International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Qingjun ZHANG

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2020, Professor Qingjun Zhang is a Chinese space engineer whose professional work has focused on satellite remote sensing, spacecraft telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) and communications, and spacecraft systems engineering. Born in May 1969 in Tongshan, Jiangsu Province, he received his bachelor’s degree in radio engineering from North China Electric Power University in 1990, his master’s degree in electric power systems and automation in 1993, and his Ph.D. in information and communication engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2006. He joined the Fifth Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, now the China Academy of Space Technology, in 1993 and spent more than a decade working on China’s manned spaceflight programme. He served as technical head of the TT&C and communications subsystem for Shenzhou 1, Director of the overall design office, and Deputy Chief Designer of Shenzhou 6. He subsequently served as Chief Designer and General Director of several major remote-sensing satellite programmes, including the ZY-1 (CBERS) resource satellite, HY-2 ocean dynamic environment monitoring satellite, GF-3 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite, an ocean salinity detection satellite, and the Ludi Tance-4 high-orbit SAR satellite. He is currently Chief Designer and General Director of the high-orbit SAR satellite programme at the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering and General Director of the Remote Sensing Satellite Division of the China Academy of Space Technology. An Academician of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, he was named one of China’s Ten Outstanding Young People in 2005 and has received the National May 1 Labour Medal, the Qian Xuesen Outstanding Contribution Award, and other national honours. His career has combined spacecraft systems engineering with the development and management of more than 20 remote-sensing

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Professor Zhang’s research and engineering work have centred on microwave remote sensing and the design of complex spacecraft systems. In ocean remote sensing, he proposed an integrated active–passive sensing approach in which multiple payloads on a single satellite provide complementary observations and support integrated retrieval. This approach underpinned the development of the HY-2 satellite, launched in 2011 as China’s first ocean dynamic environment monitoring satellite. He also directed the GF-3 satellite, launched in 2016 as China’s first multipolarisation SAR satellite, which incorporated 12 imaging modes for land and ocean applications. In collaboration with Wuhan University and the University of Newcastle, his team obtained satellite interferometric SAR (InSAR) imagery and developed techniques for high-precision ground-subsidence monitoring. Following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, he led research into SAR imaging from geosynchronous orbit to overcome the revisit and cloud-penetration limitations of conventional optical remote sensing. After an extended development programme, Ludi Tance-4 01 was launched in 2023 as the first geosynchronous-orbit SAR satellite, providing new capabilities for monitoring floods, water bodies, and other large-scale surface processes. He has led the development of more than 20 remote-sensing satellites and contributed to the HY-2 monitoring series, the GF-3 constellation, and China’s ocean salinity observation programme. His work has received a Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and a First Prize of the National Defence Science and Technology Progress Award, and he participated in the manned spaceflight project recognised by the Special Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. Through sustained engineering research and programme leadership, Professor Zhang has contributed to the development of satellite microwave remote sensing, spacecraft systems engineering, and China’s capabilities in space-based observation of the land and marine environment.