Michael Fehringer, a graduate of the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Wien, has played a leading role in the development and implementation of several major ESA missions throughout his career. After completing his studies at TU Wien – with a diploma thesis in 1984 supervised by Hannspeter Winter and Fritz Aumayr, and a PhD in 1987 under the supervision of Hannspeter Winter and Peter Varga – he began his professional career at the Austrian Research Center Seibersdorf (now AIT). There, in the group of Friedrich Rüdenauer, he worked on the development of liquid metal ion sources for satellite propulsion.

Later, Fehringer joined the European Space Agency (ESA), where he served as System Manager for the GOCE mission (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer). This mission aimed at measuring the Earth's gravity field with unprecedented precision. A satellite in an exceptionally low orbit, equipped with a novel gradiometer and an electric propulsion system to compensate for atmospheric drag, enabled high-accuracy gravity data.

Currently, Michael Fehringer is the Project Manager of ESA’s BIOMASS mission, which was successfully launched in 2025. Equipped with the world’s first spaceborne P-band radar, BIOMASS provides groundbreaking 3D insights into tropical rainforests and their role in the global carbon cycle. The mission delivers essential data on carbon storage and long-term forest ecosystem dynamics by penetrating beneath the forest canopy to measure the biomass hidden below (orf.at article in German), opens an external URL in a new window.

In September 2024, Michael Fehringer participated in the alumni gathering of the Atomic and Plasma Physics Division at TU Wien, where he presented the BIOMASS satellite to former colleagues and fellow alumni. The Institute of Applied Physics – and particularly the Atomic and Plasma Physics research unit – is proud of the outstanding international career of its alumnus and of his contributions to advancing our understanding and protection of the planet.

F. Aumayr