Function and Responsibilities:

Head of Research Group: Data Assimilation and Inverse Sensitivities

Research Interests:

• Nonlinear dynamics and time series analysis
• Modeling of complex systems and machine learning
  
• Data assimilation (4DVAR and ensemble Kalman methods)
• Climate change, Planetary Health
• Terrestrial mass re-distribution
• Oceanography, sea level, Earth rotation
• Oceanic magnetic fields

Career:

• Since 2019: Head of Research Group: Data Assimilation and Inverse Sensitivities 

• Since 2013: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ: Modelling of global and regional oceanic systems. Assimilation and analysis of sea-level, gravity- and magnetic field data. Coupled modelling and assimilation.

• 2012-2013: Freie Universität Berlin: Earth rotation and climate change.

• 2009-2012: Research associate (PostDoc) at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Education:

• 2009: Thesis: The influence of the oceans on the Earth's rotation.

• 2006–2009: PhD student at Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven.
  

• 2004–2006: Student research assistant in "Nonlinear Dynamics" group of Prof. Dr. J. Kurths, Univ. Potsdam

• 2004: Student research assistant in the "Photonik" group of Prof. Dr. R. Menzel, Univ. Potsdam

• 1998-2006: University Potsdam. Diploma in physics. Thesis in nonlinear dynamics (noise/ENSO).

Projects:

2025-2028: Volkswagen Foundation, Pioneer Projects – Impetus for the German Research System: Chat Based Geoscientific Research Transformer (chatGRT)

2025-2028: Helmholtz Einstein International Berlin Research School in Data Science (HEIBRiDS): Unsupervised Geo-Dynamic Separation Approach (GeoSep)

2024-2027: DFG-Grant: Joint inversion of gravimetric and electromagnetic satellite observations to infer global time series of oceanic volume transport (GREMLIN)

2024: PALMOD WG 1.4 Ice sheet stability

2023-2026: Helmholtz Association - AI Projects: CMILE: Smile vectors of climate change - exploring the latent space of Earth system dynamics

2023-2028: BMBF-Grant: CLIMADEMIC: Deriving governing laws for pandemic dynamics in the Earth’s changing climate

2023-2026: DFG/NCN Grant: Improving prediction of Earth Orientation Parameters for real-time geodesy

2022-2025: Helmholtz Association - Innovation Pool: SCENIC: Storyline Scenarios of Extreme Weather, Climate, and Environmental Events along with their Impacts in a Warmer World

2017-2022: Helmholtz Association: ''Zukunftsthemen''. Advanced Earth System Modelling Capacity (ESM). Earth System Data Assimilation.

2017-2021: DFG-Priority-Programme (SPP 527): "International Ocean Discovery Program" (IODP)". Transport, Removal and Accumulation of sediments Numerically Simulated for Paleo-Oceans and Reconstructed from cores of The Eirik Drift (TRANSPORTED)

2019-2023: DFG-Priority-Programme (SPP1788): "Study of Earth system dynamics with a constellation of potential field missions". Ocean signals in Earth's magnetic field (OceanMag-II)

2015-2019: DFG-Priority-Programme (SPP1788): "Study of Earth system dynamics with a constellation of potential field missions". Detectability of non-tidal ocean signals in the Earth magnetic field (OceanMag-I)

2014-2016: GNSS Remote Sensing aboard the ISS (GEROS-ISS)

2012-2014: DFG-Research-Group (FOR584): "Earth rotation and global dynamic processes". Long-term ERP time series as indicators for global climate variability and climate change (ERP-CLIVAR)

2009 - 2012: DFG-Research-Group ( FOR584): "Earth rotation and global dynamic processes".
 Earth rotation and ocean circulation II

2006 - 2009: DFG-Research-Group ( FOR584): "Earth rotation and global dynamic processes".
 Earth rotation and ocean circulation I

Research Boards and Committees:

PI of POF Topic 2  “Consistent data sets, process understanding and initialization of model projections - Data assimilation and inverse modelling”

Global Geophysical Fluids Centre (GGFC) product centre of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), Special Bureau for the Oceans (SBO)

IAG/IUGG joint working group “Satellite geodetic data assimilation for hydro-climate research”