Topics
- Turnover of soil organic matter and underlying biogeochemical processes: How will global change (i.e. increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition, more frequent summer drought, and increasing wildfires) affect the soil-plant-atmosphere system?
- How does global change affect the soil-plant-atmosphere system?
- What are the processes stabilizing organic matter in the environment?
- Landscape history?
Tools
- Manipulative experiments in the field and green house, using stabile isotopes (13C, 15N, 18O…)
- Develop and maintain a novel model system (climate chamber system with dual environment and multi-isotope labeling) to test e.g. for the effects of drought on organic matter allocation and stabilization.
- Organic-geochemical analysis of bio-elements (C, N, S), and molecular markers (lignin, black carbon, lipids) and stable isotopes using and organic geochemical tools (GC-MS, GC-irMS, 13C-NMR, UPLC)
Education
Univ. Bochum: Dipl.-Geographer (1991), Dipl.-Geologist (1993), Dr. rer. nat. (1997), Univ. Cologne: Habilitation (2001).
Employment
since 2006 | Univ. of Zurich - Associate Professor in Physical Geography |
2002-2006 | Univ. of Zurich - Assistant Professor in Physical Geography |
2000-2002 | Univ. Cologne - Lecturer Dept. Geography |
1998-2000 | Postdoc Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie, Jena |
1994-1998 | PhD work at Univ. Bochum and Technical Univ. München |
1992-1993 | Environmental Consultant |
Awards
Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Dept. Soil and Water, University of Adelaide, Australia (2002), Bennigsen-Foerder Research Award (2000), Stipends by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, (1998-1999), Massenberg Stiftung Univ. Bochum (1996), German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD (1995).
Professional Activities
Research visits: Visiting scholar at Univ. of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Earth Science Division (Jan.-June 2010), University of Washington, Seattle School of Oceanography, USA (1997), CSIRO Adelaide, Australia (1996), University of Adelaide, Australia (2002).Pennsylvania State University, Fuel Science, USA (1995)
Symposia Chair: Goldschmidt Conference 1999 in Harvard, USA, 2009 in Davos Switzerland, European Geoscience Union every year since 2005, Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2005, 2006, Chair of the Intern Steering Committee on the Standardization of Black Carbon Reference Materials (1999-2006).
Scientific meetings and collaborations: Conference Chair SOM-5. 5th International Workshop on Soil and Sedimentary Organic Matter Stabilization and Destabilization (7 -11 October 2012. Monte Verità, Ascona, Lago Maggiore,Switzerland)
Chair Switzerland for MOLTER (MOLecular structures as drivers and tracers ofTERrestrial C fluxes ) an funded by the European Science Foundation Research Networking Programme (2008-2013)
Chair of the Internation Steering Committee on the Standardization of Black Carbon Reference Materials (1999-2006).
Non-professional Activities
Rowing
- with the Masters of the "Seeclub Zürich 1863"
- in the professors rowing team of the University of Zurich. Every fall teams of the University of Zurich (Uni) and ETH (Poly) compete in the famous Uni-Poly race:
Membership
Deutsche Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft
American Chemical Society: Geochemistry Division
Soil Science Society of America