Ugur Öztürk, guest researcher from Section 2.6, received the 20,000 euro award for his Nature publication on the risks of landslides due to climate change and urban sprawl. Call for 2024 started.

Brandenburg's Minister of Science Manja Schüle awarded the 17th Postdoc Prizes of the State of Brandenburg to two scientists on 29 November 2023. In the “Natural and Engineering Sciences” category, she honoured engineer Ugur Öztürk for his publication “How climate change and unplanned urban sprawl bring more landslides”, which appeared in the renowned journal Nature. For this study, Öztürk led a team of civil engineers, sociologists and hydrologists. The team developed a new model-based solution that can be used to integrate man-made landscape changes and climate change into a simulation model of slope stability in order to predict future landslide risk.

Öztürk has been researching as a postdoc at the GFZ since 2018, in Section 2.6 “Earthquake Hazards and Dynamic Risks”; since 2020 he has been working mainly at the University of Potsdam, but is still closely associated with the GFZ and the team of Fabrice Cotton, Head of Section 2.6 and Professor of Seismology at the University of Potsdam, as a guest on various projects.

The Postdoc Awards recognise outstanding research work completed by postdocs shortly after their doctorate at a university or non-university research institution in the state of Brandenburg. They are endowed with 20,000 euros.

Science Minister Manja Schüle honoured the award winners:

“Today we are also honouring creative and innovative postdoctoral work. The two winning topics demonstrate the diversity, depth and relevance of research 'Made in Brandenburg'; their results offer scientific knowledge and practical solutions to pressing problems. Congratulations to the award winners - their success is a win for us all!”

Susanne Buiter, Scientific Director of the GFZ, also congratulated Ugur Öztürk:

“Congratulations to Ugur Öztürk for his outstanding publication. The topic of his research work is of high strategic relevance for us at the GFZ: Understanding the mechanisms and consequences of natural hazards in order to minimise their damage to society is one of our key scientific issues. Ugur Öztürk has made an important contribution to this with his innovative modelling approaches. He also demonstrates our excellent and fruitful collaboration with the University of Potsdam, where many of our researchers are based.”

Award winner Ugur Öztürk is delighted with the award and explains his research:

“I am very pleased about the award and this recognition of my work. Every year, an average of 4,500 people worldwide lose their lives due to landslides. This number will continue to rise as more and more people are affected by landslides due to rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation, especially in low- and middle-income tropical countries. To predict the increasing risk of landslides, disaster risk reduction experts need to consider the dynamic interactions between the natural environment, rainfall patterns and informal urbanisation, taking into account economic and political inequalities. We want to contribute to this with our modelling solutions.”

Thorsten Wagener, Alexander von Humboldt Professor for the Analysis of Hydrological Systems at the University of Potsdam and co-author of the publication, wrote in his recommendation letter:

“This new integrated and mechanistic approach enables decision-makers to predict landslide risk hotspots across large areas for the first time. This allows them to prioritise funding for disaster prevention measures long before these areas are urbanised. The model can be used to derive the effectiveness of different preventive measures to stabilise hillslopes - such as reforestation, limiting slope angles or improving surface water management - and apply them in the places where they are most useful.”
 

You can find out more about the award-winning work and an interview with Ugur Öztürk by the Helmholtz Climate Initiative here:

https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/presse/meldungen/detailansicht/erdrutsche-bedrohen-zunehmend-die-armen-staedte-der-welt

https://www.helmholtz-klima.de/aktuelles/erdrutsch-risiko

About the person

Dr Ugur Öztürk has been a postdoctoral researcher at the German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam in Section 2.6 “Earthquake Hazards and Dynamic Risks” since 2018 and has worked primarily at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Potsdam since 2020. He also completed his doctoral thesis there between 2015 and 2018 as part of the "NatRiskChange" graduate school funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), in which the GFZ is also leading partner.

Before coming to Potsdam, he worked as a research assistant at the Research Institute Water and Environment (fwu) at the University of Siegen from 2013 to 2015. He completed his Master's degree in Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy, in 2012 and his Bachelor's degree at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey in 2010.
 

New round of postdoctoral awards in 2024

Next year, two prizes of 20,000 euros each will again be awarded to postdoctoral researchers in the categories of natural sciences and engineering as well as humanities and social sciences.

The application deadline is 26 January 2024 and applications are open to postdoctoral researchers from universities and non-university research institutions in Brandenburg. They can apply themselves or be nominated by universities and non-university research institutions.

Since 2007, the state of Brandenburg has honoured outstanding postdoctoral research achievements by Brandenburg scientists with the Postdoc Award.

The decision to award the prize is made by a scientific jury following a preliminary assessment by members of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The prizes will be awarded on 4 May 2024 as part of the Day of Science in Potsdam. The announcement text and further information can be found at https://mwfk.brandenburg.de/mwfk/de/wissenschaft/nachwuchsfoerderung/postdoc-preis/