Function and Responsibilities:

• Head of Working group "Flood risk and climate adaptation"
• Lecturer (Privatdozentin) at the Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Research Interests:

• Flood risk assessment
• Flood vulnerability analysis and loss modelling
• Flood damage mitigation and risk management
• Multi risk assessments

Career:

• since 1/2015 Head of working group "Flood risk and climate adaptation" at the Section Hydrology
  
• since 10/2015 lecturer (Privatdozentin) at the Geography department at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  
• 09/2002 - 12/2014 (Senior) Scientist at the Section Hydrology, GFZ
• 02/1998 - 12/2001 PhD research position at the Leibnitz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim
  
• 08/1998 - 05/2000 Visiting researcher at the National Institute for Amazon-Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil
  
• 11/2000 - 12/2000 Visiting researcher at the Centre for Isotope-Research (CENA) in Piracicaba, Brazil

Education:

• 03/2015 Habilitation "Flood damage analysis, modelling and mitigation" at the Geography department at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• 08/1998 - 06/2002 Dissertation at the Philipps-University of Marburg, thesis: „N2 fixation and denitrification in a floodplain forest in Central Amazonia, Brazil“ 
• 12/1991 - 09/1997 Student of Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin
  

Projects:

• EXTREME-ADAPT - Quantifying the effect of adaptation measures on spatiotemporal changes in flood and drought risk funded by Helmholtz Association
• FloodChat - Global assessment of flood adaptation and risk through large language models, HEIBRiDS graduate program funded by Helmholtz Association
• AVOSS - Impact-based prediction of heavy rain and flash floods at different scales’ funded by German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
• SURF - Semi/Un)supervised machine learning flood damage assessment – SURF funded by Helmholtz Association
• Regional Flood Model for Germany
• Data mining human behaviors for flood risk assessment in coupled human-environment systems, HEIBRiDS graduate program  

Research Boards and Committees:

• 2023 –  2027    President of the Natural Hazards Division of the European Geosciences Union (EGU)
• 2023 –  2027    President of the International Commission on Human-Water Feedbacks (IAHS)
• 2021 –  2023    Chair of the Scientific Decade Panta Rhei - Change in hydrology and society (IAHS)
• 2020 –  2021    Contributing author for the IPCC Working Group 2 Assessment Report 6 (AR6)
• 2020 –  2021    Advisory Expert for Climate Impact and Vulnerability Analysis for Germany 2021
• 2015 –  2021    Panta Rhei Target Leader, International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
• 2017 –  2022    Science officer for Natural Hazards & Society of EGU Division on Natural Hazards
• 2015 –  2023    Executive Editor of ISI-Journal “Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences”
• 2015 –  2021    Editor of ISI-Journal “Hydrological Sciences Journal”

Awards:

• 2024 IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize - Volker medal
• 2017 Helmholtz ERC Recognition Award
• 2016 Best Real Estate Paper Award COBRA 2016
• 2015 Water Resources Research 2015 Editors’ Choice Award
• 2015 GFZ senior scientist employee award