Prof. Dr.
Bruno Merz

Building
C 4,
Room
2.14 (Büro)
Telegrafenberg
14473
Potsdam
Function and Responsibilities:
Head Section HydrologyResearch Interests:
- Flood Risk
- Hydrological Extremes, Multi-hazards
- Monitoring and Simulation of Hydrological and Hydraulic Processes
- Risk Analysis, Non-linear Statistical Methods
Career:
- 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 - today: 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