IAG Executive Committee 2023-2027

Bureau and Immediate Past President

President

Richard Gross

Vice President

Peter J.G. Teunissen

He is a Professor of Geodesy at Delft University of Technology, an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and founding Editor-in-Chief of IAG’s Journal of Geodesy. His past academic positions include Head of the Delft Earth Observation Institute, Science Director of the Australian Centre for Spatial Information and Federation Fellow of the Australian Research Council. He has been research-active in various fields of Geodesy, with current research focused on the development of theory, models, and algorithms for high-accuracy applications of satellite navigation and remote sensing systems. His scientific contributions have been recognized through various awards, including the IAG Bomford Prize, the Humboldt Research Award, the ION Kepler Award, and EGU’s Vening-Meinesz Medal. He has an Honorary Doctorate from CAS and is an elected Fellow of IUGG, IAG, UK-RIN, and USA-ION.

Secretary General

Daniela Thaller

Daniela Thaller is a senior scientist at the German Federal agency for cartography and geodesy (BKG) in Frankfurt, Germany. She is the head of the section G1 at BKG on “General aspects of Geodesy and Combination of Space Techniques” since 2013. She received her PhD degree from TU Munich in 2008 in the field of homogeneous combination of space-geodetic techniques for Earth orientation and troposphere parameters. Her research interests cover data analysis and combination of SLR, VLBI and GNSS in view of determining consistent reference frames including Earth orientation, satellite orbits and troposphere. In this context, she has been involved in developing the Bernese GNSS Software to a multi-technique software since 2001. Since 2013 she is also director of the Central Bureau of the IERS, located at BKG.

Immediate Past President

Zuheir Altamimi

• Research Director at at Institut National de l’Information Géographique et Forestière (IGN), and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), France.
• Head, International Terrestrial Reference Frame Center
• France Representative to the UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Geodesy
• Ph.D. in space geodesy from Paris Observatory, and Habilitation (2nd doctorate) from Paris University VI.
• Research focus: space geodesy, theory and realization of terrestrial reference systems.

Immediate Past Secretary General

Markku Poutanen

He has been the director of the Department of Geodesy and Geodynamics, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), National Land Survey of Finland. He has been working in the FGI since 1985 on satellite geodesy and positioning, reference frames and metrology. Poutanen is the President of the Nordic Geodetic Commission, past president of EUREF, and European Geosciences Union (EGU) Geodesy Division.

Commission Presidents

Commission 1

Urs Hugentobler

Urs Hugentobler is a Professor for Satellite Geodesy in the School of Engineering and Design of Technical University of Munich and head of the Research Facility Satellite Geodesy, operating the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell jointly with the Federal Office of Cartography and Geodesy. He received his PhD degree in Astronomy in 1998 from University of Bern. He is member of Editorial Board of the Journal of Geodesy, Chair of ESA's GNSS Science Advisory Committee, and Secretary of the German Geodetic Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Science. 

Commission 2

Srinivas Bettadpur

Commission 3

Rebekka Steffen

Rebekka Steffen is a researcher in geodesy at Lantmäteriet (The Swedish Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authority). She is working on glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) modelling with a focus on stress field changes and model development, analysis of static gravity fields in terms of crustal and lithospheric structures of the Earth and Moon, and is involved in the development of a European velocity model as part of EUREF (Regional Reference Frame IAG Sub-Commission for Europe). She received her PhD in 2013 from the University of Calgary. Rebekka has chaired a JSG within IAG commission 3 on GIA modelling and is an editor of the EGU Geodesy blog. She is also an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. Personal website is available here. 

Commission 4

Pawel Wielgosz

Prof. Pawel Wielgosz is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Geoengineering of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (UWM), Poland, where he earned his Ph.D. in Geodesy in 2002. His research interests focus on satellite navigation, precise kinematic and static positioning, deformation monitoring, and GNSS-based ionosphere and troposphere studies. His research achievements earned him the Heiskanen Senior Award in 2004. He received the IAG Honorary Fellowship in 2019. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) Science Panel. Since 2020, he has been a member of the GNSS Science Advisory Committee (GSAC) with the European Space Agency (ESA). He served as an associate editor of the Journal of Geodesy during 2015-2023 and is a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals. Since 2016, he has been the Vice-chair of the Committee of Geodesy of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2020, he was appointed to the Polish National Committee for the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). The publication list is available here.

ICC & COB Presidents, IAG Project Chair and Members at Large

ICCT President

Mattia Crespi

He is professor of Positioning and Geomatics at the Sapienza University of Rome since 2005, director of the Sapienza School for Advanced Studies, and coordinator of the National PhD Course in Earth Observation. He is elected member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italian Academy of Science), fellow of the International Association of Geodesy (since 2019) and member of the Copernicus Academy. He was recipient of international and national awards for research on GNSS variometry (among them awards from: DLR, European Space Agency, Committee on Space Research, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei). His investigation topics are: geodetic positioning, navigation and monitoring; GNSS seismology, ionosphere sounding and meteorology; optical and SAR image processing; geospatial big data analysis. He has been as chairman/co-chairman of study groups on some of these topics within IAG, EARSeL and ISPRS. He was visiting scientist in some Universities and Institutes (Fiji, Taiwan, Argentina, China, US, France). He was active in third mission activities as co-inventor of two patents (one licensed to Leica Geosystems).

ICCC President

Annette Eicker

Annette Eicker ist professor for geodesy and adjusment theory at HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany. Her research interests cover the use of satellite gravimetry data for studying the changing system Earth, focussing on the use of GRACE/GRACE-FO data for water cycle and climate studies. Since 2019 she has been president of the Inter-Commission Committe on "Geodesy for Climate Research" of IAG.

ICCM President

Valérie Ballu

Valérie Ballu is Research Director at the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Since 2021, she is at the head of the LIENSs Laboratory, a joint interdisciplinary laboratory between CNRS and La Rochelle University focused on coastal studies. She is specialized in marine and sub-marine geodesy to study crustal motion in tectonic or volcanic active areas as well as relative sea level changes using GNSS, tide gauges and altimetry data.

COB President

Szabolcs Rózsa

Szabolcs Rózsa is an associate professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is the Head of the Department of Geodesy and Surveying. Since 2003 he has been the secratary of the IAG COB. His research area focuses on GNSS positioning and navigation, especially their application in atmospheric remote sensing.

IAG Project Chair

Novel Sensors and Quantum Technology for Geodesy

Jürgen Müller

Jürgen Müller is full professor in physical geodesy at the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. His research fields cover satellite geodesy, space and terrestrial gravimetry, including novel measurement concepts, related earth system research, lunar laser ranging and general relativity. In 2023, he has received the Vening Meinesz Medal of the EGU for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of modern geodesy.

Member at Large

Maria Virginia Mackern

María Virginia Mackern is a professor of Topography at the Faculty of Engineering of the Cuyo National University, since 2010 and a professor of Geodesy at the Juan A. Maza University, since 2002, in Mendoza, Argentina. She is an Assistant researcher, at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Argentina. Her research interests include GNSS-based regional reference frames, surface kinematics monitoring, and GNSS meteorology. Since 2006 she has been the coordinator of the SIRGAS Analysis Centre CIMA (Mendoza Argentina Engineering Center) hosted by the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Cuyo.

From 2008 to 2015, she was chair of the Working Group I Reference system of the Geodetic Reference System for the Americas – SIRGAS.  From 2015 to 2019, she was Vice-President of SIRGAS, and since 2019, she has been a member of the SIRGAS Scientific Council.

Member at Large

Masato Furuya

Masato Furuya is a professor at Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan. His research interests are applications of space geodetic data, including InSAR and GNSS, to a variety of  geophysical modeling and observations, including earthquakes, volcanic activities, glaciers, permafrost, and  atmosphere. He received PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1997 on the polar motion excitation problem and was awarded the Guy Bomford Prize in 2007.

GGOS

Chair

Laura Sánchez

Dr. Laura Sánchez is a research scientist at the Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut (DGFI-TUM) of the Technische Universität München, Germany. Her research interests include vertical datum unification, global height reference systems, GNSS-based regional reference frames, and surface kinematics monitoring. She served as GGOS Vice-President for the period 2019-2023. She also led the GGOS Focus Area “Unified Height System” between 2015 and 2023, the main outcome of which was the establishment of the International Height Reference System (IHRS) and its realisation, the International Height Reference Frame (IHRF). From 2007 to 2015, she was Vice-President of the Geodetic Reference System for the Americas – SIRGAS, and since 2015, she has been a member of the SIRGAS Scientific Council. She is currently Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the IAG Symposia Series. She is an elected IAG Fellow and has been involved in several IAG working and study groups since the 2000s.

Service Representatives

Service Representative

Vincenza Luceri

Vincenza Luceri is the head of the e-GEOS Space Centre located in Matera and dedicated to earth observation. She received the Italian degree in Computer Science cum laude from the University of Bari in 1988 and started working in Telespazio S.p.A. in 1990 on the space geodetic data analysis activities. Since then, she acquired advanced experience in SLR data analysis focused on the study of satellite orbit and solid Earth, technical knowledge of SLR systems and subsystem and expert use of complex scientific SW for the space geodesy data analysis. She is responsible of the SLR data analysis activities under contracts of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for space geodesy and, in particular, responsible of the ASI Analysis and Combination Center’s activities for the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS). She is chair/co-chair of the ILRS Analysis Standing Committee since 2006 and member of the ILRS Governing Board. 

Service Representative

Thomas Herring

He is a Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. He joined the MIT faculty in 1989. His research interests are in the development and applications of precise geodetic techniques, primarily the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), to study deformation processes on all spatial and temporal scales. He also uses these methods to study properties of the propagation medium including the Earth’s atmosphere. He has been awarded the Macelwane Medal by the AGU, the Bomford Prize by the IAG, and the Vening-Meinesz Medal by the EGU. He is a fellow of the AGU, the IAG and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Service Representative

Riccardo Barzaghi

He is Professor of Surveying and Data Processing at Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy. His main research interests are in Physical Geodesy, Satellite Geodesy, inversion of gravity data, GNSS networks for positioning and deformation analysis. He got a degree in Physics at the University of Milano in 1982 and a PhD in Geodetic and Surveying Sciences at Politecnico di Torino in 1987. He is IAG fellow since 1995 and IGFS chair since 2013.