Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMIProf. Dr. Frank Schäfer is deputy director of the Fraunhofer-Institute for High-Speed-Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI. He is head of the business unit SPACE at EMI and head of the System Solutions Department. Since 2015 he is honorary professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, in the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources.
Frank Schäfers‘ research interests are the investigation of the behavior of materials and structures under shock loads. Applications of this research are the quantification of collisional risks to spacecraft. In the field of Earth Observation technologies, Frank Schäfer develops miniaturized, compact, reliable and robust scientific camera sensors and demonstrates those in flight experiments onboard small satellite platforms developed at EMI. By introducing metallic 3D printing technolog for spacecraft components, a new manufacturing technology suitable for series production is under investigation. Currently his research focusses on real-time and automatic methods for the extraction of geoinformation from Earth observation data.
Frank Schäfer studied Physics at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Between 1990 and 1991, he studied at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque, USA. He received his PhD in 2001 from the Technical University of Munich.
