Prof. Dr. Ulrich Walter

Academic Career and Research Areas

Prof. Walter lectures in, researches and develops satellite systems, in particular for robotic applications, systems engineering (system modeling and optimization), human space flight systems (life support systems and ISRU) and high-velocity impact physics (investigation of micrometeorite impacts).

Prof. Walter studied physics and completed his doctorate at the University of Cologne, spending periods at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the ILL high-flux reactor in Grenoble. After that, he did a year of postdoctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago, and a further year at the University of California, Berkeley, thanks to a German Research Foundation grant. He was selected to join the German astronaut team in 1987 and trained as a scientist-astronaut. In 1993, he joined the crew of the Columbia shuttle for its D-2 mission and conducted 89 scientific experiments. From 1994 to 1998, he was in charge of the German Aerospace Center’s satellite imaging database project. In April 1998, he became Program Manager at the IBM development laboratory in Böblingen. He has been Head of TUM’s Chair of Astronautics since March 2003.

Wichtigste Auszeichnungen

• Consultant Professor, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China (seit 2018)
• Ehrenprofessur der Nationalen Dragomanov Universität der Ukraine (2013)
• Professor des Jahres in der Kategorie Ingenieurwissenschaften und Informatik (2008)
• Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1993)
• NASA Space Flight Medal (1993)