Orhan ALTAN is born on 06.05.1946 in Nigde, TURKEY as the son of Emin – Kamuran ALTAN. He studied between 1952 – 1957 primary school and 1957–1965. German School in Istanbul graduation with ABITUR. Followed by the study of Civil Engineering between 1965–1970 at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Istanbul Technical University and graduation as Dipl.-Ing in Civil Engineering. He joined in 1970 the Chair of Photogrammetry, where he finished his PhD in 1974. He became in 1979 Univ.Docent and 1989 Full Professor.

Since 1989 He is the Head of the Division of Photogrammetry at the Technical University of Istanbul. He is member of many national and international organizations and acting since 2004 as the Secretary General of ISPRS.