Past June 19th 2017 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Barcelona Expert Center.
We were honored of counting with the presence of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing and Food of Generalitat de Catalunya, Ms. Meritxell Serret, and of the deputy Vicepresident for Scientific-Technical Areas of CSIC, Dr. Victoria Moreno, who highlighted the institutional importance of BEC for CSIC and for Catalonia.
Prof. Jordi Font, retired CSIC researcher, SMOS co-PI and founder of BEC, shared with us his personal overview of the SMOS mission and what BEC had represented during the years he had headed it. It was a very good introduction to what BEC was and to what BEC is becoming. Dr. Susanne Mecklenburg, SMOS Mission Manager, ESA, explained what SMOS has represented, a real challenge but successful mission in Earth Observation, and highlighted the brilliant possibilities for any continuation mission on L-band radiometry.
To finish the first block of talks, Ms. Andrea Pérez-Carro, CDTI and Spanish representative in Copernicus, presented and discussed the future priorities for Copernicus in Earth Observation, putting into context what a possible future mission on L-band could be.
After this introductory block, many other presentations followed during the rest of the day: Yann Kerr (from CESBIO and SMOS PI), Pedro Mier (Tryo Mier), Ignacio Tourné (Deimos), Andrés Borges (Airbus), Manuel Martín Neira (ESA), Antonio Turiel (CSIC and BEC Head), Roberto Sabia (Telespazio Vega), Ignasi Corbella (UPC & BEC), Francesc Torres (UPC & BEC), Verónica González-Gambau (CSIC & BEC), Manuel Arias (Argans), Estrella Olmedo (CSIC & BEC), Jacqueline Boutin (LOCEAN), Justino Martínez (CSIC & BEC), Nicolas Reul (IFREMER and presently ocean salinity scientific leader), Carolina Gabarró (CSIC and BEC director), Marcos Portabella (CSIC & BEC) and Mercè Vall-llossera (UPC & BEC Vice-head). We thank all of you for having shared with us a very special day, and we hope to host all of you again in ten years from now!
The BEC team