Professor of Physics of the Earth and Jaume I Prize for Environmental Protection José A. Sobrino has been appointed director of the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) of the University of Valencia (UV) to replace the recently retired astrophysicist Víctor Reglero. This marks the beginning of a new stage for this center, which has more than a hundred researchers, and whose work has promoted the UV to 11th place in the world in remote sensing.
The Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) is an ERI (Interdisciplinary Research Structure) of the UV and located in the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV), dedicated to space sciences, Earth observation and the development of technologies for the creation and processing of images from satellite data. The center currently integrates three research groups -UCG (Global Change Unit), LEO (Laboratory of Earth Observation) and ISP (Image and Signal Processing)- where more than 100 people work, including faculty and contract personnel.
Created in 2008 from the Faculty of Physics, the IPL has been the beneficiary of almost a hundred competitive grants, both in the national calls of the National R&D&I Plan and regional calls, and currently has more than a dozen open projects, in addition to 9 European projects in force both in the H2020 framework program and HEurope, among which are 2 ERC. All this places the Image Processing Laboratory in 11th place in the world in the fields of remote sensing and image processing, according to the Shanghai ranking.
José Antonio Sobrino is Professor of Earth Physics and head of the UGC at the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) since its creation in 2008. He was president of the Spanish Remote Sensing Association and is a member of the Advisory Group of the LSTM mission of the European Space Agency (ESA); member of the scientific committee of the French-India TRISHNA mission, editor-in-chief of the international journal Frontiers in Remote Sensing, coordinator of the National Network of Earth Observation (RNOT), founding president of the International Congress Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing and scientific member of the High Advisory Council of the Valencian Community in R+D+i, the body that advises the Consell on research, development and innovation, among other positions.
"Our goal is to continue with the extraordinary work started by Professor Victor Reglero, supporting the current lines of research and consolidating those initiated in the field of Artificial Intelligence, new space missions and Climate Change, among others that allow us to remain at the global forefront in the field of remote sensing and image processing", José Antonio Sobrino, director of the IPL
As an Earth physicist specialized in Remote Sensing, his lines of research focus on the study of the changes suffered by our planet, analyzed with the support of remote sensing satellites and the digital processing of the images provided by them. He has more than 300 publications in high impact scientific journals; he is Principal Investigator in more than 70 projects funded by Spain, the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA), and has directed 20 doctoral theses.
In 2019 he was awarded the Jaume I Research Prize, in the category of Environmental Protection, for his research on planetary changes and the creation of algorithms to calculate the temperature of the Earth's surface and oceans.
"Our goal is to continue with the extraordinary work started by Professor Victor Reglero, supporting the current lines of research and consolidating those initiated in the field of Artificial Intelligence, new space missions and Climate Change, among others that allow us to remain at the global forefront in the field of remote sensing and image processing," explained the new director of this research center.