The Spanish Geographical Society (SGE) has awarded the Professor of Earth Physics José Antonio Sobrino the 2019-2020 Research Award for his pioneering work in environmental protection through remote sensing. This is the XXII edition of these awards that recognise travellers and researchers for their role in the dissemination of Geography and will be delivered this Thursday, November 4 at the Goya Theatre in Madrid.
Archaeologist Walter Alva, veterinarian Rebeca Atencia, journalist, writer and mountaineer Sebastián Álvaro, “four-wheeled” travellers Vicente Plédel and Marián Ocaña, filmmaker Joaquín Gutiérrez Acha, nature sound technician Carlos de Hita, the Carabela Project of technology at the service of historical archives and the professor of Earth Physics at the University of Valencia José Antonio Sobrino are the winners this year of the Awards that the Spanish Geographical Society has been awarding for more than two decades to the best initiatives and projects in the field of exploration, travel, adventure, and scientific research.
In addition, the SGE has appointed Honorary Member, posthumously, Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, considered the most important environmentalist disseminator in Spain whose legacy is in full swing.
José A. Sobrino is Professor of Earth Physics at the University of Valencia, where he heads the Global Change Unit, and is a researcher at the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL), in the Science Park of this academic institution. He is president of the Spanish Remote Sensing Association. His work, where he is a world leader, focuses on the field of environmental protection based on the use of data provided by Earth observation satellites. He has developed valuable algorithms that estimate both the surface temperature of the Earth and the oceans and evapotranspiration, the effect of heat island on rising temperatures in cities, and changes in the planet’s vegetation cover.
He has published more than 200 papers in international journals and has directed more than 60 research projects funded by both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union or the Ministry of Science. He was also a member of the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) and the ESA Advisory Committee for Earth Observation. He has received the Jaume I Award for Environmental Protection.
The award ceremony will take place this Thursday, November 4 at the Goya Theatre in Madrid, at 7 p.m.