Staff News
Dr Gruppe New Director for Space Administration:
Dr Gerd Gruppe assumed his office as Director of Space Administration at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). He thus completes the DLR Executive Board after this post had been vacant for nearly one and a half years. The management board function Space Administration is responsible for the management of national space programmes and bilateral cooperation with and contributions to the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). Dr Gerd Gruppe studied mining at the RWTH Aachen University. After completion of his traineeship at the Bureau of Mines in Munich, he earned a doctorate degree in Energy Marketing at Augsburg while continuing to pursue his career. He then transferred to the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology. Initially, he was responsible for promoting research and for technology transfer and in this context had his first professional experience with space: In the late 1980s he was involved in the establishment of the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) at the DLR's Oberpfaffenhofen site. Later, as Head of the Department of Research, Innovation and Technology at the same ministry, he greatly advanced the development of Bavaria as a location for space activities, particularly with his involvement in the Galileo Control Centre and the world-renowned Robotics and Mechatronics Center (RMC) – both based at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen.
