Michael Schaepman

Prof. Dr. sc. nat. Michael Schaepman, born in 1966, studied geography, experimental physics and computer science at the University of Zurich and received his doctorate in 1998 from the Geographical Institute of the UZH. After a post-doctoral stay at the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA, he returned to the UZH Institute of Geography in 2000 as a research group leader. In 2003, Michael Schaepman was appointed Professor of Geographical Information Science at the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Wageningen (NL), and in 2005 he became Scientific Director of the Center for Geoinformation. Since 2009, Michael Schaepman has been Professor of Remote Sensing at the Institute of Geography (Remote Sensing Laboratories) at the University of Zurich.

His research interests include earth observation, remote sensing and spectroscopy to measure biodiversity from space. In 2014 he was appointed Vice Dean and in 2016 Dean of the Faculty of Science. From 2017 to 2020, as a member of the university management board, he was responsible for research, innovation and the promotion of young talent. He has been rector of the University of Zurich since August 1, 2020.