IMF Director retires

On July 28, 2022, after a two-year interruption caused by the covid pandemic, an EOC summer get-together took place for the first time again in Oberpfaffenhofen. This festive framework was also used to honour the director of the Remote Sensing Technology Institute, Prof. Richard Bamler, who is retiring after 33 years at DLR.

Richard Bamler joined DLR in 1989 and was initially responsible for developing the SAR processor for the X-band data of the SIR-C/X-SAR Space Shuttle project. Then in the mid-1990s he became head of the DFD Algorithms and Methodologies department, and in addition to expanding SAR methodologies he was also in charge of developing the first processors for atmosphere spectrometers.

Starting in 1998 he took over with Stefan Dech the joint leadership of DFD. After a reorganization of earth observation activities at DLR he was appointed head of the newly established Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) in 2000. IMF together with DFD comprised the Applied Remote Sensing Cluster, which became today’s Earth Observation Center, EOC. On April 1, 2022 Richard Bamler retired after 22 years as head of IMF.

Richard Bamler profoundly influenced the development of remote sensing technologies at DLR and far beyond. As an internationally recognized specialist for SAR methodologies and an inspiring motivator at IMF, DLR loses a important architect of remote sensing We are deeply indebted to Richard Bamler.

At the farewell observance, the value of his outstanding services was recognized in the form of a number of quite personal oral presentations. In addition to the EOC leadership of Stefan Dech, Peter Haschberger and Peter Reinartz, Michael Eineder and Thomas Trautmann spoke from the vantage point of their many years as department heads, Markus Rapp on behalf of the leadership team and institute directors at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, and Hansjörg Dittus as the former DLR executive board member for space activities. Richard Bamler expressed his thanks in concluding remarks in his typical wry and light-hearted manner, appearing enveloped in a unique cloak bristling with the name tags he had collected at the innumerable conferences he had attended during his DLR employment.