Prof. Dr. Klaus Itten studied and gained his doctorate at the Department of Geography of the UZH and did his post-doc at NASA. He was one of the five Swiss selected as candidates to become ESA astronauts. But it was Claude Nicollier who went into space, and Klaus Itten habilitated and pursued an academic career. He took over the Remote Sensing Laboratories from Harald Haefner and headed it until 2009.