Japie van Zyl
Jakob "Japie" van Zyl (* 1957 in Outjo , South West Africa ; † August 26, 2020 in Pasadena , California ) was a Namibian electrical engineer and space manager. He was a high-ranking employee of NASA from 1986 to 2019 and was awarded the Outstanding Public Service Medal as part of the InSight - Mars mission by NASA in September 2019 .
Life
Van Zyl holds degrees in engineering ( B. Hons. ) From Stellenbosch University in South Africa (1979) and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in the same subject from the California Institute of Technology in the United States (1983 and 1986). During this time he also taught there.
From 1986 he worked in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was responsible for setting up numerous synthetic aperture radar systems. Most recently, he was head of the Solar System Research Department at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and previously headed the Astronomy and Physics department from 2006 .
Van Zyl worked with other scientists to improve a test device for the detection of COVID-19 diseases.
A street in his hometown Outjo has been named after Japie van Zyl since 2018. His father was the Kunene commissioner Ben van Zyl , who built the Van Zyl's pass named after him .
He died of a serious heart attack .
Van Zyl has published more than 60 scientific articles in specialist journals.
honors and awards
- 1997: Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award from the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society
- 2010: Distinguished Achievement Award from the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society
- 2019: Outstanding Public Service Medal from NASA
Publications
- together with Yunjin Kim : Synthetic Aperture Radar Polarimetry. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken (New Jersey), 2011, ISBN 978-1-118-11511-4 .
- together with Charles Elachi: Introduction to the Physics and Techniques of Remote Sensing. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken (New Jersey), 2006, ISBN 978-0-471-47569-9 .
Web links
- Bernd Grahl: The sky is not the limit. In: gondwana-collection.com. August 24, 2012 (English).
- Dirk Heinrich: Namibians flies helicopters on Mars. (No longer available online.) In: Namibia Focus. June 4, 2018 formerly in the original . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
Individual evidence
- ^ Morning news. In: Hitradio Namibia. September 5, 2019, accessed August 26, 2020 .
- ↑ a b About the Author: Biography - Jakob van Zyl. In: jpl.nasa.gov. March 22, 2017, accessed April 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Public Lecture: NASA's Robotic Solar System Exploration by Dr Jakob van Zyl. In: nust.na . May 29, 2018, accessed April 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Niël Terblanche: Namibian born scientist leading fight against pandemic. In: Informant.web.na. April 16, 2020, accessed on August 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Outjo renames major streets. In: The Namibian . June 25, 2018, accessed on August 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Ronelle Rademeyer: Namibië verloor 2de hero op Heldedag. In: Die Republikein . August 26, 2020, accessed August 26, 2020 (Afrikaans).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zyl, Japie van |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Zyl, Jakob van (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Namibian space manager and engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Outjo , South West Africa |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 26, 2020 |
| Place of death | Pasadena , California |