Associate Professor at Aalto University

 

Jaan Praks received his B.Sc. degree in physics from the University of Tartu, Estonia, in 1996, and his D.Sc. (Tech.) degree in space technology and remote sensing from Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, in 2012. He is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University.

His research interests span a wide range of remote sensing technologies, including microwave radiometry, scattering modeling, hyperspectral imaging, and advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques such as polarimetry, interferometry, polarimetric interferometry, and SAR tomography. A significant focus of his work has been the remote sensing of boreal forests.

 

Since 2009, Dr. Praks has been actively involved in the development of nanosatellite technology. He led the team that built Finland’s first two satellites and has contributed to the formation of several startup companies in the field of satellite-based remote sensing. He is a Principal Investigator in multiple small satellite missions, and his team is part of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space and also in Centre of Excellence in Space Resilience.

Jaan Praks is an active player in the innovation field. He has been helping to bring ESA Business Incubator Center and ESA Phil-Lab to Finland. From his team and lab several Finnish space start-ups have started, including ICEYE, KUve Space, Arctic Astronautics and many others.

Dr. Praks is an active member of the scientific community. He serves as Chair of the Finnish National Committees of both COSPAR and URSI, and is also the Chair of the annual Winter Satellite Workshop conference series.