Staff
Prof. Dr.
Mahdi Motagh
Function and Responsibilities:
Professor for "Radar Remote Sensing and Geohazards" at Leibniz University Hannover and GFZHead of the working group 'Radar and optical remote sensing for geohazards' at GFZ
Research Interests:
- Radar remote sensing and Geohazards
- Active tectonics, fault zone processes and volcano geodesy
- Deformation related to fluid extraction/injection and underground mining
- Landslide and slope stability
- Glacier motion, ice mass change and loading/unloading
- Flood analysis and machine learning
Career:
- Professor for radar remote sensing at Leibniz University Hannover and GFZ, 04.2017-present
- Research Scientist, GFZ, Department of Geodesy, 11.2011-04.2017
- Postdoctoral Scientist, GFZ, Department of Geodesy, 08.2009-11.2011
- Postdoctoral Scientist, GFZ, Department of Earthquake Risk and Early Warning, 08.2007-08.2009
Graduate Student and Postdoc Opportunities:
If you have a master or PhD and are interested in doing research in areas of radar remote sensing and imaging geodesy for geoscience and engineering applications, please contact me at motagh(at)gfz.de. I am happy to assist and discuss applications and opportunities for research fellowships and projects (DAAD, DFG, BMBF,…). Students with a B.Sc. degree in surveying, geodesy, geoinformatics, civil engineering or related fields are encouraged to apply for the international master program of Geodesy and Geoinformatics at Leibniz Universität Hannover.
Education:
- University of Potsdam, Germany, PhD in Earth Sciences, 2007
- University of Tehran, Iran, M. Sc. in Geodesy, 2000
- University of Tehran, Iran, B. Sc. in Surveying Engineering, 1997
Projects:
2024-2027 RS4Taipei: The Groundwater Budget and Subsidence Risk in Taipei Basin,Taiwan, funded by German National Science Foundation (DFG)
2022-2025 SARKI4Tagebaufolgen: Remote sensing and artificial intelligence for assessing the risk of potential infrastructure damage due to open-pit mining, funded by German Ministry for economy and energy (BMWE)
2021-2023 MultiSaT4SLOWS: Multi-Satellite Imaging for Satellite-based Landslide Occurrence and Warning Service, funded by the Helmholtz Impulse and Networking Fund
2020-2024 SAR4Infra: A remote sensing processing chain for the detection and monitoring of hazards related to traffic infrastructure, funded by Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure
2020-2022 AI4flood: Artificial intelligence for flood mapping using SAR, funded by Helmholtz Association
2020-2021 TECVOLSA: Tectonics and Volcanoes in South America, funded by Helmholtz Association
02-06.2020 Assessment of the sinkhole risk in the mining area of Solotvyno, Zakarpattya region, Ukraine, funded by JRC for Copernicus Emergency Management Service
2019-2023 Landslide hazard assessment in Badong, China, funded by CSC program
2019-2020 Land subsidence hazard in Delhi, India, funded by DAAD-India IIT program
2019-2020 Subsidence and coal fire hazards in Jharia Coalfields, India, funded by DAAD-India IIT program
2019-2020 Remote sensing analysis of permafrost degradation in Sanjiangyuan, China, funded by CSC program
2018-2022 HEIBRiDS: a joint graduate program in Data Science between the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) and the Helmholtz Association, funded by Helmholtz Association
2018-2019 InSAR for hazard assessment due to open-pit mining, funded by Sino-German (CSC-DAAD) program
2018-2019 Sinkhole and ground deformation monitoring in Wuhan, funded by CSC program
2016-2017 Imaging Geodesy and Infrastructure Monitoring, funded by Shenzhen Water Science and Technology Development
2013-2017 HGF Alliance “Remote Sensing and Earth System Dynamics”, funded by Helmholtz Association
2011-2012 SAR-EDU - A German education initiative for applied Synthetic Aperture Radar remote sensing
2007-2009 InSAR to study volcano and earthquake-cycle deformation in South America, funded by German Research Foundation (DFG)
Research Boards and Committees:
- Panel Reviewer for NASA Research Programs
- Advisory board of the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS): 2023-2026
- Associate Editor: Remote Sensing of Environment, since 2024
- Editor: Journal of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Science (PFG), since 2023
- Editorial board member: Engineering Geology, since 2021; Remote Sensing, since 2018; Journal of Geodynamics, 2017-2025
- External referee for doctoral/habilitation dissertations: i. Newcastle University, UK, ii. University of Twente, the Netherlands, iii. Technical University of Berlin, Germany, IV. Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, V. Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, VI. University of Salzburg, Austria, VII. UNSW Sydney, Australia, VIII. Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU), Germany, IX. University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, X. University of Pavia, Italy, XI. University of Lund, Sweden
- External review for academic promotion/appointments: i. Faculty of Science at Stockholm University, Sweden (2022), ii. Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, The Netherlands (2021), iii. Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, Taiwan (2021), IV. Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2020), V. School of Earth and Space Sciences (SESS), Peking University (PKU), China (2019)