Prize Winners

Curriculum Vitae

PhD in Telecommunications Engineering, Principal Engineer for the SMOS instrument at the European Space Agency.

Jury ruling

The jury for the Rei Jaume I New Technologies Prize, meeting in Valencia, has unanimously decided to award the 2010 prize to Mr Manuel Martín-Neira.

This is in recognition of his work in the fields of microwave interferometric radiometry and the scientific application of global satellite navigation systems, which have had a major impact on the activities of the space sector worldwide and on the development of the space industry in Spain. The jury particularly highlighted the development of the two-dimensional Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Synthetic Aperture (MIRAS), the main instrument on the European Space Agency’s SMOS mission, which studies the environment through observations of the water cycle. The SMOS mission was launched on 2 November 2009 and, within three months, produced the first global map of ocean salinity obtained by satellite. It has also developed a revolutionary concept for conducting ocean altimetry at several points on the sea surface simultaneously, using signals from global satellite navigation systems that are reflected off the Earth’s surface. The application of this technology would enable the early detection of tsunamis from space, allowing the population to be warned.