VP for Regional and Industrial Development, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Chairman of the Israel Space Agency
Prof. Dan G. Blumberg is the Vice President for Regional and Industrial Development, and Incumbent of the Simon Family Chair in Remote Sensing at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and as of July 2022 Prof. Blumberg was appointed by the ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology as Chairman of the Israel Space Agency (ISA). Prior to his current position and appointment Prof. Blumberg served as the Vice-President and Dean for Research and Development. He received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University (1993) where he studied and worked in the Planetary Geology Group and focused on aeolian processes and microwave radar remote sensing to study arid zone environments and planetary geology. Prof. Blumberg was a Co-I on the SRL (Spaceborne Radar Laboratory) mission, SRTM mission and other space missions. Prof. Blumberg has been working for the past 20 years on analysis of multi-parameter remote sensing data including radar, hyperspectral, multi-spectral and GPR data; he published numerous papers in the areas of windblown geomorphology and target and anomaly detection. Prof. Blumberg combined field studies with the use of remote sensing data; he recently led with IAI the development and successful launch of a Nanosatellite, BGUsat - a 3U cubesat with a shortwave infrared imager onboard. Prof. Blumberg has been a leader in the development of the IT and cyber eco-system in Beer-Sheva, he brought over 40 multi-national companies, 70 startups and almost 300 new engineers to the advanced technologies park in Beer-Sheva. Prof. Blumberg is also a member of a national committee deigned to leverage the AI industry and research in Israel; he is a member of the International Academy of Astronoautics.
