On October 8, 2009 Prof. Hans Knoop passed away unexpectedly at an age of 74.
In his professional community and in his international circle of friends he leaves a void.

He was born on January 18, 1935 in Magdeburg, Germany and spent his youth and schooling in Celle near Hannover in the State of Lower Saxony.

In 1955 he enlisted as student of geodetic engineering at the University of Hannover.
He graduated as a surveying engineer in 1960 and entered the state service of the Survey and Cadastral Administration, in which he served in various functions during his career: first in the introduction of computer technology in the administration, later as director of the largest State Cadastral Survey Office in the City of Hannover from 1972 to 1988 and from then on until his retirement from service in the year 2000 in the Ministry of Interior of the State of Lower Saxony.

Since his University graduation in 1960 he continued his academic interests. In 1970 he completed his doctorate at the University of Hannover with a dissertation on electronic tacheometry, preparing the use of the Zeiss RegElta for a state wide use in the survey administration of Lower Saxony.

Since the 1970´s he participated in relevant standardization committees of the German Standardization Organization DIN. In the 1980´s he represented Germany in the European Standards Organization CEN, and was one of the early members of the International Standardization Committee ISO/TC 211 when it was founded in 1992. He continued these activities until his untimely death in 2009. He represented ISPRS in the standardization committees in the field of geoinformatics.

Within the State Survey Administration of Lower Saxony he persuaded the authorities as early as in the 1970´s to participate in international capacity building activities in relation to the cadastre and land registration. The efforts, supported by the German Technical and Economic Cooperation Agencies GTZ for projects and INVENT for professional training brought much more than 100 engineers from China, Scri Lanka and developing countries to Hannover. Hans coordinated these efforts. He was frequently invited to China, and the introduction to cadastral systems there shows signs of his activities. In 1988 he was made Honorary Professor of the largest Chinese University in the field, the University of Wuhan.

His wide spread personal international network of contacts, which he built up through his activities in ISO, in technical cooperation activities and as international consultant for the European Union were witnessed by the many letters of condolences, which were received from China, Malaysia, Korea, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the USA and the Russian Federation.

These acknowledged Hans Knoops´s high standing as a professional, his diligent and his admirable concern for professional matters paired with his personal warmth.
We all lost a good man and a good friend.

By Gottfried Konecny, m. Prof. Leibniz University Hannover