the German Space Programme. During his time at DLR, he represented Germany on many international committees.

He has been teaching at the University of Stuttgart since 2002, from 2010 as an honorary professor

Since leaving esa, he has been involved in artistic photography.

Honours

 * In 1985, a mountain spur in East Antarctica was named after him


 * In 2010, he was appointed honorary professor by the University of Stuttgart


 * In 2018, the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR) awarded him the Eugen Sänger Medal for his services to space-based earth observation, meteorology and climate research and the development of the Sentinel satellite series