Staff
Prof. Dr.
Bruno Merz
Building
C 4,
Room
2.33 (Büro)
Telegrafenberg
14473
Potsdam
Function and Responsibilities:
Head of Working Group Hydrological Extremes
Professor for Engineering Hydrology and Management of Georisks at Potsdam University
President of the German Hydrological Society (DHG)
Visiting Professor at International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED), IIT Roorkee, India
Research Interests:
- Flood Risk
- Hydrological Extremes, Multi-hazards
- Monitoring and Simulation of Hydrological and Hydraulic Processes
- Risk Analysis, Non-linear Statistical Methods
Career:
- 2015 - today: Head Working Group Hydrological Extremes, GFZ
- 2009 - 2015: Director Department 5 Earth Surface Processes, GFZ
- 2007 - 2009: Director Department Geoengineering, GFZ
- 2006: Professor for Engineering Hydrology and Management of Georisks, University of Potsdam
- 2002 - 2025: Head Section Hydrology, GFZ
- 2000 - 2002: Scientist, Section Geomechanics, GFZ
- 1996 - 2000: Secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Committee for Disaster Mitigation
- 1990 - 1997: Scientist, Institute for Hydrology and Water Resources Planning, University Karlsruhe
- 1988 - 1990: Research scholarship, Chair of River Engineering, University Kyoto, Japan
Education:
- 2005: Habilitation in Hydrology and Water Resources Management, University of Potsdam, Flood risks: Possibilities and limitations of risk assessments.
- 1996: Dissertation in Water Resources Management, University of Karlsruhe, Simulation of rainfall-runoff processes under consideration of natural variability.
- 1988: Diploma in Civil Engineering, University Karlsruhe.
Projects:
- RFM - Regional Flood Model Germany
- ClimXtreme: Subprojekt C5 - FLOOD - Linking extreme, large-scale river floods and their impact in Central Europe to climate and weather mechanisms
- KAHR - Climate Adaptation, Floods and Resilience
- Compound Flooding - Assessing the Risk of Compound Pluvial and River Flooding
- JCAR-ATRACE - Joint cooperation on flood and drought management
- MOSES - Modular Observation System for Earth Systems
Research Boards and Committees:
- President of the German Hydrological Society DHG
- Member of the AGU Macelwane Medal Committee
- Member of the Scientific Programme Council of JCAR-Atrace
- Member of the Advisory Board EU Project 'Water efficient allocation in a Central Asian transboundary river basin' WE-ACT
- Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Water Security
- Member of the Editorial Board of Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung
Awards:
- AGU Editors’ Choice Award 2022: Merz et al., Understanding heavy tails of flood peak distributions. Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR030506
- IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize: Volker Medal 2020
- Digital Science Award 2020 for „Digital Earth – Integration of Data Science in Earth System Sciences“ (Digital Leader Award 2020)
- AGU Fellow Class 2018
- Plinius Medal of the EGU Natural Hazards Division, 2017
- AGU Editors’ Choice Award 2015: Schröter et al., 2014, How useful are complex flood damage models? Water Resoures Research, 50(4), 3378-3395
- AGU Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, Water Resources Research, 2013
- EGU HESS Best Paper Award 2011: Uhlemann et al., 2010, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 14(7), 1277-1295
- Honorary Senator Huber Award, University Karlsruhe, 1996
- MONBUSHO Fellowship, University Kyoto, Japan, 1988-1990