A colloquium of the European research network INTIMATE (Integrating Ice Core, Terrestrial and Marine Records) marked the retirement of the former head of the GFZ section Climate Dynamics and Landscape Development, Achim Brauer. With an interruption of two years as a PostDoc in France, Brauer had been working as a researcher at the GFZ in various functions since 1993. He was also Department Director for many years.

In his welcoming address, the Administrative Director of the GFZ, Stefan Schwartze, praised Achim Brauer as a bridge builder between nations and between generations. Schwartze particularly emphasized Brauer's commitment to the region around the Dead Sea. Brauer's PALEX project (paleoclimate research in the Middle East) brought together researchers from Israel, Palestine and Germany. The scientist also founded the virtual institute ICLEA, with which he and a number of partner institutions in Poland and Germany carried out studies to better understand the climate dynamics and landscape development of cultural landscapes in the past.

Brauer's specialty is mounds, seasonally layered deposits on the bottom of lakes. Like tree rings, they can be dated to the exact year. The information they contain on environmental conditions allows conclusions to be drawn about the climate. The precise dating enables comparisons with other regions worldwide and also with other natural climate archives, for example with ice cores from Greenland. Knowledge about the climate processes of the geological past is of particular relevance to society. It is the basis for using models to better assess future climate changes, their possible prevention and the necessary adaptation to such changes.

During the colloquium, numerous colleagues paid tribute to Achim Brauer's work. According to the Director of the Department of Geosystems, Leni Scheck-Wenderoth, he was not only a highly esteemed colleague, but also the scientist with the most publications in the department.