Fitxa persona

Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Valencia (1989). Full Professor of Earth Physics at the University of Valencia (UVEG), Director of the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) and the Global Change Unit (UCG), which he founded in 1996. His research focuses on thermal infrared remote sensing, land and sea surface temperature and emissivity, evapotranspiration, urban heat island effects, fire monitoring, and satellite calibration and validation. Principal Investigator of the ESA SCOUT mission SIRIUS (Space-based Infra-Red Imager for Urban Sustainability), a high-resolution thermal mission approved in 2024, and Field Chief Editor of the journal Recent Advances in Remote Sensing. Founder and President of the international symposium series Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing (RAQRS, 2002–present), whose eighth edition will be held in 2026. Member of the Mission Advisory Group of ESA’s Copernicus LSTM mission, the Scientific Advisory Group of the Franco-Indian TRISHNA mission (CNES–ISRO), and the High Consultative Council on Research, Development and Innovation of the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana. Coordinator of the Spanish National Earth Observation Network (RNOT) and President of the Spanish Association of Remote Sensing (2013–2022). Member of the review panel for ESA’s FutureEO-1 Segment 2 (2025), and previously served on ESA’s Earth Science Advisory Committee (2003–2007) and EOEP Review Committee (2005). Also coordinated the CEOS Land Product Validation Group on Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity. Expert and evaluator for the European Commission, ESA, NASA, the German DFG Clusters of Excellence, the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the Belgian Remote Sensing Programme, The Netherlands NWO, Luxembourg FNR, UK NERC, CNES (France), FONDECYT (Chile), and the Spanish Ministry of Research, among others. Copernicus Accelerator Mentor and member of the editorial advisory boards of Remote Sensing and the International Journal of Remote Sensing; formerly Director of Frontiers in Remote Sensing and Revista Teledetección. Principal Investigator of more than 80 research projects funded by ESA, the European Union, the Spanish Government, and the Generalitat Valenciana, and supervisor of 24 PhD theses. Author of more than 350 peer-reviewed publications, with an h-index of 79 and over 31,000 citations (Google Scholar, 2025).

Research expeditions: led numerous field and airborne campaigns in France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, and Spain for the collection of in situ thermal measurements and airborne imagery in support of ESA missions such as SPECTRA, FLEX, LSTM, Sentinel-3, MISTIGRI, and TRISHNA.

Prizes and awards:

• Science, Technology and Environment Award, Carta Poblament, 2011, City of Torrent (Valencia), Spain.

• Research Award for pioneering work in environmental protection through remote sensing, Spanish Geographical Society (SGE), Spain (https://sge.org/premios-sge/premios-2019-2020/premio-investigacion-sge-2019-2020-jose-antonio-sobrino/).

• King Jaime I Award, the highest national recognition for environmental protection, 2019, Fundación Jaime I, Spain (https://fprj.es/premiado/jose-antonio-sobrino-rodriguez/).

• Distinguished Citizen (“Hijo Predilecto”) of Cartelle (Ourense), 2024.