Oliver Heidbach from the GFZ Section 2.6 Seismic Hazards and Risk Dynamics has taken up an associate professorship in geophysical modelling with a focus on the stress field of the Earth's crust at the Technische Universität Berlin. He will continue to work at the GFZ and additionally engage in teaching at the TU Berlin.

Oliver Heidbach studied geophysics and meteorology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and the University of Reading and then completed his PhD at the German Geodetic Research Institute at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He then took up a position at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities as a postdoctoral researcher in the World Stress Map Project and subsequently became an assistant professors at the Geophysical Institute of the Technical University of Karlsruhe (now KIT). He received his postdoctoral lecture qualification (Habilitation) in 2008 and has since been involved in teaching in the field of geodynamics and geomechanical-numerical modelling.

Since 2009, Oliver Heidbach has been at GFZ Potsdam, where he is the head of the World Stress Map project and the working group Analysis and Modelling of Tectonic Stresses in the Earth's Crust in Section 2.6. The focus of his research is the analysis and modelling of the current stress state of the Earth's crust and its changes due to natural and anthropogenic processes. In particular, his research group is involved in the technological application of 4D geomechanical-numerical modelling in the site selection process for deep geological repositories for high-level radioactive waste and in the development of mitigation strategies for induced seismic events of ecconomic concern in reservoirs for geothermal energy.