Sami K. Solanki is a solar physicist and Director at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany. He did his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Z rich, Switzerland. He was endowed with Honorary Professorships by the ETH and the Technical University of Braunschweig, as well as receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oulu, Finland. He has published over 500 refereed scientific papers, with over 35000 citations and a Hirsh-index of 96 (according to Google Scholar).  He is founder and Spokesperson of the International Max Planck Research School on Solar System Science, with over 200 successful graduates (the majority of which are still in science, including many who now are professors at various universities in China). He also founded and is Editor-in-Chief of the refereed electronic journal “Living Reviews in Solar Physics”, with an impact factor of 20. He leads the SUNRISE Mission of the German Space Agency, DLR, NASA and the Spanish Space Agency, and is the principle investigator of the SO/PHI instrument on the Solar Orbiter space mission, as well as being Co-I of a number of further space instruments.