The main research areas were the use of multispectral optoelectronic airborne scanner data for the detection of forest damage and spectral analysis of vegetation under standardized conditions in the laboratory and field. Her research was interdisciplinary from the start and was carried out in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Chair of Geosciences and Remote Sensing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, the Institute of Biophysics at the University of Hanover and the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in Pasadena, USA. This also led to a research stay at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in the United States. In 1984 Ms Koch established a working group on “Remote Sensing and Geo-Information Systems in Forestry”. Other tasks and functions Member of the Steering Committee of the Fraunhofer Research Institutes Freiburg (since 2013) Member of the board of FVA (since 2013) Member of Deutschen Forstwirtschaftsrates (since 2013) Appointed a deputy member of Black Forest National Park (since 2014) President of the Council of European Foresters (since 2015) Awards 2012 awarded by the State of Baden-Württemberg for the innovation prize “Übermorgenmacher” 2010 awarded by the University of Freiburg as candidate for the Leibniz Award by the University of Freiburg 2009 ERDAS Award for Best Scientfic Paper in Remote Sensing, 2nd place, American Society for Photogrammetrie and Remote Sensing 2008 Best Paper Award International Society of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetrie 2006 Best Scientific Paper Award International Journal of Remote Sensing 1995 awarded by the Faculty of Forest Sciences as candidate for the Alfried-Krupp Award by the Faculty of Forestry, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg 1993 awarded for the Bruno H. Schubert Preis for young researchers in environmental sciences