Inge Jonckheere

Head of Green Solutions Division

European Space Agency (ESA)

Dr. Inge Jonckheere is a Belgian Environmental Engineer and obtained a PhD in Applied Bioscience Engineering, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).

She worked at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) and was Guest Lecturer of the Geomatics Group at the KULeuven, combined with a mandate as Science Programme Manager for Environment at the European Science Foundation, Strasbourg (France).

Between 2010 and 2024, she worked as the thematic lead for remote sensing at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), overseeing the provision of remote sensing support to developing countries for applications relating to climate change.

She is an official reviewer at the UN Framework of Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is Lead Author in the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) including the last Assessment Report.

She is co-editor of scientific books and authored more than hundred scientific and mainstream articles. She was part of the last official ESA Astronaut selection in 2021.

She joined ESA at the ESA Earth Observation Centre (ESRIN) in Italy in March 2024 as Head of the Green Solutions Division, where she leads efforts to harness Earth observation for the benefit of society, including Earth system science, R&D applications, innovation and industrial competitiveness.

Areas of expertise

Earth Observation Remote sensing Science communication

Social Media